Luton striker Carlton Morris’s experience in the Championship play-off final penalty shootout victory over Coventry City meant he had little concerns about the ‘weird’ hold-up he had to endure before stepping up to the spot against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
The forward had been introduced on the hour mark with team-mates Tom Krauß and Zack Nelson in a bid to try and engineer a way back into the game for the Hatters, who were trailing to a fine Barry Bannan strike. The trio were able to do just that though as with 74 minutes gone, Alfie Doughty’s free kick reached Teden Mengi, whose shot was blocked by the body of Di’Shon Bernard, the Owls defender then using his shoulder to divert Mark McGuinness’s close range header away.
Referee Gavin Ward whistled for a penalty and handed out a red card to Bernard, which saw the centre half trudge off at not even a snails pace, never once hurried up by the ridiculously bad Ward, leaving Morris to wait patiently with the ball in his hand. In fact a good three minutes elapsed before he was able to do what he does best, deploying his stuttering run-up once more to send on-loan Brighton keeper James Beadle the wrong way and tuck home his first of the season.
It was also his seventh successful penalty for the Hatters, eight when you count his effort at Wembley on that famous day at the home of English football, which was something he was quick to remember when being delayed by Bernard’s antics, as speaking to the club’s official website, he said: “That fella, I don’t know what he was doing to be honest. Sent off and then he took ages, took about five minutes to get off the pitch, it was a weird one really. As I’ve told you an anecdote about the Coventry keeper taking all that time, so I just stood there thinking, I’ve scored under tougher conditions than this.”
Morris was soon celebrating once more as with two minutes of normal time to go, he was in the right place to tap home once McGuinness had somehow managed to deflect Jordan Clark’s snapshot into his path, tapping home to seal a first victory at Kenilworth Road this term. It sent the majority of the near 12,000 crowd into utter jubilation, as Morris, who now has 33 goals in 101 outings for Luton, continued: “They’re my favourite games. We get the fans going, get them behind us and it feels like it’s inevitable that another goal’s coming and thankfully it did. It was incredible the energy we got from the fans, we really live on that and it got us over the line.
Although Morris hadn’t started the game, when given the nod by boss Rob Edwards, he always had it in his mind that he was going to be able to rescue something for the the Hatters, adding: “I always feel like I’m going to impact the game in some way. Whether that happens, or whether that doesn’t, I’m confident I’ve got the ability to do that, confident in what I’m capable of.
“Ultimately nothing can happen without the boys and the energy they brought from the start of the game. The game opened up by the time I came on, we created more chances, we looked more of a threat and we’ve come away with a win whilst not being at our best. It’s a huge credit to the football club, Victor Moses, Tom Krauß coming in, new players, Mark McGuinness, they’ve hit the ground running. They came into this game and made the impact in the way they did, incredible.”
