Kodua asks 'how can I be nervous?' as West Ham loanee nets last-gasp penalty

Town attacker Gideon Kodua questioned just why he would have felt any nerves when stepping up to score an injury time penalty and earn the Hatters a point at Blackpool on Tuesday night.

The 21-year-old, who had come on as part of a triple 57th minute substitution by boss Matt Bloomfield with Luton 2-0 behind, saw Jordan Clark pull one back to make it 2-1, before with the clock ticking past the 90, he burst into the area following a flick from fellow replacement Lasse Nordas. Kodua was then taken out by Tangerines defender Olly Casey, with referee Martin Woods initially allowing play to continue, Nordas’s shot saved by Bailey Peacock-Farrell, before whistling and pointing to the spot.

It looked like Nordas was going to assume responsibilities from 12 yards, only for the Norwegian to then give the ball to Kodua, the on-loan West Ham youngster taking his first penalty in senior football. Despite the magnitude of the situation, Town’s winger took a deep breath, steadied himself, and then sent the Blackpool keeper the wrong way to confidently make it 2-2, ensuring Luton claimed a point.

Asked afterwards if he had felt any nerves, he said: “No, how can I be nervous? This is the job I do, so I can’t be nervous. I’ve taken a couple when I was younger in my youth days, but that was all on tour and I just felt confident in the moment. I told Lasse just give me the ball, to be fair he gave it to me, so thank you Lasse. You can see the celebrations at the end how much it means to us.”

Following the game, home boss Steve Bruce strangely labelled the decision as a ‘horrible’ one and went even further during his post match press conference, stating he thought it was in fact Kodua who was going to see red for a challenge on Casey he bizarrely described as ‘horrific’. Giving his view on events, the FA Youth Cup winner with the Hammers, said: “Literally, I felt the contact and I’ve gone down. I felt like I won the ball before he did, so when he did blow as you saw from my reaction, it was just straight passion as I feel like as a team we grew into the game, so it was good to come out with a goal.”

While Kodua might have played down his role in Town leaving with a point, manager Bloomfield had been seriously impressed that despite being one of the youngest players on the pitch, he was the brave enough to put himself up for such a pressure situation, saying: “That took some big courage shall we say for him to step up and take it. He’s a boy with a big heart, a really really big heart and fair play to him for stepping up in that moment.

“We know quite a few of the guys at West Ham and when we first signed him, he came with such a glowing reference and reputation as a young man. You know how much I value culture and people that you have inside the building, there’s a real drive and a resilience about him. We’ve got such a huge reference on him and I think his injuries last season just stopped him and curtailed him a little bit.

"He’s not the finished article, there’s loads to go to put 90 minutes together back-to-back and become the player that we believe he can, but he’s certainly shown some good moments for us. We spoke a couple of weeks ago about when we got to a four, that he likes to go to the left and come inside and shoot as well, so I thought he did very well.”

Having been on the bench for near enough the opening hour, Kodua had seen his team-mates breached twice, CJ Hamilton racing away to score both goals, before being introduced along with Clark and Joe Gbode to try and get the visitors back into the game. They were joined by Nordas and Jake Richards later on, as despite trailing 2-0, Kodua had faith he could affect a turnaround, going close to pulling one back earlier with a powerful run from the half-way line, unleashing a fierce drive that flew inches wide.

Once Kodua had made it 2-2, then he even felt they had a chance to return to Bedfordshire with all three points, saying: “The instructions that were given to me was just go and make an impact. I feel confident in the team in whatever situation we’re put in, as long as we’re all together then nothing’s going to stop us. We grew into the game through confidence and sticking by each other.

"We kicked on after the second goal went in, you can see everybody wanted to win the game. We weren’t coming here for a draw, we’ve not travelled this far to try and sit back for a draw, we tried to go again, we had momentum, so well done to the lads for sticking in there. The feeling’s good, but there’s so much more to come. You can see from the team spirit when I scored the equaliser that we weren’t just coming here for a draw, we were trying to take all three points, so I feel like the team spirit is there and the wins will come.”

Kodua’s arrival on to the pitch was his seventh league appearance for the Hatters, four of them coming from the bench, as after being left out of the squad against Lincoln City recently, he returned for the 1-0 win over Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, replacing Shayden Morris early in the second half.

However, having joined up with Bloomfield for the third time in his career during the summer, signing twice when the boss was in charge of Wycombe Wanderers, asked how his few months has gone in a Town shirt, and how he feels the team spirit has been since putting pen to paper in a season-long deal, he added: "We said it inside, there’s nothing but improvement that will come, so we’ve got to stick together and keep pushing each other.

"It puts us in a good spirit. It’s not just from the old lads, the young lads push each other too, so it’s a full group effort and there’s way more to come. It’s brilliant, I feel like when you play a lot you enjoy your football way more, and that’s what I’m doing now. I’ve been given the opportunity to showcase myself on a big stage so thank you to the gaffer for once again bringing me in, to showcase myself.

“I just want to do well for the team, for the gaffer and for myself, so to put on a performance like that was good, but we just need to go again. That game’s gone now so we just need to focus on the next one, Stevenage away, it’s going to be tough. It’s two games now we haven’t lost, so we go to Stevenage, get three points, god willing, and we just keep battling. The season’s literally just started, there’s so many points to play for. It will be a good battle, the lads will definitely be up for it and bring on Saturday.”