Luton's character pleases Wilshere as Town secure important comeback victory

Luton manager Jack Wilshere hailed his side’s display of character as they finally hit back from conceding first to defeat Stevenage 2-1 at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

The prior six matches in which Town have conceded the opening goal under the former England and Arsenal star had led to Luton able to take just two points from a possible 18, with two draws and four defeats. Before that it wasn’t much better either, as the Hatters hadn’t been able to triumph after being breached first since they were a Championship side, that happening back in March when winning 2-1 at Cardiff City.

At home it was even worse, Luton not able to register three points in such a manner since beating Derby County 2-1 in December 2024, however on this occasion, after Lewis Freestone headed Boro ahead on 53 minutes, Town crucially ensured they weren’t behind for long, Jordan Clark, who had missed a first half penalty, swivelling to strike into the net after Joe Johnson’s free kick landed at his feet.

Nine minutes later and Town led, Gideon Kodua exquisitely sidefooting home from a blistering counter-attack, as Luton made it three home wins in a row for the first time since the end of the 2022-23 campaign. Speaking afterwards, Wilshere said: “I’m glad that the players are starting to believe in it now because we’ve got some really big characters in there, some really big personalities.

“I said to them after, not many teams will go behind to a team like Stevenage and how they play and how difficult they make it, especially with the energy in the stadium and the players should be proud as they're the ones who brought everyone up. They started to play with a little bit more purpose, be on the front foot and I think they then got energy from the crowd.

“When the crowd started to be with us, you can see what it can create and I’m proud of the players for that. It’s good when you get it over the line as we've done that before here, Port Vale (2-2 draw) we came back but didn’t get it over the line, Bolton (1-1 draw) we came back but didn’t quite get it over the line, so when you do that, it’s pleasing. I know what the players can do and I believe in them. I believe that number one they’ve got the quality and the technical ability to hurt teams, but they’ve also got a spirit where they can come back into games,

"I said that all along and when you actually get it over the line against a team that will be difficult to do that against, it gives the players more belief, it gives them more confidence. When I first came in we were speaking about that, how do we give the players more confidence? They should definitely get confidence from that as they should be proud of that today. It’s not easy to come back against a team like that and get the three points which we needed.”