Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu admitted making football history wasn’t on his mind, but that Luton can be proud of their debut performance in the Premier League as long as they learn to cut out the mistakes that saw them lose 4-1 at Brighton and Hove Albion.
The midfielder’s appearance meant that he became the only footballer to ever play in all top five English divisions for the same club.
“I wasn’t too bothered about it,” said the DR Congo international of his milestone match, adding: “Obviously, there was talk around me going from non-league to the Premier League. Obviously that’s done now.
“It doesn’t really matter because the result is what we wanted. It was nice, personally, but everyone wants three points at the end of the day, or at least a point against a great team like Brighton. We didn’t get that but hopefully we can get a positive result in the coming weeks.”
Goals from Solly March and a soft penalty awarded to and scored by Joao Pedro put Albion 2-0 up before an equally dubious penalty gave Carlton Morris the chance to half the deficit and make history as the Hatters’ first goalscorer in the Premier League.
At that point, the Hatters were in the game, but a big mistake from Mpanzu saw Simon Adingra blast in just four minutes later to kill off any momentum the Hatters might have had, and then Evan Ferguson tapped in deep into stoppage time.
“The result was disappointing but I think we should be proud of our performance,” said Mpanzu, adding: “Obviously, they carved us open a couple of times but most of the goals were mistakes. Not marking in the box, a penalty, me not clearing the ball and obviously the last one was a bit of good play in behind, with a ball across the box and a goal.
“But the benefits we can take from the game is that we played well. It’s just individual mistakes that we need to cut out because in the Premier League they’ll punish you.
“It’s tough to take but I think we should be proud of our performance overall.”
Asked about the difficulty in facing a Brighton side that qualified for Europe for the first time last term, the midfielder said: “The movement on and off the ball. Brighton are top six side. They showed that last year and we’ve got to learn quickly that we’ve got to get up to the ball and make sure that our lines are tight and make sure there’s no space in behind.
“They’ve got quality players that can hurt you and it showed in the second half that they can get in behind and carve you open.
“Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes and there’s still 13 days until our next game against Chelsea. There’s still work to be done hopefully we can get a positive result against Chelsea.”
