Luke Berry admitted it was high time that Luton were on the right end of a late, late show following recent knockout blows after his history-making strike snatched a point against relegation rivals Nottingham Forest.
The midfielder has now scored in all four top divisions for the Hatters – the first Town player to ever do so – on top of scoring in the Conference for boyhood club Cambridge United.
The 89th minute strike, swivelling on a Reece Burke headed knock down, kept them within touching distance of the then 17th-placed Reds. But the following day, Forest were handed a four-point penalty for a breach of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability (PSR) rules, which saw Luton leapfrog them out of the drop zone by one point.
“It’s quite simple for us, we want to stay up. There’s no sugarcoating that really,” said Berry.
“We want to stay in this division, it’s massive for this club, massive for all our players and we’re all in together to try and achieve that goal.
“I think we can. It’s just like we did (on Saturday), staying in games, not being silly, taking every point when it comes.”
It could yet prove to be a valuable point in the final shake-up, and was a something of a relief after the injury-hit Hatters succumbed to a late defeat at home to Aston Villa, having fought back from 2-0 down, and then slipping to a late 4-3 reverse at Bournemouth, having led 3-0 at half time.
And at home this season, Luton have also seen a memorable victory snatched away by Liverpool’s Luiz Diaz late on, and then what would’ve been a 3-3 draw against Arsenal stolen by a late Declan Rice header.
Berry said: “Sometimes you can get sucked into, let’s go for the win and then in these leagues, they can sucker punch you and you go away with nothing. I don’t think we’re anywhere near evens there though, I think we’ve been sucker-punched a lot more than we’ve done to people, so it’s about time.
“The key is to just pick up the points where we can, not be too greedy and then the wins will come. We just need to keep doing well at home, keep getting points at home, that’s crucial to us. When the fans get us going, we’re quite some force, so hopefully we can just keep picking up a point here, and then we need to be getting wins, so hopefully we can get a few three points as well.”
Berry’s first-ever top-flight goal came on his 150th league appearance for the Hatters, and 382 days after his last strike, an 87th minute leveller against Millwall in the Championship.
The 31-year-old has had to make do with cameo appearances totalling just 73 minutes across ten outings from the bench. Asked what his instructions were when introduced five minutes from time against Forest, Berry said: “Just go in there, try to sniff something out. I played a little bit higher so we told Ross (Barkley) to play a bit deeper and for me to try and sniff something. Thankfully, I did at a corner. I’m not normally in there for corners, so it was nice to be in there.
“I might win a header here and there, but I always know I’m going to sniff something on the floor.”
Luton’s Teden Mengi had a first half goal ruled for handball and there was a nervous VAR check after Berry had drawn Luton level, which is something Berry has not had to contend with for his previous 24 strikes for the club.
“It was a bit like the Millwall celebration where I just ran to the Main Stand,” he said, adding: “I didn’t actually think about VAR, then they were checking something and I was thinking what are they checking. That would be horrible, wouldn’t it, after I celebrated? Thankfully, they gave it.
“To be fair, they’ve always been nuts, these fans, so they always go mental when you score. Even when we were in League Two, winning 7-0, they were still going mental. It’s the same feeling.”
