Bersant Celina was delighted not only to end his two-year goal drought but also to secure an important victory for the Blues, the Kosovan’s injury-time strike having seen Town to a 2-1 win at home to Fleetwood.
The Blues looked to have returned to their habit of dropping points from winning positions until Celina, on loan from Dijon for the season, slammed home Janoi Donacien’s layback in the third minute of injury time to send Portman Road wild.
Put to him that it was quite some finish to the match, the 25-year-old said: "It was yes! It was good for the team and it was really important for us to get the three points today, that’s the most important thing.”
Reflecting on Donacien’s assist, he added: "All credit to JD for that. We got eye contact and he saw me and it was just perfect.”
"Celina, who scored eight times in his previous loan with the club during 2017/18, says netting for the first time during this spell was special.
"It meant a lot,” he said. "Obviously it’s been difficult because I haven’t played in the last few games so it was important for me, but most important for the team and the fans to get two wins in a row.”
Celina celebrated by throwing his shirt into the crowd having waited a long time for a goal. He last found the net for Swansea in a 3-0 home victory over Birmingham in August 2019 and until yesterday, the usually potent Celina had gone 86 matches without finding the net.
"I haven’t scored a goal in a very long time, so I was just happy, I was just really happy,” he explained.
"It was really important for me to get that goal and hopefully I can just kick on from there.”
He admits he didn’t expect to get his shirt back from the fans following his celebration and was handed someone else’s in the aftermath.
"No!” he laughed. "Someone threw me a different one, Conor [Chaplin] kept swapping them, I don’t know what happened. If it was me I would have kept it.”
Celina was a man for important goals during his previous spell with the club, his free-kick at Burton and his strike at Portman Road against Leeds immediately spring to mind, and having secured a vital win on Saturday, he hopes there will be more as the season progresses. "I am, yes,” he reflected. "Hopefully I’ll keep that going.”
However, he admits it’s frustrating not being in the XI at the moment but knows he has to show manager Paul Cook he is worth a start.
"Very frustrated, we’ve got good players and you have to prove that you deserve the place and it’s not easy because, as I said, we’ve got really good players,” he said. "I feel like I should be playing and hopefully you’ll see more of me in the coming games.
"You’ve got to train well and I have been training well, that’s why the gaffer keeps putting me on. It’s good to give something back and I’m happy for myself as well.”
Celina had a tough summer, suffering from Covid while with his parent club Dijon early in pre-season and then having the shock of being diagnosed with the heart infection pericarditis. He admits it was a difficult spell.
"It was, yes,” he recalled. "I never expected to have a heart problems. It was very scary. Obviously I’ve recovered now and I’m happy. I got back playing more quickly than I should have probably but I keep pushing myself and I’m happy to be here.”
Regarding his match sharpness, he added: "I’m getting there. At the start when I first came, I wasn’t completely fit, but now I feel almost there, which is good and I’m happy.
"Obviously I need a 90 minutes for the club, but I was away with the national team and played almost 90 [in a 2-1 defeat to Georgia in Pristina], so I feel good, it’s just starting a game and being able to show that I can play 90 here as well.”
Since returning to the Blues, Celina has played as the number 10 and also in wide roles. Asked which he prefers, he said: "Any, to be honest, because we have the freedom to come inside. When I play on the left, he tells me to come inside and everything suits me.
"My favourite one is the one behind the striker where I can run more to the other side as well, but any position.”
However, he knows it’s not going to be an easy task to win a start in that role with Conor Chaplin having scored five goals in his last seven games.
"Conor’s been doing great and he scored a great goal today and I’m really happy for him, he’s a really good player,” he said.
"Quizzed on the standard of training, he added: "Really high, you see [Sone] Aluko, you see his quality, he’s a really good player. He’s keeping people out of the team, he’s a top quality player.
"We’ve got some really good players in all positions and when you’re training you can see that.
"That’s really good for us because we challenge each other and we’re just getting better and better.”
He says he enjoys the style of football manager Cook is instilling at Portman Road: "Good, he asks us to play the ball and that’s what suits me, so it’s the sort of football I enjoy playing.”
Celina is delighted to have returned to the club: "It means a lot. I’m just really happy to be back. You see how the fans treat me here and I feel at home here definitely.
"There is a bond with the supporters, hopefully we’ll keep that strong and keep it going.”
Asked what they say to him when they bump into him around town, he said: "They just encourage me, they say ‘Hi’ and they’re really friendly and they support everyone, it’s just a good thing.”
Celina was pleased to send Brett Johnson home to the US having seen his first live Town win and says he met the co-owner at Playford Road on Friday.
"It’s great to have him here,” he said. "It obviously shows that they care and it’s good for us.”
Saturday’s victory took the Blues up to 10th, four points from the play-off places, which Celina says are the initial target.
"Our goal is to get in that top six and then we push on from there. I think we’ll get there soon,” he insisted.
The 30-times-capped Kosovo international says he’s looking forward to the next two games away against the top two, Plymouth and Wycombe. He says the Blues need to be up for the challenge against the division’s current leading lights.
"We have to be,” he said. ”If we want to be up there at the end of the season these are the games we have to win.”