Baptiste on the bench as Hatters make seven changes for FA Cup clash

Luton boss Jack Wilshere has made wholesale changes for this afternoon’s FA Cup first round clash with National League side Forest Green Rovers at Kenilworth Road, altering seven of the team that drew 1-1 with Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night.

Having revealed on Friday that Josh Keeley would start in goal, replacing James Shea, it meant only Mads Andersen, George Johnston, Tudor Mendel and Jordan Clark kept their place from the midweek trip to the Accu Stadium, Wilshere bringing in Harrison Ashby, Joe Johnson, Jake Richards, Callum Marshal, Dan Gore and Emilio Lawrence, replacing Kal Naismith, Izzy Jones, Liam Walsh, Kasey Palmer, Jamie Donley and Nahki Wells.

Midfielder Shandon Baptiste was also named on the bench for the first time since August of last year, joined by Christian Chigozie, Harry Fox and Devante Cole. With opponents Rover sitting 16h in the fifth tier, having seen manager Robbie Savage head to Peterborough United recently and appointing a three man staff of Josh Bowen, Yan Klukowski and Jonathan Gould to replace him, asked about the tie, which is an exact replica from 12 months ago when the two teams met at the same stage of the competition, boss Wilshere said: That game was quite an eventful game.

"That was probably a nice game on TV for the neutral to watch, it wasn’t enjoyable for me, so I remember the game, I watched the goals back yesterday and we’ve grown so much since then, you can talk about tactics and style and how you want the team to loo but if you reflect on the resilience and the character we showed in that game, that’s grown, we’re proud of that.

“We played against Robbie Savage’s Peterborough a few games ago and Robbie’s someone I know well. One thing you’d say about Robbie is his teams reflect his character and since we played them, I always kept my eye on them because of Robbie. The team that we know from last year, I’ve seen play this year. I’ve watched a few games from when the change of manager has happened and there are some clear things that they are looking to do differently.

"There’s some clear metrics data wise that they’ve improved on, there’s a different style, the team and me will be really prepared going into it with a lot of respect, I’ve got some experience myself of playing against teams in a low division and you have to give them maximum respect because if you give them time on the ball and let them do what they want to do they’re good players and they can hurt you, so we will have that approach to the game while trying to impose what we want as well.”

Hatters: Josh Keeley, Harrison Ashby, Joe Johnson, Mads Andersen, George Johnston, Dan Gore, Jordan Clark, Jake Richards, Tudor Mendel, Emilio Lawrence, Callum Marshall. Subs: James Shea, Liam Walsh, Nahki Wells, Harry Fox, Shandon Baptiste, Christian Chigozie, Devante Cole, Kasey Palmer, Dawid Gawel.

Rovers: Ethan Ross, Jayden Clarke (C), Tate Campbell, Sharon Ifeanyi, Sean Elaluku, Thomas McIntyre, Kyle Kelly, Filozofe Mabete, Kelvin Abrefa, Will Grigg, Ryan Rydel. Subs: Flachra Pagel, Tre Pemberton, Neil Kuemo, Kyle O'Connor-Ajayi, D'mani Buhgail-Mellor, Joshua-Olaoluwa Osude, Oliver Ewing, Adeteye Gbadehan. Referee: Jamie Robinson.