'Job done' for Hatters boss as Town are in the hat for round two

Luton boss Jack Wilshere felt it was a case of ‘job done’ for the Hatters as they reached the FA Cup second round with a 2-0 victory against National League side Forest Green Rovers at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

After taking the lead inside five minutes courtesy of Emilio Lawrence’s first goal since returning on loan from Manchester City in the summer, the hosts then struggled to remain in the ascendancy, as their non-league visitors looked the more likely to score, until Jordan Clark added a second just before the interval, taking Dan Gore’s pass and finding the net.

Following the break, a misfiring Rovers couldn’t reduce the deficit, as they had 17 shots in total, but only two on target, which means Town are the side in the hat for Monday evening’s round two draw. Summing up the fixture, Wilshere said: “We started well and got a really good goal. We then had a really good opportunity to take the game to them, and if you give them time to rotate and play, then they’ve got some good players.

"They put it on the sides, they’ve got quick wingers which are difficult to defend against. They put numbers in the box, so in the context of what the boys have given and I know we made some changes as well, but even with that, the players that came in have been with the squad and been with the team travelling away. It is tough, we did enough, had some nice spells, but again we defended our box really well with all the stuff they tried to do, put numbers in our box and shots from outside the box, we headed them away or we blocked them.

"So overall when we reflect on this period and the run we’ve been on, I think getting the job done was really important and getting into the hat for the next round. Now the players have got a few days where they can spend time with their family, switch off from football and make sure when they come back they’re ready to go.”

The Hatters made seven changes for the tie, keeping just Mads Andersen, George Johnston, Tudor Mendel and Clark from the side who drew 1-1 at Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night. Having made so few changes in Luton’s excellent run of form in the league, winning five from seven matches, then on the difficulties of such an altered XI gelling, Wilshere added: “One of the big things that has helped us recently is consistency of team selection. Now it’s not always going to be like that so we can’t use that as an excuse, but that is some context.

"They need to play together, they need to understand each other. Dan Gore comes into the team as a six, which, by the way, I thought he was really good and one of the positives, but that role is so important that he has connections around the pitch. You can only get them by playing with players, so we tried as much as we could with Mads and George and Clicker in the team to keep a little bit of rhythm and some connections. You can only build them by playing.”