James Collins admitted that Luton deserved nothing from Saturday’s Championship relegation tussle with Stoke but believes the fact that his last-gasp penalty earned a point means his side are in a good place.
Town struggled to break down City after Sam Vokes scored in the ninth minute and it was not a game for the purists, with the hosts seemingly sapped of energy after their exertions in a 2-1 win against high-flying Brentford in midweek.
But, facing a damaging defeat in their bid to beat the drop, Callum McManaman was fouled by James Chester in the 89th minute and Collins kept his cool to slot in for his 11th of the campaign.
The 1-1 scoreline kept bottom-of-the-league Luton within five points of safety and Stoke in 21st place.
The striker said: “There was a stage in the game where I thought, ‘here we go again.’ I don’t think we deserved anything in the game. I thought we weren’t at our best but that’s a sign on a team that’s together and on the up, because probably six weeks ago we wouldn’t have got a point there and we’d have lost the game.
“Credit to the lads, we stuck in there, we kept it at 1-0 and at 1-0 there’s still a chance to get a point. It could turn out to be a massive point come the end of the season.
“We played a team that’s fighting down the bottom with us and they’ve got a very experienced team and made it very difficult for us.
“As a whole, the way the game went, a point is a fair result because they didn’t look like they wanted to win it and we weren’t at the races as a team. So, a point’s a fair result.”
Collins missed his last spot-kick, smashing against the bar inside the first minute at the same Oak Road end against Sheffield Wednesday, though the Hatters went on to beat the Owls.
“If you’re going to take penalties you’ve got to accept that maybe one day you’ll miss,” said the Republic or Ireland international.
“I’m fortunate that I got another opportunity to take one and I knew where I was going. I made sure I concentrated on hitting the target and luckily for me and the lads and it went it.
“If I’m honest, I didn’t really mean to put my foot through it against Sheffield Wednesday. I didn’t even mean to go down the middle, but I got a chance to rectify it and I managed to put this one away.
“Luckily for me, against Sheffield Wednesday it didn’t matter too much because of the result and we still won the game. If we hadn’t won, the game it probably would’ve been a bit worse.”
