Hatters midfielder Berry elated to mark his first start of the season with Blackpool match-winner

Town midfielder Luke Berry was elated to mark his first start in over seven months for the Hatters with the match-winner during Saturday’s 1-0 victory at Blackpool.

The 30-year-old, who has missed the first part of the campaign with a calf injury, was included from the start for the first time since the trip to Hull on March 19 at Bloomfield Road.Just before the hour mark, he then made one of his trademark runs into the area to attack James Bree’s corner, reacting quickest to Tom Lockyer’s back post header to stab home what turned out to be the only goal of the game of the contest.

Speaking afterwards, Berry said: “We practice our set-pieces a lot with Sheez (Alan Sheehan, first team coach) who’s worked really hard with us.

“It’s no surprise, we work on the first ball and the second ball and he says, always try to stay on the move to get a tap in and luckily I was there.

“We had a lot of practice yesterday and every day before a game, so I was ready for them and I thought we defended them well and attacked them really well.

“He (Sheez) said to me, ‘just do what you do in there.’

“’I’m not going to tell you want to do, I’m not going to tell you to run back, just try and sniff a second ball, sniff something.’

“Thankfully it dropped for me nicely so I could stick it in and it was good to celebrate in front of the fans with the kneeslide, I don’t think I've done a kneeslide before, so it was nice.

“When you go through some tough times you really appreciate the good times, the 1-0, you couldn't write it really.

"That’s the best result you could do away, 1-0 and score, delighted.”

Town boss Nathan Jones, who brought Berry to the club back in August 2017, has spoken previously about what a miss the midfielder has been with his goalscoring threat, so he was thrilled to see the former Cambridge man back and on the scoresheet too.

He continued: “We’ve had to be patient with him and then in midweek (against Reading) he made some great runs and could have got on the scoresheet, but his touch just let him down.

"Today, absolutely brilliant, absolutely brilliant, if he could pass the football as well he’d be even better!

"But he was wonderful and that's what he does, we back him to get those goals.”

Team-mate Lockyer was also more than happy to see Berry back and getting the kinds of goals that has made his own over the last two seasons, now up to eight in just 21 outings.

He said: “It’s great to see Bez back on the scoresheet, that’s what he does so well.

"He arrives in the box at the right time, it’s funny, he came up to me and said we’re going to work a different corner, so I wasn’t even supposed to be there, he wasn’t supposed to be there, but somehow it just worked out.

"That’s what he does, he’s a little poacher in those situations isn’t he.

"It’s fantastic for him to come back into the team and get a goal, because he’s been working really hard when he hasn’t been in the team.

“It’s a really good knack to have isn’t it, being in the right place at the right time and it’s one of them, you make enough runs into the right areas and sooner or later it will fall to you.

"When he gets into the area, it’s like he’s got a magnet, so fair play to him, the match-winner today.

"I thought he was fantastic and I don’t just want to big him up as I thought to a man today everyone was superb, I loved the 1-0.

"Apparently it hasn’t gone down as my assist, I’m sure Eli (Elijah Adebayo) is trying to claim it, but it is what it is, I’m not too worried about the assist.

"If I could score that would be nice, but I’m more happy with the clean sheet which I think you can tell by my reaction.”

Although Berry's goal was one of the highlights of the game, the rest of the TV package included Luton’s defence throwing themselves all over the place to block the Tangerines’ shots in a bid to keep a clean sheet, which they just about managed.

Berry was at it took, creating all kinds of shapes in a bid to keep the ball out of the net, as he added: “There was a few times we were throwing our bodies at things and putting our bodies on the line and that’s what we do.

"Sometimes places away we can’t be stringing the ball around, scoring three, four goals, it’s putting a real solid performance in and getting in front of the ball.

“It just shows the group really, every single day, even if you're not playing, everyone’s on it.

"Everyone’s defending and doing the ugly things as well as the pretty things on the ball, so when they’re called upon like today, it’s no surprise to us.”