Luton Town's Gideon Kodua scored a dramatic last-gasp winner against Reading, securing a thrilling 4-3 opening day triumph for the Hatters. The 21-year-old attacker came on with nine minutes to go at the Madejski Stadium, the scores locked at 3-3 following a breathless hour or so in which Town led through Jake Richards' early goal, then allowed ex-Hatter Jack Marriott to net a hat-trick before half-time, with Kasey Palmer's second half double drawing the visitors level inside 10 minutes.
What happened?
With the action having slowed somewhat, going into injury time, it looked like the points would be shared, only for George Johnston to find Kodua, who was able to break into the box, and after steadying himself, fired against the underside of the bar. The ball dropped to Richards, who managed to toepoke it back to Kodua, with the sub slamming beyond Royals keeper Joel Pereira to send the near 2,500 supporters housed behind the goal, into sheer ecstasy.
Why it matters for Luton Town
Speaking about the moment afterwards, Kodua said: “It’s amazing, I can’t really put it into words, but it’s the best feeling in the world. I don’t remember how it happened, it just fell to me to put my foot at it and it went in. Watch the clip back and you’ll know how I feel. I just wanted to win, I didn’t care who scored, we just needed those three points. The first one didn’t go in, but just delighted for the second, to put it away. It was all about carrying on what we left last season and I feel like we are doing that. We’re getting a bit more confident and you can see by the celebrations how together we are, how much it means to us.”
What comes next?
The goal came due to Kodua being in a more central position, which is an area that boss Jack Wilshere has been looking to utilise him in for a while now, after a stint on the left-hand side during the warm-up matches, as he also popped up on the right flank too. The manager said: “I’m happy for Gids as Gids has been playing on the left in pre-season. My message was play there and we’ll develop you there, but I see you inside. We had to wait a little bit to get Emilio (Lawrence), so he played in that position, young Benny (Benagr) came through and gave us something as well. Gids ultimately in my opinion is a player who can play central, and that’s where you get the best out of him.”
League standing: 4th in League One, 3 pts, 1W-0D-0L from 1 games, recent form W.
