Luton chief praises Town trio for their impact in salvaging Bolton draw

Luton chief Jack Wilshere hailed the impact of his substitutes after all three combined to help Town snatch a point against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.

Going into their third game in a week, the Hatters hammered 5-0 at Barnsley on Saturday and then hitting back to beat Huddersfield Town 2-1 on Tuesday night, Wilshere made just one change ahead of kick-off, Jacob Brown in for the injured Jake Richards, as the rest of the players who started in midweek when the Trotters were putting their feet up, were asked to dig deep and go again.

WIth Bolton enjoying the better of the opening 20 minutes, moving ahead through Aaron Morley’s clinical finish, the Trotters looked a high class team as they had well over 60 percent of the ball in those early stages. After building their way into the contest, Luton were finally able to find their way back into the contest, as they wrestled some control back in the latter stages of the opening period.

They might have fallen further behind at the start of the second half, on-loan Brighton & Hove Albion attacker Amario Cozier-Duberry heading wide, but once that opportunity was missed, the Hatters began to dominate proceedings, Gideon Kodua on for Brown with an hour gone. He quickly saw a shot saved by Teddy Sharman-Lowe, then setting up Jerry Yates for an opportunity that he scuffed at the keeper, before visiting midfielder Xavier Simons was dismissed on 70 minutes for his second foul, sliding in rashly on Kodua.

With eight minutes left, Wilshere threw on Shayden Morris and Milli All for Lamine Fanne and Nigel Lonwijk, switching formations too, as moments later, Morris was able to just sprint away from defender Richard Taylor and dink over a cross that Jerry Yates battled for, Alli got a toe to and then Kodua hammered through the legs of Sharman-Lowe to draw the hosts level with his fourth of the season.

Although Town couldn’t go on and claim all three points, discussing the trio of alterations, Wilshere said: “I’m really happy with them and that was the message before the game. We knew the team, we knew that some players would not be able to go the whole way and the message was give everything until you can’t and then let us know, as these guys, they’re hungry, they want to come on and make a difference, and I think we got that right.

"I said before the game, we talk about being together and having unity a lot and today what that meant was giving everything you can and then being honest to hold your hand up and say ‘I can't do any more, I’m tired,’ because the guys on the bench are hungry, they'll want to come on and show something. I'm really happy for them as they all did.

"We changed it up a little bit to try and get a goal, be a bit more aggressive and put more numbers on their last line, and they're all involved in the goal, so credit to them. Credit to the staff too, I said to them, we need something different, maybe it’s formation, maybe it’s personnel, maybe someone closer to Yatesy to try and get a flick on and try and play off him. I thought they were all excellent and they got their rewards at the end.”

On summer signing Morris, who joined from Scottish Premier League side Aberdeen and is just working his way back to full fitness having suffered a groin injury when Wilshere took over, getting his first outing under the new manager during Tuesday night’s 2-1 success over Huddersfield, the boss added: “That’s Shayden and I’ve been so impressed with him. He’s only been training probably a week or so, but he has the ability to stand someone up, change his pace which is one of the quickest I’ve seen and then the composure to stand it up. He’s someone who can help us for sure.”