Luton boss 'not talking' to his players about the Hatters' miserable away record
Town are without a victory on the road since November
Luton boss Jack Wilshere declared he is ‘not talking’ to his players about their terrible form on the road anymore ahead of yet another attempt to finally put it to bed when heading to League One’s basement side Port Vale tomorrow.
The Hatters haven’t won any of their last eight matches on the road in the league, losing six in a row, and taking just one point from a possible 24, to seriously hinder their chances of reaching the play-offs this term. A trip to Stockport County on November 8 represents the last time Town picked up three points outside of Bedfordshire, as they have lost four of their last five matches by a 1-0 scoreline, netting just four goals and conceding 16 in that miserable sequence.
With Wilshere having been asked about Luton’s away day woes at almost every single press conference before venturing on the road, it was naturally mentioned again this afternoon when discussing the match at Vale Park, Town heading to a side who look destined to be playing League Two football next term, However, the Town boss said: “We’re at the point where we understand it, but we’re not talking about it as it is what it is. We know the outcome we want is three points, but we have to understand how we get there and I feel like we understand it well.
"The Wigan game, we didn’t do ourselves justice with the things we knew we had to do away from home. We didn’t execute the things we spoke about, so when you have a way of playing and you have clarity around that, there is always a reason why you don’t succeed. We have to stick together and keep going that way with the process of what it’s going to take and then we have to hope that the outcome will look after itself if we do everything right and that’s where we’re at. We understand the away form hasn’t been good enough, but we have to stick to the process to try and make the outcome better.”
Following the 1-0 loss at Wigan earlier this month, on-loan striker Ali Al-Hamadi felt like some of his players were guilty of ‘hiding’ during the contest, and it's something that Wilshere agreed needs changing, as he continued: “You look across this league and teams going away from home, there is something there that’s different. It is difficult for teams to win away from home, it’s not an excuse as I agree, at certain times we didn’t show enough bravery, we didn’t show enough courage, we didn’t show enough belief in what we’re trying to do, which then meant we couldn’t execute what we spoke about.
"My job as manager is, if we understand that and we can see that, then we have to find a different way of doing it, that’s what we’ve been trying to do. The Wigan game is a good example of that when we tried something different, we went two up top, we’re still considering that idea. I think we have to as we’ve got players in the building with that profile who can really benefit from that structure, so we’re trying different things, but we have to execute things better.”
Although Port Vale have struggled themselves for results in front of their own fans this term, winning just twice, once on September 20 and then on New Year’s Day when they thumped Blackpool 5-1. However, under new manager Jon Brady, Vale boosted their own chances on Tuesday night as they won 1-0 at fellow strugglers Northampton Town, although do still remain a hefty 10 points from safety.
WiIshere is well aware that their opponents’ precarious predicament and position counts for little though, as he added: “I’ve learned that in this league there are no easy games and probably at any level of football, but especially at this level and especially when you go away from home. They’re fighting for their lives at this point of the season, they are where they are and they will still feel and rightly so that they can get out of it. They can compete and fight, they have a way of paying that is difficult to play against.
"It’s a difficult place to go, so like any other game, the duels, the second balls and managing the stuff that they’re good at, we have to do that. We have to do that consistently in the game, and then try and dominate with our way. It will be a little bit more difficult as the pitch is bad, and it’s not an excuse as we know going into it what we are coming up against. So we have to manage that as well, try and win a game and make sure we fight for every duel, every moment, to give ourselves a chance in the game.”