Kenilworth Road witnessed a five-goal thriller last night in which Mpanzu played a starring role on the sixth anniversary of him signing permanently for the club.
On his time with the Hatters, Pelly started by saying: “Time flies when you’re having fun! It was good to get a goal today, it was a must win for us to be honest. We haven’t won in a while so it was good to get three points and try and chase the pack above us, so hopefully this is the start of something great and we can do it again against West Brom on Saturday.”
The former West Ham youngster was pleased with the quick response the team made after falling behind to Wayne Rooney’s strike, adding: “It’s always tough when you concede first because we were playing well in the first half so after we conceded it was great to get a quick goal and then another goal. Obviously we conceded from a cross to the back post for Martin but the own goal set us on our way to three points.”
Mpanzu’s goal came in the 67th minute and he explained what was going through his mind as he approached the ball.
“Collo is trying to claim it’s his assist but I don’t know if I’m going to give it to him! It was a great touch from him and I thought listen, striking the ball is easy for me so I hit the ball and it went in the back of the net. There might have been [a deflection] but it was a banger, so a goal is a goal!”
The midfielder later found out that his goal continues a remarkable record of never being on the losing side when he was scored in a game, something he admitted he was unaware of.
“Hopefully I can score more goals and keep us up. It would be good to get more goals and help out Cornick, Collo, Kaz also. Hopefully I can add to the goals they’re going to get as well.”
Pelly revealed that the team have confidence in every game they play in and ended by saying, “It’s just about putting the right tactics, the right manoeuvres and putting the ball in the back of the net. That is vital for us so beating Derby is a great achievement, obviously we have to continue to do that against West Brom and whoever’s ahead of us in the coming weeks.”
