Luton trio to make an impact in the Championship as Edwards challenges promising

July 24, 2024 admin Luton Fc 0

​Luton boss Rob Edwards has challenged midfielder Zack Nelson and the rest of Town’s exciting crop of youngsters to make an impact in the Championship this season.

Former Spurs youngster Nelson, who has been with the Hatters since the age of 15, was named Young Player of the Year last term after making his senior and Premier League debut for the club when coming on in the 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace. He also featured against Manchester City as well, before giving further notice of his ability when heading out to Slovenia with the first team squad last week.

Having featured in the latter stages of the 1-0 victory over Ukrainian Premier League side Ruhk Lviv, he then came off the bench midway through the second half in the final friendly against Turkish Super Lig side Goztepe with Luton trailing 3-0. Nelson proceeded to singlehandedly get the deficit back to one with two cool finishes when sent through one-on-one with the keeper, while he almost had an 18 minute hat-trick, denied by a point blank save in stoppage time.

Discussing the talented teenager, Edwards said: “He can make an impact and he’ll probably be the first to say he should have had a hat-trick with a real clear opportunity at the end. But it was a big impact, he’s a talented player and I really hope that he can make an impact this year. We’ve challenged him to do that and I think he’s an exciting one for the future.”

It’s not just Nelson that Town have high hopes for though, as a number of youngsters are starting to push themselves into contention for the first team squad. Defender Joe Johnson now has seven appearances to his name, including two in the top flight, also playing for England at U17 and U18 level, while he has been a regular in the warm-up matches.

Midfielder Jayden Luker caught the eye during his productive loan spell with National League side Woking last term, when he scored twice in 17 matches, while joining the pair on the warm weather training camp have been two more academy graduates who are showing signs of real promise, defenders Aidan Francis-Clarke and Jack Bateson, plus goalkeeper Jameson Horlick.

Discussing Nelson, Johnson and Luker in more detail, Edwards added: “I think any pre-season, there’s an opportunity for players to stake a claim. You go away and sometimes there’s a big change in five or six weeks with some of them. “The three of them you mention there have made really good impacts so far. They’re great lads, they work incredibly hard, but they’re always progressing and they’ll continue to get better and better. They’ll be pushing and we’ll try to get the right thing for them, whether that’s a loan or they stay in with the group.

“If they’re staying in with us, I’d like them to try and make some impact with us this season. We’ve got to make the right decision for them, because we’d like them to be playing first-team football, or at least being around it more, and getting more minutes this year. The challenge for them is to try and break into our group and if they’re not able to do that then we’ll see if a loan is the right thing. But they’re three really good players that I’m pretty confident are going to impact us in the future.”

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