Hatters boss felt his players deserve 'loads of credit' for Pilgrims win

Luton boss Jack Wilshere felt his players deserved ‘loads of credit’ for the manner in which they responded to Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Burton Albion with a 2-1 Vertu Trophy semi-final victory over Plymouth Argyle this evening.

The Hatters had left the field to a crescendo of boos from their own supporters after an insipid display at the weekend, as they failed to try and build on their 1-0 lead, conceding an injury time leveller, which led to some toxic scenes following the full time whistle, as both Wilshere and skipper Kal Naismith had to be dragged away from heated exchanges with the home fans.

However, there was no signs of that tonight, with the home supporters totally engaged throughout and also thoroughly enthused with what they were witnessing, Town playing front footed football against a side who had been in superb form recently, as they demonstrated a far greater sense of urgency and positivity.

Izzy Jones put the hosts ahead on 16 minutes, before Luton controlled the second period, only to then gift the Pilgrims an equaliser with 13 to play. However, rather than go into their shells, Wilshere’s side looked to retake the ascendancy, Nahki Wells brought down by Mathias Ross with a minute to go, as Jordan Clark kept his nerve to send Conor Hazard the wrong way and ensure Town went through to a semi-final tie against Northampton Town next Wednesday night.

Speaking afterwards, discussing how much praise the players should get following their reaction to Saturday’s events, the boss said: “Loads of credit, loads of credit. I said it before and I keep saying it, there’s characters, there’s leaders, there’s personality in this group, but most importantly, there’s players that care, players that are all in to try turn this around, try and get some wins, try and win the next game.

“It takes character as it was difficult. It was difficult on Saturday, the way the game ended, giving a goal away right at the end and the feeling inside the stadium, it was difficult. The players deserve all the credit as to turn it around with a really good performance as well, and then also to bounce back in the game when we gave a goal away, we showed a lot of character tonight.”

Asked what he spoke about with his players prior to the contest to ensure they were in the right frame of mind to deliver the goods, Wilshere added: “We talked about belief, we keep talking about it. We reviewed the game from the weekend, showed the good things that we did, showed how many times we had to defend our box, showed how we suffered as we didn’t play well in the second half.

"We tried to keep hold of the lead, which is not who we want to be, but also we spoke about where we are at the moment confidence-wise, belief-wise, so we reviewed that and then it was tonight about make the things we didn’t do well, better, but also building on who we are. I thought we did that really, so we’ll go through the same process at the weekend, but the players deserve a lot of credit tonight.”