“Keane, looking for Gnakpa. Oh, Gnakpa’s got the touch, and Luton have a third! Claude Gnakpa off the bench and potentially into history for Luton.”
Those words will resonate with every one who is connected to Luton Town Football Club across the world. Although the some 42,000 Hatters’ fans inside Wembley Stadium won’t have heard that commentary at the time, when you listen back, paired with the emotion on Gnakpa’s face as the ball finds the net, it’s enough to make any football supporter smile - well, maybe not if you follow Watford.
That was the winning goal which earned a 3-2 victory over Scunthorpe United in the 2009 Football League Trophy final, and a moment that the Frenchman can still remember vividly even 14 years on.
“It was amazing,” said Gnakpa, who now works in solar development and as a football agent in Africa. “I was a bit upset that I wasn’t in the starting 11, but I remember warming up and Mick Harford deciding it was time to put me on the pitch. They equalised (to make it 2-2) but in my mind, I was thinking now is the time to show what you can do and that’s what I did.
“I had played a few times in that position before the final with Keith Keane playing in the middle, and he had put me in that situation before. So, when Keane picked up the ball and lifted his head, I just started running.
“When he kicked the ball through, the left back was in front of me, but I remember thinking to myself just run, run, run as fast as you can and you never know. When I lifted my head the ball was in front of me, I just jumped and managed to kick it into the air and it went into the net.
“It was an amazing feeling. I went to see if I could find my family but I just fell on my knees, put my hands in the air and said ‘oh my God, this is unbelievable’.”
“People have seen me score goals for Luton before, and I go and I dance, but this one was different. I was running towards my family but it felt like there was a force which pulled me down. I’m a big believer in God and I could feel it all over my body - I have never felt something like that since.
“It’s funny because I had those feelings on the pitch, but I’ve also had many Luton fans tell me that when I scored it was crazy for them too, some even said they fell forward three rows of seats!
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And what about the party that followed afterwards?
Gnakpa continued: “We went to Luton Hoo and celebrated with the managing team, directors and my family was there too. The thing I enjoyed most though was when we went into the town to celebrate with all the fans on the open-top bus tour. That’s something I will never forget.
“As a football player you don’t realise the significance of those moments because you have to think quickly about the next game. Obviously we won the final, I scored the winning goal and I enjoyed celebrating with my teammates and my family, but for me after that it was gone.
“We had to go back to the league to try and stay up. But I remember all the fans sending me messages after the game, and to this day it has never stopped.”
Arriving in England and signing for Luton
Having come through the ranks at Montpellier in France, then on to the likes of Mariganane and Beaucaire, then Racing Santander B and Alavés B in Spain, plus FC Faduz in Switzerland, Gnakpa admits that the English game was very different to what he had ever experienced when he was signed by Swindon Town in 2007.
He said: “When I was playing in France, we looked at English football as an aggressive game, very box to box and completely different from our game. When I arrived in England I thought the leagues were very physical compared to France and I also really liked the atmosphere in the football stadiums.
“The fans were amazing. In France we like football, they love football in Spain but in England it’s something different. In Swindon, I used to meet fans with the club logo tattooed on their skin which for me was unbelievable!
“The first English game that I watched was at Elland Road and it was Leeds against Luton in the Championship, so I knew the club had the capacity and the ability to go and play and compete in that league when I signed for Luton."
After little game time in Swindon, Gnakpa moved to Peterborough United in 2007 and helped the Posh to gain promotion from League Two. The forward then swapped blue for orange the following year despite not being aware of the mammoth task of overturning a -30 point deduction imposed by the Football League and the Football Association. But that didn’t bother him one bit.
He said: “It’s funny but when I signed for Luton, I didn’t know they had the 30 point deduction, which was crazy, but that’s the way it was. However, I had been successful with Peterborough United, so I came to Luton with a desire to do well.
“Mick Harford really wanted me at the club so that’s one of the reasons I signed. I am a competitor and I love to win so in my mind we could stay in the league but it wasn’t the case. We had a really good team but I think it was just too much for us to stay up.”
The non-league years
When relegation from League Two was confirmed in 2009, Claude Gnakpa spent two seasons with the Hatters in what is now the National League. In that time the Frenchman experienced two play-off campaigns and two new managers in the club’s bid to earn promotion.
It was always going to be difficult to bounce back up according to the forward, especially with other teams in the league raising their game against the Bedfordshire side who “should never have played at that level.”
Gnakpa continued: “I think Luton is a fantastic club and we were ready to do well, but don’t get me wrong, as the biggest team in that division, everywhere we went was hard because all the teams played their best game against us.
“We didn’t manage to get promoted out of the conference in those two seasons I was there, but we had good seasons which led to Luton getting promoted after that.”
