Luton boss Nathan Jones salutes striker Carlton Morris

Posted Sunday, October 30, 2022 by PA

Luton boss Nathan Jones singled out striker Carlton Morris for praise after he scored his eighth Championship goal of the season in the 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland.

The summer signing from Barnsley opened the scoring in added time at the end of the first half, but substitute Elliot Embleton’s equalised with 13 minutes left.

“He (Morris) looks a threat, he’s been excellent for us,” said Jones.

“He’s already surpassed his best Championship season and we’re only 16, 17 games in.

“It’s wonderful for him, I’m really pleased for him, he’s a great kid and I like that.”

The Sunderland leveller meant Jones was unable to mark his 300th game in charge of Luton with victory.

He added: “That would have been perfect, but it was a hard fought game and any point in the Championship is tough.

“This is Sunderland Football Club, 40,000 every week, so they’re a big club, really tricky to play against because of the individuals they’ve got and they play that way.

“It was nice to make sure we had to bounce back and not go back-to-back defeats from last week, as I thought we started really, really well.

“We’re disappointed we weren’t further ahead at half-time. We had to weather a bit in the second half and then we finished really, really strongly, and probably looked the more likely to score the goal, so that’s the only thing.

“Tough game, big club, but I’m really proud of the players for everything they gave me.

“Yes, we could have had a bit more quality, a bit more guile, a bit more some things, but all in all they gave me everything.”

A strong start by the Hatters, eager to bounce back from their 4-0 defeat to Watford, saw Alfie Doughty go close before Henri Lansbury fired wide and Morris was denied by goalkeeper Anthony Patterson.

Doughty headed against a post, but Sunderland had chances of their own, Leon Dajaku and Danny Batth hitting the woodwork.

Amad Diallo forced Ethan Horvath into two good saves before Morris broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time, converting Doughty’s cross.

A quieter second period saw Diallo shoot into the side-netting, but after 77 minutes the Black Cats levelled, Jack Clarke finding Embleton to stab home.

Another visiting substitute, Patrick Roberts, curled an effort inches wide late on.

Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray said: “We’ve been playing without strikers for the last seven weeks, so I think we grew into the game.

“Take the first 20 minutes out – you know what’s coming when you come to Luton, they play a lot of diagonal balls into your box, they’ve got a huge physical presence and we’ve got a very diminutive-sized football team.

“So we knew it was going to be a tough ask for us. The players are disappointed we didn’t get three points and, yes, we could have easily lost more goals to the directness of Luton, but we’ll put the point in the bag and move on.

“First half, I don’t know how many saves their keeper made, but I can see three, four, five proper good saves down with his left hand in the bottom corner.

“We could have scored more goals today, I’m sure Nathan will say they could have as well, but mainly from corners or balls into the box, but that’s football.”