Hatters chief admits he was also frustrated by Town's sideways passing in 1-1 draw

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere admitted he was also left frustrated by the sideways nature of his side’s build-up play during the second half of their 1-1 draw against Port Vale on Saturday.

Following a first period in which Luton looked far more threatening than they had done during many away contests this term, able to find the net after just five minutes through Nahki Wells’ close-range finish, they also had several other good openings, Emilio Lawrence curling over and seeing an attempt blocked, as did Jordan Clark, with the best opportunity to double the lead, Nigel Lonwijk’s fierce header turned over the bar by home keeper Joe Gauci.

However, with the hosts drawing level on the half hour, making the scores 1-1 at the break, it was hoped that Town would then push on during the second period and really go for the jugular, but that never happened as the visitors became increasingly pedestrian with their attempts to score. It led to some growing frustration from the near 1,200 away fans, with the now traditional shouts of ‘forward’, with jeers ringing out when an injury time goal kick was taken short, quickly ending up back with Josh Keeley once more, despite the need for a winner.

There were more boos at the full time whistle, as well and asked if the sideways passing was an instruction from the management, and if he tried to get his players to be more positive in their search for a second goal, Wilshere said: “I was frustrated as well and we spoke about that after and showed the players it the next day.

"I thought that in the first half at times as well, I thought the space was to get in behind them. I spoke with the staff and the analysts at half time, and we have a process at half time where I’ll look at clips and I’ll say to the guys on the bench who are mic’d up to the analysts, ‘can I see that at half time, can I see that at half time?’ And when I then saw it, I thought we got the balance quite good.

"If teams are being aggressive then you want to get behind them and I think about Clicker (Jordan Clark), as he was pulling off in that half position, that pocket, so a lot of the time he was free, then it’s about okay, can you find him and then turn the game forward. Once we found Clicker or found Jake (Richards) the other side, we didn’t then turn the game forward quickly enough and didn’t exploit the space they were leaving. So we spoke a little bit about that at half time, getting the balance of being a little bit more direct to get behind them at times, but also if there is a moment to play through them, then we use that.

"Second half we didn’t move the ball quick enough, we lost structure as well and certainly when we did then break the back-line or find the wide players like Shayden (Morris) in a one v one, we didn’t have enough players in the box to go and try and score a goal. But overall the performance was an improvement to where we’ve been away from home, so if you look at it from that point of view, there was some positives to take as well as some frustrations, which there always is.”

Asked if the players first intent to play the safe pass was down to what Wilshere mentioned afterwards was a lack of belief that his charges are currently suffering, particularly when going away from Kenilworth Road, he continued: “Yes, but I would say that it takes a lot of belief and a lot of courage to do what they were trying to do, on a pitch like that, especially early on in the game where I thought we played through them. We scored a great goal, we kept playing through them, and then they came on and had a little bit more pressure.

"That’s probably when our belief was knocked a little bit, but there were a few moments that you have to do away from home. We blocked it, we defended our box. We weren’t happy with the goal as I feel like we’ve been really good at that this season, defending direct play, covering, winning duels and landing on seconds, and we didn’t do that consistently enough in the game, but I thought the belief was a bit more there. We looked like we had that confidence to take the ball, to try and play, we just lacked at times a threat.”

One issue that has been levelled against the Hatters recently is the lack of connections between his players on the field which is making it harder to play the type of football that Wilshere is determined to persevere with. It’s something that the manager is constantly looking to improve, having seen just what can be achieved at times when going 11 games unbeaten in the league on home soil, as he added: “I’d say it feels like we haven’t been consistent enough with that. When you do have a moment or you have a game where you can consistently find that, you think about the games at home where it’s happened, Bradford, Lincoln, Stevenage, where we have been able to put that all together, but we have to do that more consistently and that’s coaching, that’s what we’re trying to do.

"I believe that is the way to move forward, I believe that is the way that the team has an identity, that the team understands in every single moment what we’re trying to do and that takes time to build, that takes time to put together. We’re working every single day either on the training pitch or in here (meeting room), showing the team clips, about how we move forward and we definitely have to be more consistent at that.

"I think also at times, when I think about the Burton game, where we started really well, we scored a really nice goal where we connected really well from the back through the midfield and to the frontline and then a little bit of adversity came and a little bit of pressure came and we decided we were going to try and hold on to the lead. We don’t want that, we don’t want to be a team like that, we want to be a team that holds true to who we are, trying every single moment to be who we are.

"Accepting at times that you play against a lot of teams that are good at playing long balls, good at threatening in behind, are good at building pressure and you’re going to have to suffer at times, which I thought in that game we did until the last moment, so that’s what we’re trying to do, how we’re trying to work. I’m a big believer in giving the players clarity, as I’ve had really good coaches and I’ve had coaches that didn’t give me enough clarity.

"So one of the things I really want in my coaching career is to be clear, to give the players clarity, understand that we’re not going to be always able to deliver the exact game we want and then there’s different characteristics we need. We need resilience, hard work and we’re trying to build all of that and try to be consistent with it.”