Hatters unchanged as Wilshere annoyed Luton have to bounce back again

Luton chief Jack Wilshere was hugely annoyed that his side are going into tonight’s game against Barnsley with the intent of bouncing back yet again from what he felt was a totally avoidable defeat at MK Dons on Saturday.

As has happened on too many occasions already this term, the Hatters took two steps back after moving one forward at the weekend, as following an excellent display when thrashing Wycombe Wanderers 4-1 at Adams Park, fell to a thoroughly disappointing 2-1 loss at the Dons, in front of 6,000 travelling supporters, meaning Town are yet to earn back-to-back victories this term, with their three league wins now followed by two draws and a loss.

Having been trashed 5-2 at Mansfield in what was easily their worst outing of the campaign to date, Luton did turn up in their next game at home, beating Stockport County 2-0, but Wilshere was frustrated that trend is going to have to continue, saying: “I keep saying the good thing about this league is that there’s another game and we can bounce back from it, we shouldn’t have to because we can’t lose this game, but the reality is we have.

“The reality is we have to look at it, show the players it, and one thing we know about this group of players is they can bounce back and they need to do that. So we’ll do that, we’ll prepare the players in the best possible way and try and get a result on Tuesday. We should win the game, the frustration was is took that long to get back in the game in the second half, as they didn’t do that much.”

Having had 25 shots in the game, but only five on target and one hitting the net, that through Jordan Clark’s first league goal of the campaign, it was an area of the contest that left Wilshere increasingly scratching his head, as he continued: “I thought the back-line dealt with their threat and direct play apart from when we didn’t and they got a penalty from it.

"We spoke at half time about second balls and being better from them, not giving them the opportunity to land on them, or when we do land on them, to try and find the pass, or if we can’t, hook it behind them. I felt like we did that in the second half better and it was us knocking on the door. We just have to knock on the door harder, and we have to knock the door down when we get there so much.

"We knew the game was going to look like that, that’s why the focus for the week was that. It was to attack the box, to have focus, to have intention, which we lacked a little bit in the first half, but definitely in the second half it was there. We just lacked a little bit of quality. Clinical is a word that will come to mind and I’m sure when I’m watching it back that we’ll see that.

"The one with Tudor (Mendel) where maybe he can take it, maybe he can roll it to Marshy (Callum Marshall) a little bit better, then Marshy keeps it alive, it falls to (Jamie) Donley, who’s got a big chance. So the chances are there and that’s why I’m so frustrated, because in terms of everything, we didn't have to do that much to go and win a game and we end up losing the game, which is hard to take.”

Tonight’s visitors Barnsley are in even more of a pickle themselves, losing their last four games in all competitions, and without a win since early September. With former manager Daniel Stendel reappointed in the summer, they sit fourth from bottom, but Wilshere knows that doesn’t count for much, adding: “We had a positive result against Barnsley last season, but this is a new season.

"They’ve got a new manager, they’re fighting for their lives. As we saw today, you probably would have felt going into this game they haven’t won a game and it’s a good opportunity, but you’re playing against a team who are fighting for their lives and fighting for everything. I know, we know in this league, that you can’t take anything for granted like that and can’t look at a game like that. It’s a normal process of preparing, what are they going to do, how are they going to try and hurt us, where can we hurt them and making sure we do the simple things really, really well.”

Hatters: James Shea, Hakeem Odoffin, Kal Naismith ©, Mads Andersen, George Johnston, Liam Walsh, Jordan Clark, Jamie Donley, Tudor Mendel, Kasey Palmer, Nahki Wells. Subs not used: Josh Keeley, Joe Johnson, Izzy Jones, Devante Cole, Jake Richards, Callum Marshall, Emilio Lawrence.

Tykes: Cieran Slicker, Arley Kay, Jack Shepherd, Connor O’Riordan, Tobi Adeyemo, Cameron McGeehan (C), Tyrese Noslin, Reyes Cleary, Patrick Kelly, Rylan Brownlie, Vimal Yoganathan. Subs: Rogan Ravenhill, Ziyad Larkeche, Sam Gale, Makenzie Kirk, Jubril Okedina, Amari Richards, Jonathan Bland. Referee: Carl Brook.