Luton boss Matt Bloomfield was lost for words after his side enjoyed a 90th-minute 1-0 victory against Coventry that kept their hopes of staying in the Championship alive.
It looked like the Hatters were going to be held to a frustrating stalemate, as they had initially been playing against 10 men when Jay Dasilva was sent off on 12 minutes.
Town midfielder Liam Walsh was also shown red midway through the second period, though, but as the clock was about to tick into 90, Shandon Baptiste’s effort somehow got past Sky Blues defender Luis Binks on the line to ensure Town will be out of the bottom three going into the final game of the season next weekend.
Bloomfield said: “If you’re asking me to sum it up I’m going to struggle, it was a whole range of emotions and a lovely moment for Shandon.
“It’s tough when the game changes so early, it’s a completely different game to the one we expected.
“We have to stay patient, understand that it might not all fall into place right away, we have to keep probing and keep working.
“Maybe in the first half it wasn’t quite what we wanted it to be, but when we came out second half, I felt like we were really patient and tried to get in some good areas.
“A great save from Walshy, we hit the post, one-on-one, the goalie saves as well, we had 17 corners and is it going to be our day? But then Walshy gets sent off, it’s a whole range of emotions.
“The lads stayed strong, kept probing, the spirit and the togetherness has been growing for a while now and for the boys to share that moment together was very special.
“We can’t get carried away with the situation as we haven’t before, We’ve just go to make sure we’re prepared and ready to go again. We’ve been fighting the whole way through and we’ve got to keep that fight.”
Following the red card to Dasilva after he clipped Milli Alli, Town dominated the rest of the first half, with Thelo Aasgaard’s blast tipped over by Bradley Collins.
Luton then upped the pressure in the second period; Walsh’s 25-yarder brilliantly tipped onto the bar by Collins and the keeper also denying Lamine Fanne while Alli hit the post.
However, Walsh received a straight red for a shove on Binks to even the contest up, while Haji Wright put a header off target for the visitors.
Luton eventually got the goal they deserved when Collins needlessly came out for a long ball forward, Baptiste bagging his first of an injury-hit season, leaving a disappointed City manager Frank Lampard to wait and see if his side will make the play-offs come the end of the season next weekend.
He said: “I’m disappointed for them as they absolutely gave everything and they deserved something out of the game for sure.
“There were some circumstances in the game that affected it, of course the big circumstances, but the players make mistakes at this level and late in games, and they’re crucial.
“I can’t argue with the red card as I think when a player’s running through. It probably was the right decision and then at that point we had to dig in until it levelled out.
“We tried to make sure we didn’t sit too deep too soon. They want to get it wide and stick it in, so we had to defend our box and we had been doing that. It was important to enjoy suffering and fighting and see what that could bring, the players kept doing it until the game levelled out and then we got back into the game.
“It’s not easy to go from backs to the wall and then all of a sudden it’s level. We adjusted to a back five and then a back four and at 10 v 10, I had fancied us.”
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