Luton 'excited' to be back at home although Wilshere knows fans will be 'angry'

Although excited to be back home once more this afternoon, Luton boss Jack Wilshere is well aware that his side could face some ‘angry’ supporters following their performances on the road over the last seven days.

Last time out at Kenilworth Road, the Hatters took on second-placed Lincoln City as despite falling 2-0 behind on, they roared back with goals by Gideon Kodua and Nahki Wells to restore parity by the interval. An even second half then saw Town denied what appeared a legitimate winner when Mads Andersen’s header ruled out for an alleged foul on the Imps goalkeeper George Wickens, replays showing he simply threw himself to the floor, as despite being unable to secure all three points, the home players were still afforded a decent ovation from those inside the ground.

Going into two matches on the road, hopes were high that Town could finally make their way into the play-off places and possibly even close in on the top two spots, but successive 1-0 defeats have put paid to those ambitions for now, especially after the second reverse which came against a Huddersfield side who were reduced to 10 men on the half hour mark on Tuesday night, meaning the Hatters have now taken just one point from a possible 18 outside of Bedfordshire.

It means the automatic berths are now a pipedream, with Luton, whose board have made it clear they expect promotion this term, falling to a disappointing ninth spot, some six points away from the top six with just 18 games to go. They could cut that gap to three with victory over the Tangerines this afternoon, as they can go into the contest taking some solace from the fact they are currently eight unbeaten on home soil.

However, Wilshere knows the Kenilworth Road faithful won’t be happy with their side’s last two outings, and have every right to be too, saying, “We have to go to a place where fans will be angry and rightly so. That wasn’t good enough (against Huddersfield), but we have to start there, by showing some character, by showing some resilience to win a game that we have to win.

“Kenilworth Road has been good to us the last few games. We seem to have a spirit there and a different energy than we do from when we go away from home and we want that again. I completely understand that the fans will be frustrated after the last two games, there was no-one more frustrated after the game than I was which probably people could see, but we’ve had a good few days. We’ve trained well, we’ve reviewed it, we’ve spoken about it, we’ve had some real honest conversations and I would say the players definitely are excited to be back at home.”

Wilshere certainly cut a particularly forlorn figure when going over the 500-plus travelling supporters who had made their way to Yorkshire on Tuesday night, just a few days after a number of them had headed all the way to Devon to see their side also lose 1-0, this time at Plymouth Argyle. On why he was so disconsolate, he continued: “Because I care so much and this is what I said to the players after the game. It’s even more frustrating when you feel you’re really close and you can see performances are improving and we’ve starting to have an identity.

"The thing that matters is winning games and I understand that more than anyone. The players want to win games and I think they feel as well, we’re so close and I was down so much because I care, first of all about the players, secondly about the club. I want the club to improve and to get back to the Championship and also for myself, I’m ambitious as a manager and as a coach, I want to have my influence on the team and show people what I can do.

"So I was frustrated and disappointed after the game, but time heals and also getting back on the training pitch. I said to the players, they have the ability to lift me up again when my energy’s low. The way they train and the way they work, and they’ve been like that ever since I’ve been here. I’m grateful for that and we just need to find something different and win a few more games.”

One thing Wilshere knows will be essential for his team to get the home fans onside early on is by making a fast start to proceedings, and taking the lead against a side who have lost nine from 13 on the road this term as quickly as possible. He said: “We always talk about that at home, we do. Probably the Stevange game and the Lincoln game was the best that’s been, although Lincoln we were 2-0 down, I still feel like we started really well, on the front foot, created a chance in the first minute.

“We want players to show courage, we want players to show belief, which is difficult as well, but we want to get momentum on our side early in the game. We want to get the fans on the edge of their seats early in the game and that’s something that I’ve been thinking about, especially after the last two results, how we can do that. what type of players we need on the pitch and that will change a little bit how we play, how we build up. So all those thoughts have gone into it this week and hopefully we can start sharp and get a goal early as I think that’s important in this league and I think we can do that more often.”

Despite the recent disappointment, Wilshere has been enthused by the atmosphere generated at home in the last few months, as after finding it hard to get things going during his opening few matches, winning just once from his first five games, he saw that noticeably improve over the Christmas period, with three successive victories and that 2-2 draw against Lincoln.

Discussing finally witnessing the kind of noise he was preparing himself for when taking over back in October, he added: “I think that’s pleasing because I remember interviewing for the job and talking about that, making this into the place where it’s hard to come and we use what we’ve got, the old school stadium where it’s close, the fans are close.

"We can build energy and after my first few games I realised it was going to be a big task to do that, to get the players to have confidence, get the players to believe in what we’re trying to do. At times when I think back to some games where we didn’t have the variation in attack we wanted, but I think that’s probably the turning point for us when we’re understanding when we can play, when there’s someone to play to, when they’re being a little bit more aggressive and we can be a bit more I call it vertical.

"It probably is a little bit more of Luton and what Luton’s been over the years and had success in doing it, so I wanted to create that energy in the stadium while holding on to what Luton is and I think we’re getting there. I still feel like there’s work to do, as then we can make this place even harder to come to, we can make it so oppositions really don’t want to come here.

"I think you’re starting to see that with the respect that teams are giving us and then it’s down to the players as they’re the guys who feel it on the pitch. They feel the energy on the pitch and they’re the boys who need to step up, have courage, have character, have resilience and they’ve been through some tough moments with that. But it feels like we’re coming out of it and we need to keep that going and keep building on it.”