Defeat against York City in the 2009/10 play-off semi final condemned Luton to a second year of conference football, but the Hatters came back with another play-off opportunity the following season.
It was during this campaign that Gnakpa arguably played his best football in a Luton shirt, and for him, a managerial change was all that was needed.
He said: “I think Richard Money gave me a lot of confidence when he came to the club and he made me believe in myself. When I played for Peterborough United I used to be a right back and for two or three games I even played centre back.
“When Richard Money arrived at the club he put me regularly as a forward so I had to believe in myself that I could score goals and assist players. He was amazing and a fantastic influence on me. When he arrived and spoke to us, I thought ‘wow I want to work with this guy, he knows what he is talking about'.”
Tom Craddock told Class of the Past that Richard Money “had an ego and he just wanted to put his own stamp on things when he didn’t need to,” however Claude explained that different managers can have different impacts on a players’ career.
Gnakpa said: “I can say Darren Ferguson had a great influence on my career (at Peterborough United), I can say that Mick Harford didn’t have a good influence on my career, it’s just a different style of management.
“I read the article and I understand where Tom is coming from because in football, sometimes you get along with some types of managers then sometimes you don’t. You have to deal with it and for me Richard Money was straight forward, he knew what he wanted and that’s the way it was.”
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It was to be Wrexham in Luton's second play-off semi final appearance in as many years, and although Richard Money was replaced by Gary Brabin before the club’s two legs against the Welsh side, Gnakpa thinks the previous year’s heartbreak against York spurred the side on to be ready for battle and book a day out in Manchester for the final against AFC Wimbledon.
“We had so much confidence when we arrived in Wrexham. I was in the tunnel talking to Sinclair like a boxer, saying things like ‘you’re going to stop football after this game’.”
“I was putting pressure on him and saying ‘today it’s finished for you’. That’s the thing, we just had so much confidence. Alex Lawless scored a fantastic goal, after that I scored a good goal so yes, we just had so much confidence. The second leg was much more difficult but we got there.”
Watch the goals from Luton's 3-0 play-off semi final win at The Racecourse Ground below...
Once again the team fell just short that year, narrowly missing out on promotion after losing on penalties to the Dons at the Etihad Stadium with Wembley booked up for the Champions League final.
Claude added: “I remember the fans - what fantastic support and we came close to winning that game. We had a fantastic opportunity in the second half where Jason Walker should have scored. He had a header and it hit the post - what a shame.
“I think I would have liked to take a penalty (if he hadn't been subbed off). I think the pressure was more on us than on AFC Wimbledon and we could have done better during the 90 minutes but we didn’t do it. The guys that took the penalties cried, but it’s very hard to take a penalty, people think it’s easy but it’s very hard indeed.”
Moving on
That was to be Gnakpa’s last game for the Town, moving on to sign for Walsall in a quest to play football further up the pyramid. Luton’s loss was the Saddlers’ gain, although looking back, the forward confesses he should have listened to the warning signs.
He said: “I had a desire to play at the highest level but I was settled. I was really, really happy at Luton and I should have stayed. I should have helped the team get back to the league.
“My biggest regret is not being able to take Luton back up to the football league. I regret not staying another season.”
“The day I went to Walsall to sign my contract was crazy. I was praying to God and asking if it was the right move for me. I was asking him to make a sign to let me know if it was the right decision.
“While I was on the motorway driving to Walsall, my car broke! I thought ‘what's going on? It’s never broken before’, so I called Dean Smith who was the Walsall manager at the time and said I can’t come in to sign my contract but he told me to come back tomorrow.
“I really believe in God and I asked him for a sign and that’s what happened. I went back the next day and I signed but it was a very difficult decision.”
Despite leaving prematurely, the love and support Claude has been shown, and continues to be shown by Town fans, is totally reciprocated. They allowed him to have a career that he never thought was possible.
Gnakpa added: “I was really close to the fans and I really lived my dream by signing autographs, taking pictures and making time for them because it was amazing to play in front of them.
“I remember after some games, fans used to send me messages and I used to go to hospital to see kids and stuff like that. I was just a footballer but if I could make them happy, then it would make me happy. I wanted to take my time with them and it really was a dream come true.”
Claude’s love of the fans has never diminished. Whether that’s because of his Wembley winner, or the time he made for them off the pitch, the history maker will always be highly regarded at Kenilworth Road.
“Mick Harford has guided Luton to a Wembley win. Wonderful scenes. A club that is so close to the lowest of the low in their history… Luton Town win the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.” Ah, goosebumps! The only thing missing here is Claude’s name. The super sub who made a whole generation of Hatters’ fans believe anything is possible.
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