Hatters boss wants to give 'outstanding' Luton fans something to cheer at Orient

Luton boss Jack Wilshere wants to give Town’s ‘outstanding’ fans some early festive cheer when the Hatters visit Leyton Orient this evening.

At the weekend, Town’s supporters travelled in their numbers once more to Fleetwood Town for an FA Cup second round tie, with 663 heading to the Fylde coast and getting drenched in the process, as when the official attendance was announced at the Highbury Stadium, it turned out those from Bedfordshire made over half the eventual crowd of 1,180.

It didn’t have any effect on the result though unfortunately, with Luton going out of the competition to their League Two opponents on penalties after the 120 minutes of football had finished 2-2. With 1,264 supporters expected to make the far shorter trip to east London this evening, then Wilshere knows how much of an impact those in the away end can have the outcome, as discussing Town’s travelling faithful who decided to go to the Cod Army on Saturday, he said: “They were outstanding, really outstanding.

"I think you can probably see, we went down twice in the game and with the second one, I felt they were really getting behind us and encouraging us. It puts the opposition under pressure as well, especially when they’re at home. They were outstanding and we’ve got another away game on Tuesday, so come and support us and hopefully we’ll give them something to cheer about.”

Having suffered a 5-0 reverse at Barnsley during their last away clash in the league, then it won’t be easy by any means this evening as the hosts have been in good form themselves, with seven wins from 12 matches in all competitions, unbeaten at at home for over two months in the league, winning three from their last four.

They were hammered 4-0 by Salford City in the FA Cup on Friday evening though and were also knocked out of the Vertu Trophy, losing 1-0 at home to Plymouth Argyle seven days ago, as they sit 13th in the table, just three points behind Luton. On the test ahead of them, Wilshere said: “They’re a good team, one of the teams in this league that even when I was looking at coming here, I looked at them and thought they'd be a threat. They've got good players, a good coach, play the right way in my opinion. They try and play, they're aggressive in their press, so it will be a tough game for us. We know what to expect, we have to make sure we do it right, be together again and we’ll be ready.”

Having made 11 changes to his side when they saw off Exeter City 4-0 in the Vertu Trophy themselves last midweek, Wilshere then altered just four players for the trip to Fleetwood, bringing in Teden Mengi, George Saville, Jake Richards and Lamine Fanne. Although Saville came off at the break for Liam Walsh, in what was a pre-planned move by Wilshere, then discussing swapping so few and giving the likes of Reuell Walters and Joe Johnson their second starts in a week, with Lasse Nordas and Milli Alli also keeping their places in attack, he continued: “I spoke to them (Saville and Walsh) a couple days ago and I said we were going to split it.

"It might be 60 and Walsh you 30, but we just felt it was right to get Walshy on and look after Sav a bit. I have to find a way to make these players comfortable playing with each other as there might be times this season where they do. We’re always thinking about that, the balance of the squad, the morale of the squad, but also players that deserve to play. I thought they did really well Tuesday a lot of them and they deserved their moment again, so they’re better for two games. We’ll reassess and go again Tuesday. They’re closer to it, they’ve had two 90 minutes and if we need them they’re ready.”

For O’s boss Richie Wellens, who was one of the frontrunners to take over at Kenilworth Road before Wilshere was appointed when Matt Bloomfield was sacked, he is confident his team have what it takes to bounce back from a display against Salford that he labelled ‘boring, embarrassing and shambolic’.

The former Manchester United youngster and Doncaster Rovers boss, told the Guardian Series: “We have had a couple of bad defeats this season before and we have bounced back. It is about getting the balance right. The players didn’t mean to turn up and perform like that. It was more of a shock. That performance came out of nowhere. There is nothing we can do about it. It was a horrific performance. The worst we have played in my time here by an absolute mile.

"Hopefully we will get back on track in the league. We have been good in the league. We are playing an opponent in terms of squad size, their quality is up there as the best in the league. For the last two years they have been used to losing after an unbelievable experience in the Premier League. I watched them in the Premier League and they were very unlucky. They were competitive in every game and when they got relegated that can cause a lot of problems. Some players don’t want to be in the Championship and want to get out, but they still have a very good squad, a squad that should be at the top end of this division.”