Luton's desire to attack pleases Hatters boss during City victory

Luton chief Jack Wilshere was extremely pleased with the attacking intent that was on display from his side during their 2-1 victory over Bradford City on Saturday.

The hosts opted to give an immediate debut to new signing Devante Cole in the number nine role, as he was flanked by Jake Richards and Shayden Morris either side of him, with Gideon Kodua, snapped on a permanent basis from West Ham United just 24 hours earlier, playing just behind. With Jordan Clark and Kasey Palmer occupying the midfield berths, there was a real positive feel to the Hatters’ starting line-up, who as the half wore on, put some exciting moves together, particularly on the left hand side thanks to full back Joe Johnson advancing into midfield and Teden Mengi’s impressive passing range, leading to Clark firing a shot against the crossbar.

Town then did break through moments later on 39 minutes thanks to another superb passing move that saw Kodua find Richards, who drilled into the bottom corner from 20 yards to score a classy third goal of the season. Discussing his selection and how the hosts went about things, Wilshere said: “I thought our intent to attack.

"We showed it last week with Cohen (Bramall) and Shayden starting the game on the wing. It was slightly different today with Devante and Jake, our attacks were more central, but I thought our intensity with the ball, to play forward, to break lines, to be clean, to try and attack centrally and get behind them but from the right areas, I thought we were really good at that.

"At times in the first half I thought maybe the final pass let us down a little bit or the final decision, but the pitch was difficult as well. I’m happy for the players as to bounce back after Huddersfield when we were low, we were all low as a group and we had to bounce back. We knew that, we knew what we had to do to try and get ourselves closer to the play-offs and we’ve done that.

"Today we’ve done it with a little bit more style than last week (1-0 win over Blackpool). Last week was probably, we just had to find a way to win the game and I think the players should take some belief from doing that as sometimes in this league you’ve got to respect it and just do what it takes to get the game over the line. We did that last time and today was probably a little bit more of who we want to be, but with the same energy to try and defend our goal.”

After the break, the Hatters weathered a mini spell of pressure from the Bantams in the early stages before demonstrating their final third thrust when Richards won the ball back inside the visitors’ half, allowing Clark to send Morris away on the right, who sped into the box and then cut back on to his left foot to roll his low shot past Sam Walker.

From then, Town didn’t ever look to just try and protect their lead, going close to more goals, as Kodua was denied by the keeper, with substitute Izzy Jones having one attempt saved and curling wide, Clark shooting at Walker, Walker also preventing Kasey Palmer from adding a third too as Luton racked up 17 shots, seven of them on target.

On their willingness to keep flooding forward, Wilshere added: “We have to take those moments, but it is pleasing as that’s who we want to be. We want to be a team that at times we know they’re going to be a little bit more aggressive, but when we get the ball we still want to attack, we want to try and score. I think there were times when we probably could manage it better and pick our moments better. If we have a set-piece deep do we need to play in certain areas when we’re 2-0 up? Maybe not. But I asked the players to be brave and they certainly showed that.

“We want to be on the front foot, we want to be aggressive. There are times when I think it’s okay to be in a block and wait for certain moments, but we’re always looking for triggers to release and press. We’ve got great profiles for it, Shayden being a great example of it, Jordan Clark is really good out of possession. Everyone talks about how good he is in possession, but his understanding of when to cover space or when to be aggressive on your man is really good.

"Then we’ve got players who are really good technically to make that pass or to release Shayden on the right hand side, so we want to be on the front foot, we want to be aggressive. That’s a whole team thing as you have to have your distances right to do that, you have to be really brave that if we press we know they’re going to play long and then you have to back your centre backs and full backs to win aerial duels which we did today so a good performance overall.”