Kovacs is no turkey as he nets a late Christmas present

The giant Hungarian revealed he had celebrated Christmas Day with his family on Christmas Eve, as is the custom for him back home.

And fuelled by eating Christmas turkey for the first time, the 27-year-old centre-half dedicated the goal to his parents who stayed on to watch the game.

He said: “There is only one difference in our Christmas. We celebrate on Christmas Eve so that’s our biggest day. The 24th night, the family sitting down together and there we are having our meals and presents on the 24th and not on the 25th.

“And to be fair this was the first time in my life when I tried turkey for Christmas and I liked it.

“My parents they came over and we spent Christmas together and it was very nice because I didn’t see them for a long time, three months or something like that. So it was very nice to have a chatty, chatty Christmas.

“Especially after last year I was so happy that my mum was over here and my dad was over here as well. Especially for my mum it was very nice to score as well. I’m happy for them.”

On his goal he continued: “”We worked on set-pieces in the last few weeks and throughout the season.

“Attacking set-pieces are as important as the defending set-pieces and it’s always nice if you can nick a goal from a set-piece early in the game.

“We did that today. I can say it was a difficult header. I came off from the goalkeeper and just headed it back so it’s not an easy technique.

“But because I’m used to heading then it was fine and I was very happy with it.”

Jon Shaw’s strike doubled Luton’s lead before the break and, although the Cards pulled back one in the second half, Scott Rendell’s late penalty sealed victory much to Kovacs’ delight.

He added: “It’s always nice to score, but I’m more happy to get the three points. I think we showed a good hard-working team again today, which is very important.

“Boxing Day, I’m pretty sure the fans were very happy as well with the three points.

“Happy days and hopefully we can continue.”