James Bree hopes his first ever goal is a signal that he’s getting back to his best after a ‘frustrating’ injury-hit campaign.
The 23-year-old opened the scoring in last night’s 2-0 Championship victory over Coventry City, to finally break a seven-year duck and claim a career highlight in a season where he’s only featured 18 times.
“I’m buzzing,” Bree said, adding: “It’s been a really frustrating year for me. Coming back from injury, getting injured again and having little niggles, I haven’t really felt myself all year, but I’m getting there.
“My legs are getting back and hopefully with the last ten games of the season I can play every game, and going into next year, I’ll be flying.”
And the right back’s goal will put an end to some friendly ribbing from his Luton team-mates.
He said: “It’s unbelievable. It’s about time. I’ve been waiting for one, really. I never seem to get the chances but I’ve had a couple and they just fell perfectly for me and I thought I’d just put my foot though it and see what happens. Seeing it hit the back of the net, it was just an unbelievable feeling.
“It’s quite funny actually, because we were sat outside the changing room and we’d been doing some free-kick practise. I’d whipped a few in and the lads were saying, ‘Breezy, how many goals have you scored in your career?’
“I said, ‘I’ve played around 150 games and never scored’ and they were all laughing at me and taking the Mickey. So, it’s mental that I’ve bagged one so I can shut them up a little bit.
“I was 16 when I made my debut so it’s been a long, long time. I can’t really recall many times in my career where I’ve had chances, but playing wingback and they way that the gaffer wants us to play, I think it’s inevitable that I’m going to get in those positions. It’s something that I want to start adding to my game and get more goals and assists.”
Bree’s goal owed much to attacker Harry Cornick, who is another player that has not scored this season, but he laid it on a plate for the defender.
“We came out at half time and he said, ‘you’ve scored more goals this year than me’, said the former Aston Villa defender of Cornick.
“The thing with Corns, he has chances and he does so well for the team. He’s going to score goals, he’s just having one of those moments that strikers and wingers have, but he’ll be back banging in goals soon enough.”
Elijah Adebayo bagged his third of the season, from the spot, to move him up to joint second in Luton’s goalscoring rankings for this season, which highlights how difficult their 30 league goals have been to come by this term, albeit they’re now 15 points clear of the relegation zone.
Against Coventry, chances fell to Glen Rea, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, James Collins, Jordan Clark and Sam Nombe but they couldn’t add to their two goals.
Bree said: “Judging by the chances we had, it could’ve been four or five, really. I think Nombe’s had a good chance, Collo’s had a good couple of chances when he’s come on.
“It’s frustrating but a win’s a win at the end of the day and we did enough to get the three points.”
