Luton chief hails 'mature' display by Town teenager who stars in Plymouth victory
Richards catches the eye once more against Pilgrims
Luton boss Jack Wilshere hailed a ‘mature’ display from teenager Jake Richards after he had a starring role during Tuesday night’s 2-1 Vertu Trophy quarter-final success over Plymouth Argyle.
The 18-year-old, who struggled to get into the side under previous boss Matt Bloomfield, was beginning his 13th game of a campaign that has been hit with injury and illness at times, 11 of those starts now coming since Wilshere was appointed in October, contributing three goals. With Luton desperate for a performance to win the fans back on side following the furore that followed the 1-1 draw with Burton Albion on Saturday, Richards himself a second half introduction in that clash, then the former Exeter City player was one of the main reasons they were able to achieve just that, his turn and inviting low cross to the back post met by Izzy Jones to put the hosts in front on 16 minutes.
After the break, the former Exeter youngster came into his own with some impressive mazy runs up the pitch as he drove straight at his Argyle markers, demonstrating the kind of close control and skill that Luton fans have become accustomed to watching from their summer addition. He made way in the closing seconds once Jordan Clark had converted from the spot to make sure Town reached the semi-finals, as on his efforts, an enthusiastic Wilshere said: “I was really impressed with his performance.
“I thought it was a really mature performance for an 18-year-old as it’s not always been easy for Jake this season when he’s been in, he’s been out, he was ill for a little while and then came back from that. We have to keep developing him as his ceiling’s high, I’ve said that before. He needs to stay humble and work every single day like he does, but we need to keep working with him as he could be a really important player for us now and in the future.”
Richards had been one of four changes to the team from the weekend as he, James Shea, Teden Mengi and Davy van den Berg all came into the side, Josh Keeley, Joe Johnson, Shayden Morris and Kasey Palmer dropping to the bench. With only youngster Harry Fox named among the substitutes on this occasion, it represented the strongest XI and match-day squad that Wilshere had gone for in the competition to date after giving a number of academy graduates such as Fin Evans, Jack Lorentzen-Jones, Zach Ioannides and Dawid Gawel their opportunities in previous rounds.
With Wembley now just one game away, Northampton Town standing between the Hatters’ and a return to the home of English football for the first time since May 2023 next Wednesday evening, explaining why that was, the manager added: “I spoke to the players about that before, about we had changed a lot of the team in the competition and not because we don’t care about it as we want to win every single game.
"Before every game we had in this competition, Powelly (Chris Powell, assistant) has a little match-day minus one huddle and we always spoke about Wembley and what that means and what that feels like and how important it is to get there. Obviously in January a lot of those players who were playing in that left the club, so we wanted to be serious, we wanted to show people how serious we are, but we’ve been serious the whole way through this competition.
"It’s just the players in that moment deserved to play as they were working hard and you have to give them something to hold on to, some hope that they can get back into the team and help and they did really well in this competition. Then they played the next game and we spoke after the Swindon game about we weren’t happy with the performance, but we are serious in that competition. We spoke before the game about the opportunity for a semi-final at Kenilworth Road, it would be an opportunity to go to Wembley, it was a big inspiration for us and credit to the players.”