Gnakpa praises Luton’s spirit

HATTERS flying Frenchman Claude Gnakpa praised his side’s team spirit after they came from behind to earn a draw at Darlington on Tuesday night, writes Mike Simmonds.

In a match that Town should have been winning, it looked like they would leave empty-handed after Aaron Brown’s impressive strike. But Jake Howells popped up on 80 minutes to level and stretch Luton’s unbeaten run to three games.

Gnakpa said: “We came back to 2-2 and we feel like we can win the game. That is the good thing from this team, the way we came back and the way we feel we can win the game.

“We have to take that like a good thing for the rest of the season.”

Hatters were ahead early on, courtesy of Gnakpa’s first goal of the season, as he connected with Andy Drury’s excellent corner.

The goal saw Richard Money’s side sit back somewhat though and Gnakpa believes lessons must be learned.

He said: “We are a bit disappointed because being 1-0 and playing the way we played for the first 25 or 30 minutes, we are really disappointed.

“I think we changed a bit, we were a bit too deep and didn’t keep the ball like we should do.

“We could have played football as well but we didn’t. We can learn from that and concentrate on the next game.”

Gnakpa found himself switched from the wing to centre forward and back again during the 90 minutes but was happy to fill either role, adding: “I can play on top there is no problems.

“The manager played my power and my strength in the air to win the ball to give the chance to Barnesy (Matthew Barnes-Homer) to have the second ball.”

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