The Frenchman’s first Crystal Palace hat-trick helped the Eagles to come from two goals behind against Plymouth on Tuesday evening to advance from the Carabao Cup second round.
A challenging first 55 minutes of the game was turned around by a trio of second-half substitutions, Ebere Eze, Jeffrey Schlupp and Jordan Ayew all coming on and recording at least one assist apiece.
The result was Palace’s first hat-trick since Dwight Gayle’s versus Charlton, also in the Carabao Cup in September 2015 – or, from open play only, Yannick Bolasie’s treble against Sunderland in April 2015.
“It was a long time ago!” beamed Mateta at full-time. “I’m happy to score this hat-trick now. Hopefully more are coming.
“I’m very happy. It’s my first hat-trick at Palace – and hopefully more hat-tricks are coming! Always to hear ‘boom’ is very good for me!”