Jordan Clark said it was a ‘really proud moment’ to captain Luton Town for the first time during the Emirates FA Cup Third Round replay victory against Wigan Athletic.
After the home made a quick start in the second half with a goal from Thelo Aasgaard, Cauley Woodrow replied four minutes later and with the game seemingly set for extra-time, Elijah Adebayo scored a dramatic 98th minute winner with a superb low finish.
“Thank god for that!” Clark said post-match. “It was a tough game but I thought we deserved to win. Far away on a Tuesday night you don’t want extra-time so thankfully we got the win in 90 minutes.
“They’re fighting for their lives in the league and it’s a tough game no matter who you play against in any competition so we have to take it seriously. When we went one-nil down we didn’t panic, it was a shock to the system because you can’t concede that early, everything the manager said sort of goes out the window a little bit.
“We showed a bit of character to bounce back straight away which was important and then I thought we dominated. They had a couple of sniffs, but I thought we thoroughly deserved the win.”
Clark was also pleased for striker Elijah Adebayo after the 25-year-old scored for the second match in succession, taking his tally to five goals for the season.
“It was good for him to get the confidence. Strikers thrive on goals and we’ve got a lot of good strikers at this club. Carlton was missing tonight but the lads who came in, Corns really made an impact when he came on, he was a breath of fresh air and he causes mayhem when he came on. The options we’ve got are really good but goals for strikers are massive and hopefully Elijah can keep scoring.”
In the absence of club captain Sonny Bradley and with Dan Potts and Tom Lockyer on the bench, Clark was handed the captain’s armband and led by example at the DW Stadium.
“Really proud moment for me and my family. I'm not much of a shouter captain, I was just trying to lead by example and try and give information where I can but it was a real honour, especially for this great club. I’m really proud and to top it off with a win, one for one so I’ll take that!”