Former Histon resident Carlton Morris will be playing Premier League football next season following Luton Town’s triumphant win against Coventry City in the Championship play-off finals at Wembley stadium in front of an 85,000-strong crowd. The win means Luton will return to top-flight football for the first time since 1991/92 – before the Premier League was founded.
Luton’s top goal scorer of the season, he only signed for the club last year having played for Barnsley the previous year. He contributed to an emotional conclusion to the tense Wembley match, which went to penalties after a 1-1 full-time draw. Carlton was the first player to face the Coventry goalie in a shoot-out that ended in a 6-5 win for ‘the Hatters’.
Other drama saw Carlton’s close friend and Luton captain Tom Lockyer collapsing on pitch and taken to hospital just 8 minutes into the game. “Locks, I love you mate we’ve done it” he said, as the players finally paraded their captain’s shirt around the pitch after the game. And on social media he said: “Your shirt’s a bit small for me brother. But we done it… Luton are in the premier league.”
The two players have been jointly named ‘Players’ Player of the Season’. Their club tweeted: “Their team-mates can’t split them…congratulations Tom Lockyer and Carlton Morris!” Carlton has also been nominated as PFA Vertu Motors Championship Fans’ Player of the Year.
Local tributes
Histon & Impington residents have also reacted with huge pride and respect on hearing that the ‘local lad’ had hit the big time.
His mum [name], dad John and brother and sister Owen and Ellie?? still live in the village. [name] told HI HUB: “………..”
The tension for them during the match was clear. One of Owen’s friends tweeted: “Owen said a really funny thing – that during the game his Apple watch couldn’t work out why his heart rate was so high when he wasn’t engaged in actual activity”!
Other tributes poured in on social media. More than 200 people reacted to the news of Carlton’s stellar performance, one predicting that he is “definitely destined for great things”. Other reminisced about his time playing as a junior in the village. Richard Rose shared a 2007 photo of Carlton, taken when he took a team from the junior school to the Cambridge City penalty shootout at their Milton Road ground. “Good to see him using those skills tonight!”, he commented.
Looking back – and forward Carlton began his footballing career with Histon Hornets when dad John got him into football as a young lad. “To be fair, I didn’t love it early on”, Carlton revealed in a 2020 interview. “He made me stick with it and it turned out, I was alright!” A midfielder growing up, he eventually “gravitated towards scoring goals”, he said.
Aged 10 he was signed into Norwich City’s Academy – which has since joined forces with Impington International College in a Football & Education Scholarship scheme. “My Mum and Dad had to take me there three or four times a week and I owe so much to them for that” he said. Ten years ago this month he went on to become part of the Canaries’ FA Youth Cup winning squad.