Matt Bloomfield praised Shandon Baptiste as a caring footballer and said his winning goal against Coventry was a brilliant moment in a tough injury-hit first season with Luton.
The midfielder has only managed 17 appearances for the Hatters this term and after a lengthy, near three-month injury, he came on against arch-rivals Watford as a substitute but lasted only 25 minutes before injuring himself again when taking a shot.
That meant another two months on the sidelines, which he returned from in a cameo appearance on Easter Monday in the 3-1 win over Bristol City.
But on Saturday, after the superb Liam Walsh was controversially sent off for a third time this term, Baptiste was sent on to stem a momentary revival from Coventry, who had been playing with ten men themselves since the 13th minute.
Then, in the 90th minute, an Isaiah Jones long ball was misjudged by City keeper Bradley Collins and the ball landed for Baptiste, whose shot towards a partially unguarded net looked like it would be snuffed out by Luis Binks – who’d feigned a facial injury to get Walsh dismissed – but the defender bizarrely put through his own net to send Kenilworth Road into pandemonium.
It ensured a last-gasp 1-0 victory that puts Luton’s Championship survival in their own hands in the final game of the season at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, where victory will confirm their safety.
“If you asking me to sum it up, I’m gonna struggle,” said boss Bloomfield, adding: “It has just been a whole range of emotions. A lovely moment for Shandon, because he’s a boy who cares, and I’ve really felt from this season because he’s got himself going, then had a couple of breakdowns, but he’s gone about his work so, so well.
“He’s someone I’ve admired from afar. I’ve said it before, for a number of years, he’s a top player, a really top player and for him to have that moment after such a frustrating season, you know, football throws up these these stories, doesn’t it? And I’m really pleased for him.”
The aim for Baptiste was to get Thelo Aasgaard closer to Coventry’s goal and instead the 27-year-old was credited with his first goal for the club, on account of his shot being on target before Binks’ own goal.
“He’s a lovely footballer, a proper footballer and football has a funny way of throwing up these stories. So for him to have that moment at the end was brilliant,” Bloomfield said of Baptiste.
“Maybe it was slightly fortuitous, in terms of the way it came about, but I think we earned that in the way we’d been really knocking at the door, even when it was ten against ten, it was still us looking likely to go and score.
“The lads had a real determination about them, but it could have easily not been that. So we understand that the game is on moments. Our matches have been on moments.
“Blackburn at home, [we] hit the bar twice and missed a couple of chances and it reflects poorly. It could have been that way if we don’t take that moment in the end [against Coventry]. But we’ve been working so incredibly hard. I think we earned that today.”
The goal sent Kenilworth Road into delirium and so to the Luton manager, who said: “I think I lost it for a moment. I don’t think that it’s easy to contain yourself in those moments because the game is about emotion.
“Life obviously throws you these challenges and we’ve just tried to stay as calm as we can, with our jobs here, and try and think as clearly as possible, but it’s not easy to do in the moment like that throws it throws itself.”
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