Redemption is sweet for Hatters skipper Cuthbert

The Luton captain had been sent off the previous weekend for denying Swindon Town forward Keshi Anderson a clear goalscoring opportunity, with the Hatters going on to lose 3-0 in his absence.

He then had to sit out the 2-0 win over Port Vale in midweek, before being named on the bench at Adams Park.

Cuthbert got his chance when Alan McCormack pulled up injured after 40 minutes and responded with a solid defensive display, before heading up front for the final few moments to draw Town level.

Speaking afterwards, the centre half said: “No-one beats themselves up more when they make a mistake than me, I can guarantee you that.

“I’ve been beating myself up since it happened on Saturday, I know I let the lads down, let the team down, let the gaffer down and all the coaches down.

“The only way you can repay them and get them back on side is by trying to do something on the pitch and luckily I’ve managed to grab a goal and we’ve managed to win the game.”

Boss Nathan Jones also highlighted how Cuthbert was now back in the good books, saying: “He cost us last week, I said that to him after and he got us back in, so he’s back on even keel now.

“To be fair, were weren’t sure if we were going to put him on the bench or not, but we felt if we started quickly and got an early goal, we knew we’d come under an aerial onslaught.

“So we put him on the bench as well as Johnny Mullins, I don’t usually go with two centre halves on the bench, but we did and that proved to be good one in a different way to we planned.”

On the decision to push further forward, Cuthbert was clearly seen motioning to the bench before getting the all clear from Jones, as he continued: “Sheezy’s (Alan Sheehan) kidding me on in there, he was screaming at me not to go up, but the manager’s just given me a nod and I thought, I may as well.

“Two minutes to go, go for it, chance your luck and it just fell to me lovely.”

Meanwhile, boss Jones hinted that it was a last throw of the dice, saying: “You try anything at that time, we got a little bit desperate, we were a little bit more attacking down the side of them and put some real good balls in.

“We were pushing for the equaliser and were brave enough to keep going for the win, so that’s the credit to us really, as we were brave late on.”

It was the same end in which Cuthbert had scored his first Luton goal last season too, as he was quick to thank first team coach Joaquin Gomez as well, saying: “Two in two, brilliant and Joaquin is trying to take credit for it as we’ve done crossing and finishing on Thursday and I was absolutely awful, I couldn’t hit the target.

“Then, what are the chances, cross comes in and I manager to tuck it away bottom corner, so I’ll let Joaquin take credit for it.

“I just practice defending, which wasn’t doing too well either, but it was just the boys had played on the Tuesday. There wasn’t everyone training, so we did a little crossing and finishing, so thought I’d join in, everyone joined in, and I’ll let Joaquin have the credit.

“It was different class, like last year as well, excellent, last minute winners, you can’t really beat them to be honest.”

Match-winner James Collins added: “Credit to Scotty as he does finishing with us in training and he’s not bad to be fair to him.

“To get in the area and finish it as composed as he did was a great finish and that basically gave us the kickstart to go on and win the game.”