Why Middlesbrough & Derby County will be catching Luton Town look of envy right now | OneFootball

Former Luton Town manager Rob Edwards and former striker Carlton Morris have kicked on at their new clubs this season

Luton Town's struggles last season under Rob Edwards were confusing to say the least, as the Hatters were unable to replicate their play-off joys from two years prior under the same manager and with an arguably stronger squad.

Luton became just the fourth side in the Premier League era to suffer back-to-back relegations from the top flight into League One, and the first since Sunderland, who completed the unwanted feat eight years before.

The Hatters had gone from putting in a valiant effort in their relegation from the Premier League to then being lucky to just be hovering above the Championship relegation zone when Edwards finally left this past January.

No one doubted Edwards' managerial class. After all, he'd completed a miracle in getting the Hatters to the Premier League, but he couldn't seem to rejuvenate his players ahead of a Championship return, especially away from home, where his side lost ten on the bounce before his departure.

Players who had performed admirably in their last venture in the Championship and again in the Premier League just weren't hitting their standards. Carlton Morris, being one of them, scored just eight times in 41 league games, 12 goals fewer than in Luton's promotion season.

Luton have had to see their former boss and former line-leader move on to new pastures this summer, and given how both Edwards and Morris have started life at their new clubs, Hatters fans will be asking why they couldn't have performed like this last season.

Rob Edwards and Carlton Morris have hit the ground running at their new clubs

Rob Edwards departed Luton in January last year, having overseen just seven wins in 26 Championship games. So far at Middlesbrough, he is just three games off from matching that win tally, despite playing 22 fewer matches.

The new Middlesbrough boss marked his first month in the Riverside dugout with a manager-of-the-month-winning set of results, as Boro's four consecutive wins had them as the only Championship side with a 100% winning record going into the first international break.

Boro have been formidable in defence, keeping three clean sheets and letting in just one goal. The Hatters had the joint-second best defence in the Championship the season Edwards led them to promotion, and although it's early days, it's looking like he'd found that defensive stability at his new club.

Going forward, Carlton Morris has been a big part of a Derby County frontline which has scored the same number of goals as Rob Edwards' table-topping Boro side.

Morris's four goals have been evenly spread across all four Championship games he's played so far at Pride Park, and whilst the Rams only have two points to show from their opening four games, it's not been for a lack of trying from their new talisman.

Luton Town will be envious at bright start from beloved duo

Both Edwards' and Morris' tenures at Kenilworth Road didn't end the way that they, or the Luton fans, would have wanted. But for the role the duo played in getting the Hatters to the Premier League, they will still have plenty of admirers at the club.

Whilst some will be happy to see them both kicking on, others will definitely be frustrated that they weren't able to perform, or get the team to perform, to this level last season.

Edwards departed Luton with the side incredibly leaky at the back. Only Plymouth Argyle had conceded more goals than the Hatters when the current Boro boss left. However, at Middlesbrough, Edwards is currently overseeing the best defence in the Championship.

For Morris, last season, he only managed to score eight times on 64 shot attempts, a 13% shot conversion rate, whereas this term so far, his four goals have come from eight shots, a 50% conversion rate. And to rub salt in the wounds even more, all four of his shots on target have resulted in goals.

Luton are in a new era under Matt Bloomfield, and many Hatters fans will be pleased with how their side has performed since the former Wycombe Wanderers boss came through the door, but there'll be clear frustration that, if those who have left the club to perform well elsewhere just did so at Kenilworth Road, they wouldn't currently be in League One at all.