Today, Kevin Harper, Media Officer of the Luton Town Supporters Trust reports on a very successful loan spell.
“When Luton Town signed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on loan for the 2020/21 campaign, I have to admit I wasn’t sure what we were getting. I knew he had a few games for Blackpool the season before but in truth I had never heard of him.
I knew we were getting someone talented though. I could work that much out from the reaction to his signing of our manager Nathan Jones, who claimed at the time that his eye had been on Kiernan for a while. He spoke with a passion that suggested we’d signed someone good.
Good doesn’t really cover it though. What we would go on to see throughout the course of the campaign was the makings of a special footballer, one who I’ve gone on record as saying he is the best I’ve seen in a Luton shirt since the days of us winning the League Cup in 1988.
It took a few weeks for Dewsbury-Hall to establish himself in our squad but from the moment he made his debut at Sheffield Wednesday in October you could immediately tell he was something special.
His comfort on the ball was immediately apparent as was the confidence to want the ball despite having been with us for less than three weeks. Then there is his quality which is of an extremely high level.
We are a side who switched between formations for a lot of last term as we evolve in the Championship. We would switch between 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 and occasionally into a three at the back one before finishing the campaign in our diamond formation which unearthed James Justin a few seasons ago.
Dewsbury-Hall was comfortable in all of them. He played the deeper position in a 4-2-3-1, the left side of the three in the middle in a 4-3-3 and on the left side of the diamond and shone in all of them.
He is extremely comfortable on the ball and his left foot is a wand. He is a player who finds space with ease and doesn’t take the easy option, he’ll be brave on the ball and play the pass that is best for the team.
If you go by his pure statistics with us you would think he had an average season but don’t let that fool you. He would have had a lot more assists had our forwards had their shooting boots on.
Furthermore, despite Covid-19 restrictions, I got to know Kiernan a little through a couple of interviews I did with him for our podcast and our Virtual Awards Evening – where he scooped four awards. He is a nice guy who has an obvious confidence and belief in his ability without being arrogant with it.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was brilliant for us. It was a joy to watch him play. I’ve absolutely no doubts he is going to go right to the very top and be a superstar, although I certainly won’t complain if he fancies another season developing his skills at Kenilworth Road!
We thank Kiernan for the season he gave us and look forward to following the career of a man we’ll be hearing a lot of over the years to come.”
You can read more about Luton Town Supporters Trust here