Hatters boss guarantees changes will be made for Grecians trip after busy Christmas

Town boss Jack Wilshere has guaranteed that he will make changes to his Luton starting XI when they go again for a third game in just seven days at Exeter City tomorrow.

Having picked up six points out of six from their two festive matches to date, putting seven goals past Wycombe Wanderers and Leyton Orient without reply, the Hatters only made one alteration for those two fixtures, that seeing Cohen Bramall drop to the bench against the O’s and Shayden Morris coming in.

With Wilshere hopeful of having few more players available against the Grecians with the Covid infection that was sweeping through his squad starting to ease too, then speaking after the 3-0 success over Leyton Orient, and with Town back in action once more on Sunday when they head to struggling Doncaster Rovers, the boss said: “There’s such a quick turnaround and we’ll need a couple of course as there’ll be some players who won’t be able to go again from tonight. We’ll probably have to take a couple extra with us just in case illness happens as well.

"We’re going to need everyone and I can guarantee you that the team will look a little bit different and then will look different again, so everyone has to be ready, everyone has to stay focused and try and go there with a clean sheet mentality in mind. I saw Christ (Makosso) for the first time today, he looked a lot better. He’s had a tough couple of days where he’s struggled, so we’ll assess him. Lasse (Nordas) came back and started training, but didn’t feel quite right so had to go in, we’ll check on him over the next few days and hopefully he’ll be fine as we need everyone.

“Jake (Richards) won’t be ready which he won’t be happy about as he wanted to go back to Exeter. He picked up a little injury and then was ill, so he’ll be a bit longer. Izzy (Jones) is still on the grass, he’s not with the team, he’s with the fitness team, hopefully he won’t be long, Milli’s (Alli) okay, it’s just a tactical decision with him, while we had to rush Haks (Hakeem Odoffin) a little bit to be on the bench, so he’s probably not quite right at the moment. He’ll be a couple of weeks, but we need him as he brings us something and we need to check on him.”

Exeter have struggled somewhat this season, sitting in the lower reaches of the division, as a much-changed Hatters enjoyed a thumping 4-0 victory when the two sides met in their Vertu Trophy clash at Kenilworth Road back on December 2. However since then results have picked up fairly dramatically, Gary Caldwell’s side thrashing Wycombe 4-0 in the FA Cup, while having lost to Cardiff and beaten AFC Wimbledon over Christmas, have won three of their last five league matches to climb out of the relegation zone, sitting fifth from bottom.

On home soil is where they’re at their strongest too, unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions, not losing since a 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield on September 27, just over three months ago now. Asked how much he will look back at his side’s cup success, in which Nordas, Morris and Zack Nelson were all on target, Wilshere continued: “I think so, part of the process of preparing for that game will be I’ll watch that game back, because there’ll be some things that they still do even with different personnel.

"I was sat in the office and I thought, let me look at Exeter a little bit to try and get ahead of it. I’ve seen their results since that game, and the next game they won 4-0, I know it was in the cup again, so I’m starting to learn it’s a bit of a crazy league. You need to make sure that one week you can face a team and I think about Wycombe, they went and got a good point tonight (against Plymouth). There’ll be some things that we can take from that (4-0 win), but we’ll also have to look at the games since then to see if they’ve done anything different.”

Despite having to get his players up for another game in such quick succession at the beginning of yet another crazy month that sees Town play eight fixtures, including trips to Doncaster, Plymouth Argyle and Huddersfield Town, for Wilshere, who celebrates his 34th birthday tomorrow, he can’t wait to get to spend more time with a playing staff that he has complete faith in, adding: “That’s the challenge for the next two as we go to one end of the country and then three days later we’re in the other end of the country.

"I’m looking forward to it as it’s a chance for us to spend some time together. I really enjoy the staff’s company, I think we have a nice connection with the players, so we’ll try and do some stuff to keep energy high, keep the players fresh and together, but it’s a challenge and one we’ll try and face head on. I’ve really enjoyed it (first Christmas as a manager), I love the match-day process, I love the feeling of a match-day. Maybe it’s because we’ve won, it could be a completely different answer if we’d lost two games, but I’ve really enjoyed it.

"The decision to have Christmas Day off wasn’t an easy decision and it’s not always the same for every club, but I think we’ve got a really good group of players that, probably the word is trust, you can trust them. I played with some players that you couldn’t give Christmas Day off because you couldn’t trust them, so I’m happy with how it’s gone. Of course it’s easy to say because we’ve won two games, but genuinely, I’ve said it before, it’s a real privilege for me to have this job.

"I’m so proud to be manager of Luton Town, every game, every day I’m in, I’m trying to help the team, help the players, make myself better. I really enjoy being around the staff, we’ve got a good group, the ones that came with me, but also the ones that we inherited and the training ground staff, the chefs. There’s a real nice atmosphere around the place and it’s been enjoyable. It’s also my birthday on New Year’s Day, so I’ll be spending my birthday with them as well as Christmas, so it’s been nice.”