Hatters boss feels jeers from Kenilworth Road crowd are 'not helping' Luton's players

Luton boss Jack Wilshere felt the boos from the Kenilworth Road faithful definitely ‘didn’t help’ his players during their 2-2 draw against Port Vale this afternoon.

The Hatters had taken the lead in absolutely stunning style on 26 minutes when Cohen Bramall fired a truly brilliant free kick into the top corner, giving former Manchester United stopper and England U21 international Ben Amos absolutely no chance at all. However, Town couldn’t go on from there, as they conceded to a team who hadn’t scored for over two months in the league, going six games and over nine hours without finding the net, that drought ended just three minutes before the break when Milli Alli gave away a cheap free kick which saw Ruari Paton’s delivery met by an unmarked Ben Waine, who had lost Jacob Brown, heading beyond Josh Keeley.

After the break, the visitors then came out with a real potency and threat about them, dominating possession and territory, Luton unable to get out of their own half for a good few minutes. Vale quickly capitalised too when Paton was allowed to venture into the box unchallenged and although Keeley parried his shot, the ball bobbled through to Devante Cole to tap into the empty net.

The second that happened, it saw a large part of the 10,867 crowd turn on their own players, with loud boos ringing out and chants of ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ from some sections of supporters too. It carried on when Paton went close with another effort which missed the target, as to their credit, the hosts were able to get back into it in the 70th minute, Mads Andersen heading home Liam Walsh’s corner to make it 2-2.

The tension eased slightly as the Hatters pushed for a winner, Teden Mengi dragging wide, Lasse Nordas seeing his volley blocked and Bramall slicing off target in stoppage time, but the jeers returned at the full time whistle as Town’s players were again met with another volley of the fans’ frustrations after being unable to beat the division’s basement side on home soil.

Asked what he thought about the reaction of supporters during the game, Wilshere said: “For me, I just think about the players and worry about the players in that moment. As what we want is the players to do well, what we want is the players to win, and that’s definitely not helping the players.

"You can see that, it’s clear, but that being said, and I said this after the game, we have to find a way, either we step up and in those moments we’re going to face it and try and be even more of ourselves, or we’re going to go under and it’s going to be very difficult in moments. So we have to keep looking at that. I knew that when I came in and probably didn’t understand it was as bad as it is at times, but as players we have to deal with that, as coaches we have to find a way to help the players deal with that and we will.”

There had also been some dismay aired from the stands before Port Vale went ahead as Keeley wasn’t getting things moving as quickly as they wanted, which led to the Hatters beginning to keep hold of the ball in their defensive third, trying to attract the Vale forwards on to them. Questioned about Luton’s approach coming in for criticism, Wilshere added: “One thing that I would like the fans to know, I would like to think I’m not stupid, I’m not stupid.

“I don’t want to try and overplay, I don’t want to put the ball in dangerous positions, but if there’s space behind them we’re going to go behind them. When you play against teams that don’t press and they’re in a low block, there’s not that much space in behind them so you have to try and find better ways to attack and we didn’t do it well enough today.

"Actually at times I felt we could have moved the ball a little bit quicker as sometimes if you’re waiting, waiting, waiting and they’re not coming, it’s not the moment to do it. You have to put the ball out wide, try and open up some more spaces. We try and win the game in the best way we think possible, and we didn’t do it today.”