Osho expected practise to pay off for Luton during Wembley penalty shootout

​​Town defender Gabe Osho retained every confidence that the Hatters were going to be crowned victors when their play-off final against Coventry City went to penalties last month.

With Luton and the Sky Blues simply unable to be separated after 120 minutes of football, Jordan Clark’s opener cancelled out by Gustavo Hamer’s second half equaliser, it meant a dreaded shootout was required.

Town held their nerve magnificently to score all six of their attempts, City managing five until substitute Fankaty Dago skied his effort into the legions of Hatters fans behind the goal.

It transpired that Rob Edwards' side had done an exhausting amount of homework on the possibility of facing such a scenario, even down to the breathing of the players as they walked up, which was the main reason behind Osho’s optimism.

Having been substituted in the latter stages of extra time, it meant the former Reading youngster had to watch from the dug-outs, as on what was going through his mind, he said: “When it goes to extra time, it’s just in the hands of the gods really.

"The teams are so evenly matched it’s like however fate is going to take this, but we did practise it so much, so I was confident going into it.

"Then as we’re taking penalties and we’re scoring, they just keep on scoring, and I thought, I don’t know how this is going to go anymore, as they just kept on scoring

"The amount of practise we did, I was so confident when we were doing it.

"But when it got to five-five, I was thinking, when are they going to miss?

"They missed on the sixth which was good for us, but watching on the sidelines, I was confident all the way as the work we put in for the past couple of weeks was there for everyone to see.”

All six of Luton’s spotkicks gave opposing stopper Ben Wilson little chance of saving them, the majority finding the corner, with Carlton Morris, Joe Taylor, Marvelous Nakamba, Jordan Clark, Luke Berry and Dan Potts all making no mistake.

Osho added: “It was literally perfection.

"The ones where the keeper was diving the right way, my heart was in my mouth every single time, especially with the angle we’re at, as we don’t know how far he’s put it in the corner.

"But to see the net bulge every single time was just surreal really."

Once Dabo’s missed the target, Luton’s players set off sprinting towards their own fans as one half of Wembley was a sea of celebrating orange.

That carried on into the next few days, with the Hatters having an open top bus parade to St George’s Square, with 20,000 supporters coming out to see their heroes.

The squad also went away to Las Vegas as well, as Osho still can’t quite believe they have actually achieved their goal of reaching the Premier League, adding: “That whole week period after was just amazing, it was really, really amazing.

"The boys as everyone knows we all went away together, it was just those kinds of moments that you treasure for the rest of your life.

“I know I’ve said on Thursday (fixtures release) it will probably start sinking in, but I don’t think until we line up on the twelfth of August, I don’t think until that game starts on that day it will be really like ‘wow, we’re here, we actually did it.’

"So I’m looking forward to that.”