Hatters boss reveals Town skipper Morris called a players meeting before Bournemouth victory

Luton boss Rob Edwards revealed the Hatters players, led by skipper Carlton Morris, held a meeting ahead of Saturday’s massive 2-1 win over AFC Bournemouth to nail down the importance of the final seven games of the Premier League season.

The Hatters had failed to win for 10 successive top flight games going into the weekend’s fixture, although they had faced sides such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Spurs and Arsenal during that tough sequence. With time starting to run out to save their season the players got together to thrash things out amongst themselves, and it worked a treat as they hit back to earn a first home win since beating Brighton & Hove Albion on January 30, Morris himself scoring a last-gasp winner to breathe fresh life into Luton’s hopes of staying up.

That was then made even more important by Nottingham Forest’s 3-1 defeat at Spurs yesterday which means that with six games to go, Luton at Manchester City next weekend, Town are level on points with the Reds, but in the bottom three on goal difference. Speaking about the build-up to Saturday’s much-needed success, Edwards said: “We’ve actually cranked the pressure up ourselves rather than what might be external, or whatever externally.

"You guys would probably say today was really important to win, but we put that on internally as well and the lad demanded that of themselves. They had a meeting on Thursday that Carlton led, as captain, that they wanted to do, to talk about the importance of this run-in not just today, but the rest of the games as well.

"They don’t want to give this up, we love it here and it’s been tough, an amazing challenge, but we don’t want to go back. We’re certainly not going to go down without a fight and I think today typifies us. It’s not the first time they’ve done it, sometimes it happens when there’s a crisis, but there’s no crisis because we’ve been performing well, it’s just hard for us to get points in this league.

"So it was one where it was just demanding more, anything you can do on or off the pitch at the moment the whole focus just needs to be on getting the points required. No-one knows what that’s going to be but if we don't win games of football then we've got no chance. We found a way and I think deservedly so. Yes they had moments, but second half performance, the shots we had, the pressure we had, where the game was played, we deserved to win.”

Morris himself also spoke about just why he felt it was necessary to get the players together with games beginning to run out, as he continued: “I think it’s important. We’re all at different stages in our careers and it’s important that we’re all on the same page even through the situation that we’re in, we’re all showing that we have the belief on our side. I’m not going to go into details, as it was a players meeting, but the main message that we want to get out of it was to have that belief and that the whole squad of lads, the ones that are fit and the ones that are coming back to be pulling in the same direction.”

The forward did as much as anyone to get Luton’s survival hopes firmly back on track in a second half where he was denied by a brilliant save from Cherries keeper Neto and then hit the base of the post, before finally getting his rewards in the 90th minute, producing a deft volley beyond the Brazilian from Cauley Woodrow’s inviting cross.

It ended a run of five matches without scoring and took him to nine for the season, now joint top of the leading marksman charts with Elijah Adebayo. Discussing the significance of his talisman to the team, Edwards said: “He wants this Carlton and it’s not just what he does out on the pitch. His work-rate is great, I’ve said this ever since I’ve been at the club, he’s chipped in with important goals since we’ve been here, big performances, but what he does around the place, around the training ground, the demands he sets on people.

"He’s a brilliant guy who’s really growing into this captaincy role at the moment. He’ll probably be the first to admit when he was younger he could never see himself doing this role, or calling a players meeting to try and talk about what needs to be done now for this run-in, but he’s a special guy.”

Taking the armband in the absence of team-mate and great friend Tom Lockyer who continues to recover from the cardiac arrest he suffered at AFC Bournemouth is something that Morris has appeared to relish as well, the striker adding: “I have huge, huge boots to fill. We miss Locks exponentially if I’m being completely honest, so I’m trying to do my absolute best to replicate the things that he would do.”