Downbeat Wilshere admits Bantams loss is 'tough to take'

An incredibly downbeat Luton boss Jack Wilshere admitted that this afternoon’s 1-0 defeat against Bradford City, a result that saw Luton beaten at home for the first time since early March, was a ‘tough one to take’.

The Hatters, who made five changes for the contest, including a surprise recall for experienced goalkeeper James Shea in place of Josh Keeley, fell behind after just four minutes, when Bobby Painton was left unmarked at the back post to head home a right-wing cross. To their credit, Town then responded well to the setback, creating some decent openings of their own, Kasey Palmer bending narrowly wide from just outside the box, while Emilio Lawrence’s low attempt was kicked away by visiting keeper Jon McCracken.

Callum Marshall might have done better when sent away twice as well, before the Bantams then display the kind of form that has seen them now keep five clean sheets in seven matches this term, squashing the life out of their opponents in the second period, as they killed the game off in a professional manner, limiting Luton to just one shot on target though late substitute Gideon Kodua, before Harrison Ashby was dismissed for his second bookable offence in stoppage time.

Speaking afterwards, Wilshere, who had to watch the game from high up on the press gantry due to his one-game touchline ban following a red card at Stevenage last time out, said: “Frustrating, disappointing, a tough one to take as I thought in the first half we did so many good things. We arrived in the final third so many times, with what we spoke about doing pre-match.

"We probably could make those chances a little bit better and have more quality in the final third, but I thought there was an improvement from the last game (against Stevenage) where we made better decisions, we picked better passes, we were just maybe a little bit late or a bit too far in front of someone.

"Then in the second half I felt like we didn’t get going. We got sucked in a little bit to what they wanted, and they’re good at it. This is not me digging them out or saying anything bad about them, as we knew that going into the game, that they’re good at breaking up play, they’re good at delaying things, they’re really, really good at defending. They don’t concede many goals and I thought that we got sucked into that a little bit where we would try and win the ball where it was 70, 30, or 80, 20, then they’d go down and delay for 20 seconds.

"Then we started to build a little bit of momentum, build a little bit of a spell and then they do the same thing where they go down for two minutes and credit to them, they’re good at it. That’s game management, that’s experience, that’s game knowledge, and that’s the frustrating thing as the first half was good. We had something like 10,11 shots maybe and in the second half we didn’t have that, didn’t carry that same threat.”

Asked to put his finger on just why the Hatters were so different after the interval, unable to create anything of note, even when leaving two strikers on the pitch in Nahki Wells and Marshall, Wilshere added: “I think first of all it happens because we don’t make the most out of the ones in the first half, and we don’t score a goal.

"Then they did it really well, they delayed, they took a long time on throw-ins, and they were good at it. They defend their box really well, didn’t carry much of a threat, but they didn’t need to, they were winning 1-0 and they saw the game out. We can’t concede a goal like that in the third minute against a team like this, as it’s avoidable and then they’re going to make it really difficult for you.”