Hatters keeper hailed as Town lead the way for clean sheets in League One
Summer signing has eight shut-outs since arriving in Bedfordshire
Luton boss Jack Wilshere hailed goalkeeper Josh Keeley and his defence as ‘outstanding’ after they kept an eighth clean sheet of the campaign during Saturday’s goalless draw against Rotherham United at Kenilworth Road.
The 22-year-old joined from Premier League Tottenham Hotspur for an undisclosed fee in the summer after a successful loan spell with League One side Leyton Orient last term, playing 45 times for the O’s in all competitions as they reached the play-off final, losing to Nathan Jones’ Charlton Athletic at Wembley. Since arriving in Bedfordshire, Keeley started well with four shut-outs from six games, before having a wobble in the last few matches of Matt Bloomfield’s reign, conceding soft goals against both Blackpool and Swansea City.
Since Wilshere took over last month, after a 2-0 loss in his first game to Mansfield, Keeley is starting to rediscover the kind of form that saw Town make their move for him in the transfer window, as he has not been beaten in the league for 300 minutes, denying Northampton Town, Stockport County, where he saved a penalty, and then the Millers at the weekend. It sees the Irish U21 international top of the clean sheet pile in the division, two above Nathan Trott (Cardiff City) and George Wickens (Lincoln City), as discussing the stopper’s impact, Wilshere said: “I’ve been really pleased with him.
"When you’re looking from the outside in and I was thinking about coming here, you’re watching clips, I think that’s probably the hardest position to gauge as you can’t really feel the presence, you can’t really see what they’re like with crosses. But I think always with Josh, you can tell he’s good with his feet and he’s comfortable with his feet which is a modern day goalie and we definitely want that from a goalie. But the other side of that as well is making saves, coming for crosses, keeping clean sheets. He’s a young goalie who’s played a lot of games, he’s been outstanding for us and he’s definitely got a big future ahead of him.”
Meanwhile Town’s back-line has been unchanged for the last two games, Teden Mengi, Mads Andersen and Kal Naismith forming a back three, as they have now kept three clean sheets in succession for the first time since March 2023, Swansea City, Sheffield United and Bristol City all failing to score when the Hatters were a Championship outfit.
On the back-line, Wilshere added: “I think they've been outstanding and for me, I spoke about it when I came in, when I was a player I hated defending. I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to defend and I was fortunate for most of my career I played at a club (Arsenal) where we had the ball a lot, so we speak a lot about the mentality towards defending, getting players to understand it. We talk about defending with 11 players always, and they’re really buying into it.
"I think it helps when you’ve got some key leaders in there, Kal, Mads, Teds, they drive it and you can see their desire, when they make a tackle and celebrate it. I love all that stuff and we need to keep it, because there’ll be games this season where it will be tight like Rotherham and we need to make sure we keep a clean sheet because if you can’t break a low block then you should never ever lose a game like that. You probably saw in the first half, they broke on us a couple of times, but our ability to recover and stop them going on to get in our box was outstanding.”