Clark reveals his stunner against Manchester City was born out of frustration with Kevin De Bruyne's masterclass

Luton midfielder Jordan Clark revealed that his stunning strike against Manchester City on Tuesday night was born out of frustration from the run-around that he was being given at times by Belgian superstar Kevin De Bruyne.

Recalled to the side from the team who lost 4-1 to Liverpool in the Premier League the previous Wednesday, Clark and his team-mates were soon trailing, as the midfielder slipped at a crucial moment, allowing De Bruyne to race into the area and tee up Erling Haaland for the first of his five goals on the evening. With De Bruyne pulling the strings masterfully in the middle of the park, he soon sent Haaland away for a second and then a third as Town were quickly staring down the barrel of a 3-0 half time deficit and a heavy loss to the holders.

With that in mind, Clark picked the ball up himself, drove at the City defence and found Ross Barkley, who under pressure, managed to toepoke as pass back out to him. He quickly transferred it on to his right and then arrowed a quite sensational effort that flew perfectly into the top corner, leaving City’s keeper Stefan Ortega motionless as the ball whistled just inside the post, a finish of undoubted brilliance. Clark himself barely celebrated his first goal since the play-off final victory over Coventry City though, a quick handshake with Barkley as he headed back to his own half for the resulting kick-off. Speaking to ITV afterwards, he said: “It was more frustration really, De Bruyne left me a couple of times in the first half which was obviously disappointingly defensively for myself, so I was mad with myself a little bit and I just thought you know what, why not, just whack it as hard as I can really.

"To see it go in the back of the net was a nice feeling, it was nice to get back in the game a little bit, especially going into half time as I think 3-0, everyone would have been deflated in the dressing room. It gave us a little bit of a lift especially going into the second half, you never know what can happen.”

With their spirits boosted by the goal, Town then went and got the next one just seven minutes after the interval, Clark again on target with a strike that was as good as the first, if for slightly different reasons. With the ball breaking to that man Barkley again, he looked up, spotted the run of the former Accrington and Shrewsbury winger, lofting the perfect pass over the top of City’s back-line. There was still plenty to do though, but boy did Clark do it, chesting the ball down and then unleashing a wonderful volley into the roof of the net to bring the deficit back to one.

It allowed Kenilworth Road to dream of a famous FA Cup comeback for a few minutes, before City and Haaland showed their undoubted world class levels, the Norwegian scoring twice more and Mateo Kovacic sealing a 6-2 victory late on, as Clark continued: “We got the second goal which we talked about in the dressing room, but obviously they scored more in the end. You just give them half a yard and they just find the space and pick the right pass pretty much 99 percent of the time and the next thing you know it’s in the back of your net.

"We get back to 3-2 and you think we’ve got half a chance and then again a little ball in behind, a little bit of quality and the big man is there to tap it in like he normally does. They’re world class, they just find pockets and they overload everywhere, they pull you into areas you just don’t want to go. The big fella (Haaland), they can just play long and I thought Teden (Mengi) did really well with him, but he got five goals, so it’s just a different dimension when he comes on.”

With Luton’s involvement in the competition ended, they can now turn all their attentions to their battle for Premier League survival, as with 13 games to go, they sit third bottom of the table, four points adrift of Nottingham Forest, but with a game in hand. Town start their battle to stay up at home to Aston Villa on Saturday evening, as Clark added: “It’s just 13 cup finals now, especially at home, we need to pick up points, we know that’s our strongest threat. We just need to keep being ourselves, we’re not going to change for anyone. We’ll dust ourselves down because Aston Villa, they’re going really well as well. We know how tough a game it’s going to be, so we’ve just got to be us, go after teams and defend better than we have done in previous weeks, but we’ll learn from it and get better I’m sure.”