Are we all ready now?
Then we shall begin.
With 90 minutes on the clock, the Town were looking frustrated. On their feet. The game still goalless having knocked on the door throughout the second half. They’d bossed it. Hit the hit the woodwork twice.
And it looked as though it was going to be one of those days.
But then one last ball was pumped high into the Coventry box by Isaiah Jones. Visiting goalkeeper Bradley Collins came for it and made a mess of the attempted punch. All of a sudden, the loose ball dropped at the feet of Shandon Baptiste 15 yards out with the goal at his mercy. His eyes lit up. The eyes of a man who has suffered this season. A man whose pain has been obvious. A man whose quality has flickered, briefly. A sign that there’s a player there.
His strike wasn’t the best, but still, he ball travelled goalwards. Crucially, the shot was on target. And that was enough. Sky Blues defender Luis Binks made an absolute hash of his clearance and the ball, inexplicably, gloriously, nestled in the bottom corner of the net.
Disbelief, pandemonium. Men, women, young, old – all dressed in eleven thousand shades of orange – embraced the beautiful chaos appearing before their eyes. There’s something about celebrating important goals against Coventry, isn’t there?
As the clock clicked beyond 90 the Town were, finally, thankfully, ahead. Six more minutes were added but the Hatters – knowing what was at stake – kept their nerve.
And then. AND THEN FELLOW HATTERS. It was done.
A three huge points.
Out of the relegation zone for the first time since January.
Fate and Championship survival remains in their own hands at West Bromwich Albion next Saturday. Three points will do it… but let’s not get too carried away.
It was an intoxicating and exhausting 90 minutes. It might be a cliché but Luton Town really don’t do things the easy way.
They had a man advantage for 55 minutes after Jay Dasilva – a Town academy graduate – was shown a straight red card for clipping Millenic Alli as he raced through on goal.
Shots, corners and crosses rained in on the Coventry goal during that 55-minute spell as the Town dominated.
Their best chances came in the second half. They struck the woodwork twice in a five-minute spell. Firstly, Liam Walsh’s effort crashed against the bar on 54 minutes before Alli’s low shot came back off the post. Lamine Fanne also went close with a shot from close range blocked by the legs of Collins.
You felt an opportunity was there for the Town. But then, this is the Championship, and the dynamic of the game changed with 22 minutes remaining when Walsh was shown a red card for an altercation with Binks.
At 10 v 10, Coventry sensed a route back into a fixture that they had been totally out of.
However, in truth, as time ticked down, the Hatters held firm despite that wobble. Thomas Kaminski – in from the start and playing despite the death of his father, Jacek, this week, remained untroubled. Supporters from both sides had paid tribute in the 65th minute.
Still the Town pushed. Their corner count rose every minute. 18 come the full-time whistle. EIGHTEEN!
Then, just when it seemed all the world this would finish nil nil, it happened.
This team have produced late moments in recent weeks and it was joy unconfined when Baptiste had the final say in front of a sea of orange at the Kenilworth Road end to win it.
There won’t be many moments like this with Power Court on the horizon. It really was time to drink it in.
So to West Brom we go next week.
See you then.
UTFT.
Town: Kaminski; Jones, Bell (sub Baptiste 78), McGuinness, Makosso (sub Naismith 46), Mengi (sub Burke 87); Lamine Fanne (sub Clark 57), Walsh, Aasgaard; Alli (sub Chong 87), Morris.
Subs: Krul, Naismith, Nakamba, Chong, Burke, Clark, Baptiste, Nelson, Nordås.
