Watford clincher was one of the 'best feelings' of Luton striker's career

Hatters striker Jacob Brown admitted that scoring Luton’s third goal of an absolutely terrific 3-0 victory over local rivals Watford on Saturday was without doubt one of the ‘best feelings’ of his career.

The 26-year-old had started on the bench as he is still feeling his way back to full match fitness after suffering a lengthy knee injury which wrecked the second half of his first season at Kenilworth Road. Having made a cameo against Plymouth Argyle, started the 2-2 draw with Oxford United and then come on in the 2-0 defeat to Sheffield United, Brown was introduced midway through the second half at the weekend for striker Carlton Morris, as part of manager Rob Edwards’ last permitted change.

He was immediately into the action on the left hand side of Town’s attack, seeing one shot deflect wide, before his moment came as the clock ticked into stoppage time. A long ball from goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski saw the striker get away from Ryan Porteous, the Hornets defender claiming he had been fouled by the Scottish international.

Referee Stephen Martin didn’t fall for the under-fire centre half’s antics though, allowing Brown to race away, cut inside Angelo Ogbonna and then blast into the bottom corner, leaving keeper Daniel Bachmann motionless before setting off to celebrate wildly with those in the Kenny End, quickly being mobbed by his jubilant team-mates who knew the job was done.

Speaking afterwards, the forward, who was on target for the first time since the 2-1 defeat to Brentford back in December 2023, said: “I would have been very annoyed if it was a foul as I didn’t really touch him too much, I didn’t think it was a foul. When I got it under control, it was just make sure I hit the target. I’d cut in on to my stronger foot, just shot, it went in and everything was just madness from there. It was one of the best feelings as I’ve been out for so long.

"It really meant a lot to me and for my first goal of the season to be in this game, it was really good. I back myself to score when given the chance and it’s what I’ve been working hard for and I just want to keep building from there. From the minute the fixtures came out, I wanted to make sure I scored in this game. When I was sat on the bench, as soon as I came on, I knew we had a job to do, make sure we see out the game, but when the chance came, and it went in, I was honestly so buzzing. I’m probably going to watch it back a lot!”

Brown was one of five alterations that Edwards had to make on the day, as with Tom Holmes, Reece Burke, Tahith Chong and Tom Krauß all forced off with injuries and Morris tiring after just returning from being sidelined himself, it meant Daiki Hashioka, Joe Johnson, Marvelous Nakamba and Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu were also called upon after the break.

Having led 2-0 thanks to goals from Jordan Clark and Morris, the fact Luton were able to keep their opponents at arms length during the second period and avoid giving the large majority of those inside Kenilworth Road any late jitters was a huge credit to those that came on, particularly in defensive areas. Brown continued: “When the starting 11 is told to the team, there’s going to be a lot of disappointed boys, but we know that it’s a team game and everyone that comes off the bench has to be ready, we know that.

"For the boys that came on, I thought JJ was really good as it’s a big game, so it was a great team performance from everyone really. Wherever anyone’s playing, we know we just have to give one hundred percent. We try tor work hard to know what everyone else’s roles are so if you’re in that position you’re ready and we showed that today.”

Meanwhile, discussing the striker’s impact and his maiden goal of the campaign, boss Edwards added: “Carlton was immense, but because I had to bring Tom (Krauß) off, we had to make two changes as we didn’t have any more opportunities to make a change. I almost had to predict that Carlton at some stage is going to tire, I probably would have liked to get another 10 minutes out of him really, but Browny coming on was the right thing.

"They brought (Kwadwo) Baah on to attack down their right hand side and it was good to have Browny, a reliable player to give us the athleticism and power to match a bit of that. He got the third as well, that was a nice bonus. It was a really good goal, I’m pleased for Jacob. He’s another one who’s been missing for a long period of time, so he’ll get a lot of confidence from that, but the third goal felt nice. At two-nil, the game is not on us to go and win it, they’re pushing forward, they’ve got a bit of momentum, but we defended well with one centre back that we had, so I’m really pleased with that.”