Defender eager to pen season-long loan with the Hatters
The 24-year-old moved to St James’ Park from West Ham United for a fee believed to be around £3m in 2023, but is yet to make a first team appearance for the Magpies, with three loan stints away so far, having spells at Swansea City, Queens Park Rangers and Bradford City. It was at Loftus Road where he really made his name, playing 31 times for the R's in the 2024-25 campaign, as he had to wait until the January transfer window to earn a switch to the Bantams last term, but only made eight outings, with just two starts.
After returning to Newcastle, it was always likely Ashby would move away from the north east once more, and so it was, Kenilworth Road his next destination. On the decision to join Town and the benefits of having his future secure, along with being accustomed to the level that he is going into, the defender said: “Every summer you don’t really know what’s going to happen and when the opportunity came up to join Luton, I took it within the space of a day, so I’m looking forward to what’s next.
Harrison Ashby has joined Luton Town for the upcoming season - pic: George Wood/Getty Imagesplaceholder image
Harrison Ashby has joined Luton Town for the upcoming season - pic: George Wood/Getty Images
“Previous other loans have been quite late in the window, so for me it’s not a new experience, but it’s helped me a lot that I can have a full pre-season, to get to know each player and how they play, before we go into the league games and the cup games. I think the next month will really help me and there’s more of the good stuff to come. It’s always nice when you can get it done early and know it’s going to be your home for the next year. You never know what’s going to happen after this year, but hopefully good things.
"I’ve absolutely loved it too. The lads have welcomed me with open arms and after about five minutes it felt like I had been here for a year. I’ve got previous relationships with some of the staff already, so I think I’ve nestled in quite nicely. When you’re a young lad and going into these new experiences, everyone says about experience and you don’t kind of realise until you’ve got the experience, so I think I’ve had enough experience now where I can show that on the pitch and it helps me a lot on and off the pitch.”
Luton supporters got their first look at Ashby on Saturday, as he played the opening 45 minutes of the 5-0 friendly victory at near neighbours Hitchin Town. Showing a determination to get forward on the right hand side, the defender looked to link up with Shayden Morris whenever possible, as on getting an instant run-out, he continued: “There’s times when you get thrown in and it’s hard to play with people you’ve never played with before, but I think the past three, four days helped a lot in training.
"I’ve had a lot of work with Jack (Wilshere) and all the other staff as well to help me, so I think I’ve shown the fans what I’m capable of. Me and Shayden (Morris) have already got a good relationship, so hopefully there’s more of that to come. As a full back, the best thing you can have is a winger like Shayden who always gets at his man.
"There’s times where I can give him the ball and he can go and do his thing and I can support, there’s times where I can do my thing. We’ve already got that understanding with each other already, so I’m looking forward to a bit more, but I think we’ve shown what we’re capable of and what we’ve been working on over the past week. It was a good turnout with all the fans here and hopefully they’ve seen what we’re capable of.”
Asked about the efforts of Ashby during his opening run-out, Wilshere said: “He’s only trained two days, we’ve only trained six days, we were talking about whether it was the right game to throw him in, and he was pretty adamant that he was going to do that and get used to playing the way we do. There’s more to come from everyone, but I think Harrison showed some signs of why we want to get him.”
As he mentioned, Ashby and boss Jack Wilshere had a prior working relationship, with the pair in the same Hammers starting XI that beat Hull City in the Carabao Cup back in September 2020, when the full back made his full senior debut. Asked about linking up with the former Arsenal and England star again once more, the ex-Scottish youth international said: “As a player he was unbelievable, so as a gaffer he obviously knows what he’s talking about.
"I made my debut with him against Hull and broke four of my fingers, but we’ve got a good relationship either way, so having him as my gaffer is going to help me a lot this year. At Bradford, I had a little tweak in my calf, but I had a good chat with Jack after the game (Luton won 2-1 in February), that kind of reignited the relationship a little bit. Hopefully we can push on and keep showing the fans what we’ve got.”
Now looking to make the right back berth his own at Kenilworth Road this term, Ashby is hoping that if he can do that, then Town can have a successful assault on the promotion places, especially with their supporters onside once more, adding: “If you look at the players we’ve got on paper, it’s a team you probably wouldn’t look at it and go, they’re in League One.
"We’re hoping to hit the ground running, get into the season and get to where we deserve to be. It’s a bit of a cliche for me to say, but the fans are always the 12th man. Once you’ve got that support behind you there’s only one way we can go and that’s at the top, so I hope they can keep supporting us and get where we deserve to be.”
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