Luke Berry told of his excitement at being back out on a pitch scoring goals in front of the Luton fans at Blackburn – but admitted that he couldn’t celebrate with them how he wanted to after tripping over a TV microphone!
The 29-year-old midfielder came off the bench for his first action of the season, and first time back in front of supporters since last December, to net two second-half goals to bring the Hatters back from 2-0 down.
Having suffered with calf injuries since the first week of pre-season, he said: “It was really good, something that I’ve been working on all over the break. I came back really fit, it was just a shame I kept getting little calf niggles. I was just excited to get out there and score two good goals.”
Describing the goals, both arriving in trademark style to get on the end of balls into the six-yard box and finish from close range, he added: “We work on that, to be fair. We do loads of shooting drills, getting across your man for the first one.
“The second one, Pelly has played a lovely ball – when I watched it, I thought that’s a great ball from Pell – and then Cam has done what he’s done all his career, just stuck people on a plate and all I’ve had to do is finish it.”
With Amari’i Bell missing out through injury and Elijah Adebayo through illness, then Admiral Muskwe pulling up in the warm-up and Allan Campbell and Dan Potts being forced off during the 90 minutes, Berry admitted it was a strange afternoon for Nathan Jones’ walking wounded.
It got even more bizarre when referee Oliver Langford had to go off in injury-time with cramp, with the three extra minutes added to five of injury-time helping Berry net the 98th minute leveller.
“It seemed like it was stop-start throughout the game, there was a lot of things going on – it was a weird old game,” said Berry.
“I don’t know, I think we had five players who weren’t available during the last few hours. That makes it feel like an even bigger point, the amount of players who were missing. It feels a bit like a win, how it happened.”
And his celebration, as he tripped while running behind the goal towards the travelling support?
“I was going to get in there, but I fell over! I tripped over the microphone, stepped onto the concrete bit and smacked my elbow. I was going to give it a bit, but then I fell over and I was just trying to get up.
“They pushed us through in the end. It’s so much better. I haven’t played a home game yet with the fans properly, and I can’t wait to get out there. It was brilliant playing in front of them. They give us a lift. They are that 12th man, especially at home and they travel all over the country, it’s fantastic.”