Opportunity missed by Luton as Wilshere reflects on 'frustrating' FA Cup exit at Fleetwood

Luton boss Jack Wilshere labelled Saturday’s FA Cup defeat to League Two side Fleetwood as ‘frustrating’ after witnessing his side pass up the chance to progress into the third round and potentially earn a bumper tie for the club.

In a game that saw the visitors, who who roared on by more than half the supporters in the ground according to the official attendance, have 63 percent possession, with 21 shots to their hosts’ 11, they fell behind midway through the second half when Manchester United loanee Ethan Ennis’s volley squirmed through the body of James Shea to put the hosts in front.

Gideon Kodua then set up Jerry Yates to tap home the equaliser on 73 minutes, before the Cod Army retook the lead once more with seven minutes left when Ennis curled in a spectacular second with the outside of his right foot. Teden Mengi’s stoppage time screamer took the game into extra time, but despite playing the majority of it in the Fleetwood half, Luton couldn’t find a winner meaning penalties were required to decide the contest.

After Kodua and Kal Naismith both scored, Jacob Brown and Liam Walsh were denied by home keeper David Harrington, as the hosts’ perfect record from the spot saw them go through 4-2. Speaking afterwards, Wilshere said: “It’s frustrating as it felt like it was a real opportunity to progress. Of course we respected Fleetwood and we knew what strengths they had, but we also thought we could hurt them in certain areas and we did, I thought we did.

"That’s probably why I feel like, I’ve said it so many times, but it’s probably more relevant when you play against a League Two team that you have to take your opportunities as you know they’re going to come back. You know they’re going to put balls in the box, you know they’re going to make it difficult for you. We made some really good opportunities in the first half, we didn’t take them, and then we gave away cheap goals, so that’s always tough.

"We showed character to come back and force it into extra time where I thought we were the only team that looked like winning. We arrived in the final third and sometimes in the corner of the box and put the ball in the box and maybe didn’t capitalise as we weren’t in the right positions. I’ll have to watch it back, but I felt like we were pushing in extra time, tried to get a few more players on their last line while still trying to manage their transitions, as that was always a threat. We have to be better in those moments and show a little bit more calmness as penalties is a lottery, so that’s frustrating.”