Deflated Wilshere felt there was simply 'no way' Luton should have lost to Royals

An incredibly downbeat Luton boss Jack Wilshere felt there was simply ‘no way’ his side should have been beaten 3-2 by Reading at Kenilworth Road this afternoon, after holding a 2-1 advantage with 10 minutes remaining.

The Hatters had recovered from gifting the Royals their opener on just five minutes, when Izzy Jones’ misdirected back header saw Kelvin Ehibatiomhan outmuscle Kal Naismith far too easily to shoot beyond Josh Keeley. Town, driven forward by Kasey Palmer, were impressive during the first period, Jordan Clark clipping the bar, and deservedly restored parity on the stroke of half time when Emilio Lawrence’s inviting cross was turned home by Nigel Lonwijk.

George Saville then headed in Jordan Clark’s corner early in the second period, and with hopes starting to turn to cutting the gap on the top six, Nahki Wells striking the woodwork, Luton somehow decided to hit the self-destruct button in quite alarming fashion during the closing stages. Firstly, Joe Johnson saw his pass out from defence cut out, which allowed former Premier League winger Matt Ritchie to send in a wonderful delivery for Ehibatiomhan to head in at the far post on 81 minutes, a constant Achilles heel for the hosts.

It then got even worse, Town winning a free kick when Keeley was fouled, only to play it short, Naismith losing the ball inside his own box which allowed Ehibatiomhan to smash home the winner just three minutes later. It ended Luton’s 11-game unbeaten run in the league at a stunned Kenilworth Road, as speaking afterwards, Wilshere couldn’t believe he was speaking to the press on the back of a defeat, saying: “It has to be (a win). In a game of that importance, we knew it going into the game, nobody cares and rightly so, we have to win the game and that’s that.

"There was some really good stuff, I thought we dominated a lot, but at any level you can’t give teams three goals and expect to get anything out of the game and that’s what happened today. Someone is walking away with a match ball and he’s probably touched the ball maybe four or five times and it hurts, it really hurts, because we knew the importance of this. I felt like the players did as well, but we have to be more consistent with it and we keep talking about it, but a difficult one to take.”

Asked about the manner in which his players gift wrapped all three goals to the visitors, Wilshere added: “I haven't watched them back as to be honest with you I don’t want to right now, but even after that (opening goal), I thought there was only one team in it. We have to just solve that situation much better, we have to deal with it, but then at 2-1 in the 80th minute maybe, there’s no way you can lose that game. You’re thinking okay they’re getting a little bit more momentum in the game and putting the ball in our box, but not really and it didn’t matter really with how we suffered and how we defended in those moments as we gave the ball away and gave them two goals.”