Elijah Adebayo admitted he was already in tears before the historic penalty shootout that saw Luton clinch promotion to the Premier League and that he couldn’t even watch the 12-yard contest.
The striker provided a stunning assist to set up Jordan Clark for Luton’s opener against Coventry in the Championship play-off final at Wembley, but he was withdrawn in extra-time, having run himself into the ground.
The added period finished 1-1 after Gus Hamer had levelled for the Sky Blues in the second half of normal time and that meant a nerve-shredding spot-kick battle, which Town won 6-5, scoring all of theirs while City’s Fankaty Dabo missed his in sudden death.
It sparked huge celebrations in on the pitch and in the Luton end of Wembley where the kicks were taken, but Adebayo, on the sidelines with the rest of the squad and staff, said of the shootout: “I didn’t see it, I didn’t watch any of the pens.
“I’ll let you into a secret, I cried when I knew it was going into penalties, as I knew it was a lottery and then me and Kevin Pilkington (goalkeeping coach), we shared a lovely hug with tears on our knees, when we realised we won and from there it was just… enjoy.
“The gaffer said at half time, ‘the joy you’ll feel at the end of this game when you’ve won is a feeling you’ll never ever be able to describe,’ and he was correct.”
The striker was a Premier League academy product with Fulham, before dropping down to League Two with Walsall, where Luton spotted him, and now he’s back in the top flight.
Speaking at Monday’s victory parade through Luton, and two days of partying, Adebayo said: “Some achievement, that. You can hear by my voice, I’m not myself at the moment, but it’s a wonderful achievement, it’s fantastic, can’t wait to hopefully get going.”
Despite all the revelry, the forward admitted he’d still had time to watch endless repeats of the goal he provided Clark.
His powerful run to collect a long ball by Alfie Doughty, saw him power past City’s Kyle McFadzean, jinking past him three times, before picking out the midfielder, whose first touch and finish were equally as sublime.
“I think I’ve watched it so many times, on different broadcasting pages, so I’ve watched it in French, Spanish, English, ITV, BBC,” said Adebayo.
“Yes, for me, it’s (skill) something that I’ve got, something that people probably don’t see a lot of and it’s the same with Carlton (Morris) as well.
“We’re both very good with our feet and Clicker does what Clicker does, I call him superstar because he is a superstar.
“He was the first person I saw and (former boss) Nathan Jones had said it plenty of times, he’s the best free transfer in history. I completely agree.
“When you see Clicker there, once he gets the ball, his first touch is amazing, sets him up perfectly for his strike and sets us on his way, I was telling everyone to calm down as I was a bit worried the ball went out and obviously VAR being there, I was there I might be screwed, but we’re on our way.”
The video assistant did however rule out three Luton goals, including one for Adebayo when a goal-line clearance hit him on the arm.
“I looked at the referee straight away and I was almost apologising to him,” said Adebayo, adding: “He looked at me and he started smiling, I said, ‘listen, if VAR wasn’t there he probably would have given that,’ but it’s what it is.
“I had another chance that I probably should have put away as well, but listen, we’re here, we’re in the Premier League I’ve got time to work on those things, which I will, but enjoy.”
But the most dramatic VAR intervention came late in extra-time when Joe Taylor, Adebayo’s substitute, scored what he and half of Wembley thought was his first ever Luton goal to send Town to the Premier League.
It was ruled out for another inadvertent handball, which the youngster said was one of his lowest moments. But he recovered to net in the penalty shootout.
Adebayo said: “I love JT. Since he’s been in, he’s had to bide his time. He’s a confident boy, if you speak to him, he said to me, weeks before the final, before we even knew we were going to the final, ‘a penalty in the play-off final, I want to take that’.
“He took his chance, he almost won it for us, but he gets to take his penalty and again, that goes back to the routine, the management, the staff, but with him you could always see he was oozing confidence.
“I didn’t have any doubts no doubts at all.”
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I think all the Luton players are brilliant but Elijah is my favourite – he just scares the living daylights out of the opposition with his speed and silky skills. I’ve watched the Luton goal scored with top class technique by Jordan and the assist from Elijah is outstanding!Magic!COYH!!!!