Lansbury explains his infamous lawnmower celebration before admitting he's scored even better goals than his tremendous Tigers strike

Hatters midfielder Henri Lansbury explained the reasoning behind his now infamous lawnmower man celebration after scoring a goal that he declared wasn’t even the best of his career at Hull City yesterday.

The 31-year-old was following up play as Town attacked, hunting a second goal just before the break, James Bree’s cross cleared to what looked like relative safety by the home defence.

However, Lansbury had other ideas, latching on to the ball and cutting across it, unleashed a sizzling half volley, which barely rose above the ground before on its way into the bottom corner.

With the Sky cameras in attendance, he then collected the ball from where he had put it, fired up an imaginary lawnmower and began to cut the grass to the amusement of his team-mates .

The midfielder has a genuine love for all things lawn-based, even owning a Grass Gains company that sponsors his home kit, which made it even more apt that his strike didn’t damage a single blade of the MKM stadium playing surface as it whistled beyond the full stretch Nathan Baxter.

Such is his passion, that Lansbury has even been allocated a patch of grass at the training ground he works on, as discussing the celebration, he said: “I fired it up, I’ve been working on it for a while, I just haven’t had the chance to score.

“I’d better do it, because it might not happen again, so it’s the lawnmower celebration.

"I think everyone liked a bit of gardening during lockdown didn’t we.

“We had a bit of time off, I took to the grass and haven’t looked back.

“I have (got a patch at the Brache), I have, I’ve let it go a bit, but I’ll bring it back.”

While for most mere mortals, that kind of strike would never be bettered in their entire career, for Lansbury, he thought he had others more worthy of that award, continuing: “It’s nice to get back on the scoresheet, it fell nicely, normally they’re in Row Z, but I’ve caught that one sweet and it's gone bottom corner.

“It’s one of those things, it lines up, falls nice for you and you’ve got to hit it, lucky I caught it sweet and it’s flown in.

“No, no, I’ve scored better than that, but it’s up there, a nice strike, hopefully more to come this season.

“I just smashed it away, it was a nice strike and caught it clean.”

Seeing the pure quality of the goal, it then makes it a surprise that Lansbury, who had netted 50 times during his 16-year career prior to Friday night, hadn’t been on the scoresheet for over four seasons, his last coming when at Aston Villa back in April 2018.

He added: “I’ve been scoring a few in training, but I don't usually get that far forward in games, I pride myself on a clean sheet these days, so it’s nice to get on the scoresheet.

“It’s always nice to score, but I think just winning the midfield battle.

"We have our little bits of banter with the coaching staff, we say ‘win the midfield battle win the game,’ so I’d rather win the midfield battle and win the game.”