Town striker Adebayo admits working mentally on his reaction to spot-kick failure paid off with Cardiff decider

Luton striker Elijah Adebayo revealed how working on his mental approach to a penalty miss paid off handsomely against Cardiff last night, as he was able to dust himself down and score what turned out to be a late winner in Town’s 1-0 triumph at Kenilworth Road.

With 70 minutes on the clock, Adebayo saw his flick in the area clumsily handballed by Bluebirds defender Cedric Kipre, referee Geoff Eltringham, making one of the few decisions he actually got right, pointing to the spot.

Having scored from 12 yards against Grimsby on Saturday, the in-form forward stepped up again, only to this time see visiting keeper Ryan Allsop guess correctly and turn his effort behind for a corner.

Rather than let the miss overly bother him, Adebayo was right back in the thick of things within two minutes to go, meeting Alfie Doughty’s cross with a thumping header to net what proved to be the only goal of the night.

He said: “It’s something that I’ve had a discussion with myself about.

“About that reaction and not letting it be five, 10, 15 minutes in the game, just trying to I wouldn’t say not sulk, but not worry about what’s happened.

“It’s just about getting on with it.

“These things happen and as you can see the reaction today was better from me, and from the team, everyone was giving me confidence to carry on going.”

On how easy it is to put such a miss out of his mind so quickly, he continued: “You guys will know, that’s not first penalty I’ve missed.

“I think last year for me, it took me a while to get over it, and for me, it’s about the next chance.

“I’ve said this plenty of times, you’re going to get another chance and it’s what you do with that chance that matters.

“The reaction is just a mental thing for me.

“I’ve worked hard mentally on just that reaction, and today it was good.”

Last night’s miss was Adebayo’s third failure from eight attempts for Luton, all of those coming in his last five efforts from 12 yards.

Despite that record though, he insisted he would keep putting himself forward for them, adding: “I’m not going to stop taking them, I’m going to carry on taking them as that’s the position I put myself in.

“Hopefully we get a different result than tonight.”

On the goal he did score, beating Mark McGuinness to Doughty’s excellent delivery and sending his header into the roof of the net, Adebayo added: “We just talked about being in and around the back post and I was near enough in the middle of the goal there.

“It was a case of who wanted it more and I wanted it more than he did.”