New Hatters boss happy to see feelgood factor beginning to return to Kenilworth Road
Wilshere has made an impressive start to managerial career
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere is happy to see that he has already been able to create something of a feelgood factor around Kenilworth Road during his short spell in charge.
The former England and Arsenal midfielder, who had been at Luton’s Centre of Excellence before making the move to the Emirates Stadium as a nine-year-old in 2001, returned to Bedfordshire recently to take over a Town side who were in the middle of a serious slump in form, having lost four games from six matches.
Although they were defeated in Wilshere’s opening game in charge, to make it five from seven, delivering a toothless display when going down 2-0 at home to Mansfield, having a fortnight to work with his players certainly appears to have done the trick, as they then headed to Northampton Town last weekend and came away by recording their first victory of Wilshere’s reign, Lamine Fanne with a late winner to send the 1,500 travelling supporters into delirium following a 1-0 success.
Three days later, the Hatters were winning again, 3-1 over Brighton & Hove Albion U21s, with 16-year-old Fin Evans becoming the youngster scorer in the club’s history when scoring the third goal on the night. With second year scholar Harry Fox also making his debut as a half time substitute, then that alone has boosted the spirits of the Town supporters, who are finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel with Wilshere at the helm.
The boss knows full well that victories are a large part of that reason, but he is pleased with what he is starting to generate as well, saying: “It’s good, but the truth is winning games helps that. I said from the start that the players have been outstanding in my opinion. Of course we spoke about the result against Mansfield, it wasn’t what we wanted, but we saw a lot of positive signs and I think the players believed that as well, so that’s the most important thing. They have to enjoy it, coming to work. They have to enjoy working hard, enjoy trying to get better, but the key word there is enjoy and hopefully we’re trying to help create an environment that creates that.”
When Wilshere took over, Town’s players were suffering from a severe lack of confidence, as keeper James Shea spoke about how it felt like they were playing against 13 players at times following their 3-1 defeat at Cambridge United in the Vertu Trophy, such was the low morale and belief among the squad. It appears to be slowly shifting in the right direction now though, as Wilshere continued: “I think it’s changed a little bit.
"We’ve given the players a few more solutions and we’ve moved someone down next to Sav (George Saville). I think that’s helped a lot and the other thing is just giving them belief. I’m here to get promotion and I wouldn’t have said that if I didn’t believe in the players. The players are the guys that are going to do that for us, we’ve tried to give them that little bit more belief and hopefully their confidence has lifted.”
Town will now look to extend their winning run to three games in a row this evening when they host National League side Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup at Kenilworth Road, a competition that Wilshere, who won it twice with Arsenal in 2014 and 2015, intends to take very seriously, adding: “This is for me a very, very important game. As a player I used to love these games, I used to love playing against teams from lower divisions. I used to think it was a real opportunity to show them why we play at a higher level and I think it’s an opportunity for us to do that.
"We have to one hundred percent match their energy, match their intensity, match their willingness. For me it’s an important game and as important as any other game. I remember growing up and it being on BBC One and the whole family coming round to watch it. I actually grew up a West Ham fan and Steven Gerrard broke my heart when he banged that one in against us (FA Cup Final 2006). So some good memories growing up, there’s also some bad memories.
"I won it as a player, but I also won it as a youth team player which is one of the best memories of my career, with Sheasy (James Shea) as well, and to win it as a player, probably at the time it was so important as it was about 10 years since we won a trophy. There was a group there that had been together for a long time and to win something together was amazing, then the next year after that to win it again was amazing."