New Hatters signing Morrell targets an immediate return to winning ways at Millwall

New Luton signing Joe Morrell is targeting a quick return to form for his new side at Millwall this evening.

The 23-year-old moved to Kenilworth Road last week from Bristol City for an undisclosed fee, as he made his Hatters debut during the second half of their Championship contest with Stoke City on Saturday, Town already trailing 2-0 by the time he entered the fray.

The Potters held on to take the points, as Morrell’s first outing in a Luton shirt ended in defeat, but they are back at it tonight with a trip to the New Den to face a Lions side sitting seventh in the table, one place below the visitors.

Morrell said: “The beauty of the Championship is there’s always a quick turnaround and you can’t get too high when you win and too low when you lose.

“That’s what we’ll try to do, we’ll be in and try to put things right going forward.

“It was disappointing (Saturday's defeat), but the gaffer said after the game, at this level you’re coming up against teams who’ve got so much quality and ex-Premier League players, so you’re going to get punished for any little mistake that you make and I felt that was probably the case.

“If you look at the stats, which don’t necessarily reflect the game, we probably come out on top in all of them, but you need to do more than that to win a game of football and we just fell a little bit short.”

Morrell was introduced just after the hour mark with the hosts having been breached by strikes from Steven Fletcher and Nick Powell inside the opening 10 minutes of the second half.

The new signing immediately looked impressive on the ball, spraying some lovely passes, one in particular to attacker Harry Cornick which led to a fine save from visiting keeper Adam Davies.

He continued: “From a selfish perspective, it’s probably a good time to come on when the team is 2-0 down as they’ve (Stoke) dropped a little bit deeper and we’ve had a bit more of the ball than I would have done in the first half when it was 0-0.

“So I felt it was a good time for me to come on, it's just a shame we couldn’t get the goals.

“We had chances in the second half, but I think when you’re 2-0 down in this division, especially against a team like Stoke, it’s a long way back and it definitely showed today.”

Morrell might have halved the deficit himself when having a go from range, but found Davies in top form, the keeper springing to his right to cling on to his effort.

The midfielder had enjoyed some success at that end when previously on loan at Cheltenham Town, scoring in a 2-2 draw back in February 2018, going on to net the following week in a 1-1 draw with Notts County too.

He said: “I think that’s the last goal I scored as I had a few taken off me last year for Lincoln (one against Bolton Wanderers was changed to an own goal), so I think that is officially the last goal I scored, which is ridiculously too long

“So hopefully I can end that sooner rather than later.”

After having a fortnight off for the international break, Town are now embarking on another hectic run of seven games in 21 days, as Morrell hopes for a greater involvement in the second tier than when at his previous club, with just one league appearance during his seven years as a Robin.

He said: “That is a positive of a very tough schedule that if you’re not necessarily starting one week, you’re starting the next week.

"This season is going to be a squad game more than ever and I think any Championship manager would say the same as the schedule is so tight.

"We’ve got Saturday, Tuesday every week now until the international break and then in December something ridiculous as well.”

Morrell will certainly have a fight on his hands to earn a place in the Town starting 11 with Hatters well stocked in the midfield areas, Leicester City's Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall joining on loan last week.

It's what he wants though, adding: “That’s perfect for me, as you’re not going to go to many clubs where there’s not competition for places.

"There’s a real desire for these boys to get better every day and that helps breed intensity in training, the competition for places and if it’s going to make me better every day then that’s perfect for me."

Meanwhile, on where he believes be his best fit within the Town side, Morrell added: "I think in a 4-3-3, I could probably do any of the roles fairly competently in the middle three.

"I’m not a number 10, I probably prefer to play behind the ball and try to dictate the tempo from there.

"To be fair, I’ll play in goal if the gaffer needs me to as I’m that keen to show what I can do here and help the club this season."