Luton ring the changes as Wilshere hails 'outstanding' following at Port Vale

Luton boss Jack Wilshere hailed the ‘outstanding’ support that the Hatters are taking with them to Port Vale this afternoon, despite their awful record on the road recently.

Although Town fans have seen just four goals in the last eight matches outside of Bedfordshire, drawing five blanks in that time, they have lost six in a row and seven from eight, taking one point in that time, they are still taking a large number with them to Vale Park. Town have made four changes from the 1-1 draw at Burton Albion for the clash with Liam Walsh back in for his first start since the 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield and Emilio Lawrence starting a first league games since the 1-0 loss at Plymouth Argyle as well, while Nigel Lonwijk and Jake Richards are included, Gideon Kodua, Mads Andersen, Kasey Palmer and Shayden Morris.

On the away following that will be cheering them on, Wilshere said: “We’ve got over 1,200 fans going and that in itself is a message to me that they’re still with us, they still believe. We need them, I said that right from the beginning since I've been here and even more so probably now. When you're going through a tough time, we’ve really feel their support and especially away from home.

"I think that’s outstanding, I think about the Wigan game, I think about the Cardiff game where we weren't good enough but they're still with us, they're still supporting us, we’re really grateful for that. I’m really grateful for that, and hopefully we can give them something to cheer and we’ll be there after with them thanking them for their support and hopefully we have the three points.”

Although Town drew 2-2 against Port Vale back in December, a lot has changed for the hosts since then, Vale’s top scorer in Devante Cole, who was on target that afternoon, arriving at Kenilworth Road, with Darren Moore leaving the club and Jon Brady taking over in early January. He has managed to win five from 12, with five defeats, as although Wilshere doesn’t know the former Northampton Town boss, he will still take a look at the past meeting, as he continued: “Yes and no because different manager.

"It’s the same players apart from we took their number nine, so they are slightly different, also they’ve got confidence. They won against Northampton in the week which is not an easy place to go that away from home and especially the situation they’re in, to know they need points and then to come up with it, so credit to them. They’re confidence will be up they’ll be looking to go back to back which I’m sure their manager will be talking about, and we have to understand that, which I think we do as we had a good meeting about them today and try to exploit the spaces that we think we can win the game with.

“They are quite direct and they have really good front players, they’ve got (Martin) Sherif and (Jayden) Stockley, they’re dangerous, they’re a big part of their game. They like to play into them, they like to cause a little bit of chaos, Andre Gray as well. We’ll see what they do with the team, but they’ve got choices they can do as it’s a big part of their game. That is something we have to look to deal with and try to control if we want to have the game that we want.”

Asked if he had watched the hosts in action that bit more due to scouting Cole and then also having winger Ethon Archer on loan at Vale Park, Wilshere added: “It’s been the same as everyone else, maybe a little bit more because of Ethon and we’ve got a lot of players out on loan so we’re trying to support them all in different ways. Part of it is watching them, watching their clips, but apart from that it will be the same as every other game we prep.

"I like to watch two or three of their games, the other coaches will watch one each and we’ll come up with the best formula we think in the principles we set. So slightly different as they changed manager and I always like to watch the game back we had against them and still think there’s some value in that as there’s a lot of similar players, while they’re slightly different tactically.”

Valiants: Joe Gauci, Connor Hall, Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel, Jayden Stockley, Rhys Walters, Funso Ojo, Liam Gordon, Ben Waine, Kyle John (C), Cameron Humphreys, George Hall. Subs: Ben Amos, Jaheim Headley, Martin Sherif, Jordan Shipley, Grant Ward, Tyler Magloire, Andre Gray.

Hatters: Josh Keeley, Izzy Jones, Nigel Lonwijk, Kal Naismith, Joe Johnson, George Saville, Liam Walsh, Jordan Clark, Jake Richards, Emilio Lawrence, Nahki Wells. Subs: James Shea, Davy van den Berg, Ali Al-Hamadi, Shayden Morris, Hakeem Odoffin, Harry Fox, Kasey Palmer. Referee: Lee Swabey.