The Incredible Finalé
So you all know that we had a dramatic finish to the season, but do you really know how dramatic it was? I will tell you now, I did need to change my underpants, it was that sort of game. An absolutely fantastic game for the neutrals, and indeed the Luton Town supporters. This was possibly one of the greatest games in football history, in my opinion.
The stadium was packed out, the atmosphere was incredible, but the players were nervous. Plymouth took advantage of this and a Kwesi Appiah goal for Plymouth was the difference at half-time. I knew that I had to deliver a good half-time team talk, and I also knew that it was all or nothing in the second half. We needed to go all-out attack in order to win.
It was our star, Euan Smith, who equalised for us on the 62nd minute. However, our comeback did not last long as Kwesi Appiah scored another goal on the 70th minute. This meant that we needed to score two goals in the last twenty minutes to guarantee we win the title. The players looked destroyed. They looked like they lost their belief. All of them, except for one man.
That one man was Euan Smith, and he surged in to the box on the 74th minute, beating two defenders on his way, and stuck a spectacular drive across goal which saw us equalise for the second time in this match, through the Scot. That was when the fans erupted. They knew that we weren't going to roll over easily. They got behind the team and drove them on.
Plymouth, feeling the true power of Luton's fans for the first time in the match, made a mistake from kick-off. They conceded possession to a rampant Euan Smith, who played an intricate pass to Alex Lawless on the right wing. He hit a first-time cross which looped over the heads of every Plymouth defender to the back post where Cristian Montaño, out of nowhere, appeared to convert a diving header and put Luton on their way to a second consecutive league title!
Fifteen minutes remained in the match, and we needed to defend with all our might. We had many tired legs after a long, difficult season, but Plymouth appeared to be fresh. Akinfenwa tore through our defence to go one-on-one with Grant Adam, but our shot-stopper managed to divert the piledriver which left Akinfenwa's foot on to the post, and away from goal. We countered, sensing a weakness in their defence and earned ourselves a corner. Pelly Ruddock, against the instructions of his fellow team mates, ventured forward in to the box for the set-piece. And it was indeed he who put the icing on the cake with a front-post free header which won us the league title!
The fans were dancing and cheering, the players were crying in happiness. We had done it again! We had won the Sky Bet League Two on the final day of the season, against all the odds at half-time. This was the greatest comeback in Luton Town's history!
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