Luton chief insists Rotherham's tactics at Kenilworth Road were a 'sign of respect'

Luton boss Jack Wilshere insisted that Rotherham United’s defensive set-up against the Hatters on Saturday should be viewed as a ‘sign of respect’ by his Town players.

Going into the game, the Millers rocked up in Bedfordshire as the in-form team in the division, unbeaten in their last seven league games, with four wins in that time, leading to an excited feel at Kenilworth Road ahead of kick-off, the hosts having won 3-0 at table-toppers Stockport County last weekend, to make it four straight victories in all competitions themselves.

However, after Jordan Hugill’s header was saved by Josh Keeley early on, the visitors then failed to threaten again, with Luton going on to dominate possession from that moment onwards, having almost 90 percent of it at one point, although unfortunately the majority of that were rather meaningless passes around their defence as they tried to invite their opponents on to break their press, only to see United sit back and never once fall for that ploy.

When they did finally get the ball forward, Jerry Yates’ flick didn’t test Cameron Dawson, while Lamine Fanne shot wide from range, but as the game wore on, it remained the same, Town having slightly more play in their opposition’s half after the break, but United’s low block meant that didn’t translate into any significant opportunities, Yates and half time sub Gideon Kodua forcing regulation saves out of visiting keeper Cameron Dawson.

After the Millers had to take off injured forward duo of Jordan Hugill and Martin Sherif at the break, then manager Matt Hamshaw conceded they were just happy to hold on to what they had for the second 45 minutes, saying: “I think you have to. They’ve got a real good team, they’ll be up there come the end of the season. I’m looking at the subs they’re bringing on, it’s a good squad, Jack will do really well. They've got Hakeem Odoffin who I’ve worked with, Cohen Bramall, Jerry Yates and they speak really highly of him, so I’m sure they’ll have a successful season.

“We’re having rotten luck at the minute with injuries. We’ve got 11 first team players out and I think it would have been a really good game had we had our forward players fit. You saw a threat first half and then second half we didn't have much going forward with the greatest will to the group, but I felt like the resilience we’ve got, the togetherness we’ve got in the group got us a point.”

With Town now only having scored five goals in seven home games this term, and yet to find the net under Wilshere in a league fixture at Kenilworth Road, then asked what he thought of the Millers’ tactics, he said: “It was a little bit frustrating as it felt like in my opinion there was only one team that was going to win that game. We tried the best we could to play against a team that just came to defend, which is tough.

"I said to the players after that it's a sign of respect. I know they faced that at times this season before I was here, but we're going to face it again so we have to look at it, we have to review certain things, but I was also proud of the players for continuing to do it, as if we turn that into a game where we're just going to play long balls, we lose it, the spaces become too big.

"We had a lot of control, we need more threat, we need to attack the goal more, but the control was there and that's a step. We have to be better at playing against teams like that, in the final third, more threat behind, more runs, more options to play. We expected them to come and defend a lot, we didn't expect them to be as compact as they were and then you see they’re just not pressing the back-line.

"It's a sign of respect to us in my opinion that they came here and they just do that, teams will do that to us, but we have to respect that. We have to understand that's their style of play and we also have to understand that they’re probably completely comfortable with us having the ball in certain areas. When I first came we spoke about having variety in attack, probably we didn’t have the variety we wanted, but it was also a game where we had to be really good and find other passes.

"We did that at times but we need to be more consistent and it’s about getting the balance as we also understood that if they were going to hurt us, it was going to probably be on transitions. So we didn't want to completely throw people forward, we wanted to keep some control under the ball just in case they did come out, as it did at times. Second half the game was played in their half, but maybe at times you can commit an extra midfield player forward.”

With Town missing George Saville due to a combination of suspension and also being away on international duty, then it meant one of those midfield players, Lamine Fanne, had to drop further back, playing in a deeper role with Liam Walsh, as striker Yates came in to play alongside Nahki Wells in the front-line.

Although the 22-year-old had one shot that flew wide in the first period, he wasn’t able to fully impact the contest, before being replaced on 78 minutes, with Wilshere adding: “He's a young player and that happens with young players. They'll go through a spell where they are consistent and then they'll go through a game where they won’t be consistent and I think that was probably one of them. We asked him to play a little bit lower, try to have the game in front of him at times and he did okay in some moments. He himself won’t be happy with certain moments, but he’s a young player and we have to expect that.”