Cornick's confidence boosted ahead of Championship campaign after pre-season haul

Town attacker Harry Cornick is looking to take the confidence he has gained from his pre-season haul into Luton’s Championship campaign that starts at home to newly-promoted Peterborough United this weekend.

The 26-year-old has managed to find the net three times against Rochdale, Bedford Town and then during Saturday’s 3-1 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Following a season in which he was only on target once, Cornick admitted that his spirits had been boosted, particularly by notching against a top flight side and international keeper in Spain’s Robert Sanchez at the weekend.

He said: “It’s huge, I scored one last year, so I need to up that this year really.

“If I get my confidence going it’s going to be good for me and hopefully I can have a good season in front of goal and score a lot more.

“I’m happy with the goal, it gives me a bit of confidence going into the season but next Saturday is where it really counts.

“So let’s put this behind us and hopefully I’ll score on Saturday and we’ll win that one.”

Cornick’s strike came after he pounced on a huge error from Seagulls defender Dan Burn, whose ball out of defence went straight to the Luton forward on the edge of the penalty area.

Going through one-on-one has not always been the attacker’s forte, but this time he kept his composure to coolly slot home, as he continued: “If they could pass to me every time in front of goal then that would be lovely!

“I’ve been working hard with Chris Cohen (first team coach) over the pre-season, as it’s something that I know is probably not the strongest part of my game.

“So if I can get a bit of confidence and start notching in front of goal, it’s going to be great for me and great for the club as well if I can score.”

Town boss Nathan Jones was happy to see the player he originally signed as a winger from AFC Bournemouth back in August 2017 have a good warm-up under his belt, saying: “Harry’s scored a few in pre-season and looked dangerous.

“Harry is a dangerous player in terms of what he does and we’ve got good competition in those areas.

“What I’ve got to do now is pick a team that can win games.”

The forward was paired up front alongside Elijah Adebayo with the duo causing their opponents a number of problems in the first half which saw Cornick denied by Sanchez twice.

He came close to a second after the break too as on his partnership with the ex-Fulham striker, he added: “I like playing with him, he’s a big man, a bit of a brute, he battles with defenders and I feed off him, it’s good.

"We’ve got so many attacking options, there’s me, Clicks (Jordan Clark), Fred (Onyedinma), Carlos (Mendes Gomes), Elijah, Cam (Jerome).

“Admiral’s (Muskwe) come in and it’s the first glimpse of what he’s done.

"He looks strong, he looks quick, he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with as well, so we’ve got so many attacking options that any three out there, or two, whatever the gaffer wants to play is going to be an attacking threat.

“Then knowing they’ve got four other quality players on the bench to bring on, it should be a good season for us scoring goals.”