Hatters players determined to bounce back from rare losing feeling at Mansfield
Luton suffer first defeat since March on Thursday night
Luton’s players want to rid themselves of what has become an unusual feeling of losing when they get the very first attempt to do so at Mansfield Town tomorrow afternoon, according to manager Jack Wilshere.
Having not tasted defeat in any competition since a 3-2 home reverse to Reading back on March 7, some 15 games ago, the Hatters were finally beaten when heading to Stamford Bridge in their Carabao Cup second round contest in midweek. Although there was absolutely no disgrace in doing so against a Premier League opposition who started with a strikeforce containing both Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers, along with ex-England international Danny Welbeck, Wilshere revealed that leaving empty-handed was still a bitterly disappointing pill for the squad to swallow.
They don’t have to wait too long to try and begin another unbeaten run, travelling to a Stags side who sit in 14th place with one win and one defeat to their name so far, as the Hatters boss, speaking straight after the fixture, said: “They’re going to have to take this on the chin. We don’t like losing, some of them in there are frustrated, I like it. I said to them, be proud, but they’re frustrated.
"It’s down to them we haven’t lost in a while, we haven’t had this feeling in a while and we don’t want it for too long. We want to respond, we want to bounce back, we know fans will be travelling up to Mansfield, we know what they want to see and we know this league. We know what it demands, there’s no hiding away from it. There’s non-negotiable things you just have to do and that won’t change on Sunday. We need to make sure the players are recovered and ready to go.”
To get that feeling of defeat out of their system, the Hatters players will need to go again having had just two full days to prepare from their midweek exploits, as the Stages have been out of action for over a week, not playing since a 2-1 reverse at Peterborough United last Saturday. It is part of an exhausting run of five games in just over a fortnight for Luton to get through, but it’s something that Wilshere prepared for specifically when his squad came back in the summer, as he continued: Going into pre-season when we were reviewing things at the end of last season, that was a big focus.
"One of the biggest focuses in pre-season was preparing the players for what’s coming. We knew what was coming, it’s League One, it’s chaos, there’s a lot of games, you play Saturday, you go again Tuesday and then you go again Saturday. We know that it’s probably come a little bit earlier than expected with how the games have moved around, but the players are ready, the players are prepared.
"Is it tough, yes, they have to find some energy and recover physically, but also mentally, as it’s not easy to play in a big place like this (Stamford Bridge), give it everything and then go again in a few days, but we have to. I said to them, in 65 hours we’ve got to go again and compete and don’t think Mansfield are going to make it easy. They're aggressive, they’re man-to-man, so we know what we have to do, we’ll recover and go again.”
One thing that Luton need to guard against is any kind of complacency creeping in against Mansfield, following what was a 90 minutes in West London that saw Town gain plenty of plaudits for the manner in which they went about keeping Xabi Alonso’s team of superstars out for large periods. Wilshere was confident that won’t be an issue though, and doesn’t expect to spend so much time chasing the ball as they did on Thursday night, adding: “I said that to the players, we don’t need to do that as much in the league we are in, in terms of Chelsea making us defend for long periods.
"We have to do that in games, and we have to have the mentality, the desire to do so. It’s probably a little bit different because there’s more chaos, so you have to be focused and then when you get the ball, we have to use it. I thought we did that (attacked) well at times, we could have done it better, but I’ve already started watching our game back from Mansfield.
"I thought at Mansfield (2-2 draw), we were outstanding. We went 2-0 down early in the game which I wasn’t happy about, but we could have won that game four or five. So we know what we need to do, we know what we need to execute. The boys need to recover, and not have the mentality that this is any different. It’s going to be a tough game we know that.”