Potts jubilant to mark milestone with late, late winner

Hatters full back Dan Potts was in a jubilant mood after scoring the winner on his 100th appearance for the club at Oxford United on Tuesday night.
Dan Potts celebrates his late winner against OxfordDan Potts celebrates his late winner against Oxford
Dan Potts celebrates his late winner against Oxford

The 24-year-old, who signed for Luton in May 2015 under then boss John Still, marked his milestone in the perfect manner, leaping highest to head in Alan Sheehan’s free in the eighth minute of stoppage time to make it 2-1.

On the feeling, he said: “Just jubilation, I thought it was everything we deserved from the game.

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“But for it to be my 100th appearance and a 98th minute winner, it just adds to the positive feeling that we’ve all got after the game as I think we thoroughly deserved the win.

“It’s obviously a great feeling, it’s a nice accolade to have, 100 games in any professional league is a good achievement and long may it continue.”

Once Sheehan stood over the deadball, then Potts knew he was in with a chance of scoring, the pair responsible for a number of goals as Town won promotion from League Two last term.

He continued: “You know with Sheeze, he’s always going to put it in the position.

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“We got a good understanding last year, and as soon as I saw him over it, I knew where it was going to go.

Dan Potts heads home the winnerDan Potts heads home the winner
Dan Potts heads home the winner

“Before he took it, the space just opened up nicely, I didn’t really have to move too much, he just put it on a sixpence.

“I knew as soon as I had contact with the ball it was going to go in. It wasn’t bad, Johnny (Mitchell, Oxford keeper), I saw him scrambling for it, but I didn’t think he was ever going to get there.”

After netting seven times for Luton last season, the defender did concede he was disappointed it had taken so long to get up and running this campaign.

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He said: “Probably, I’ve had enough chances, but stepping up a league, defenders are better, goalkeepers are better.

Dan Potts saw this goal disallowedDan Potts saw this goal disallowed
Dan Potts saw this goal disallowed

“We’re probably having less set-pieces, but I fancy myself to get on enough.

“So as long as the delivery’s right, I’ll always put myself in a good position to score, but it’s probably a sigh of relief that I got my first one.”

Potts had been celebrating moments before his match-winner, heading home Kazenga LuaLua’s cross only to see the goal controversially ruled out by official Michael Salisbury.

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He said: ““We looked at it after the game once we’d settled down, Pete (Booker, performance analyst) got it up on the laptop, we had a look and it’s harsh to say the least.

“I wheeled away celebrating, looked across at the linesman, no offside, so I carried on celebrating, by that time I think they’d already spotted it and were going to play the free kick.

“He gave a foul against Sonny, you look back at it and there’s not much there, it was harsh.”

Meanwhile, boss Nathan Jones simply couldn’t believe it had been chalked off either, adding: “He said Sonny Bradley for a push in the box.

“I looked at it and I’ve looked at it and I’ve looked at it, then I looked at it again, and I looked at it again, then I looked at again, and again, and I couldn’t actually see one.