Relieved Wilshere hails away win that has been a 'long time coming' for Luton

Luton boss Jack Wilshere admitted the Hatters’ first away win since early November had been a ‘long time coming’ as they produced what he described as their most ‘mature’ performance when triumphing 2-1 at Wycombe Wanderers this afternoon.

After going into the game without a success in 10 matches on the road, taking three points from a possible 30, the visitors managed to lead 2-0 at the break, the recalled Kal Naismith heading home Liam Walsh’s corner, before Kasey Palmer did the same from George Saville’s set-piece just before the interval. Up against a Chairboys side who had won their last four matches on home soil, conceding just once in that time, and also having eight wins from 10 at Adams Park, the Hatters then controlled the second period for large periods.

In fact, Town, with Hakeem Odoffin magnificent, only really had a scare in the final 60 seconds of stoppage time when Junior Quitirna fired home after Luton switched off from a corner, but it wasn’t enough to rouse the unlikeliest of comebacks, Town holding on to secure all three points. Speaking about the overdue victory, Wilshere said: “It’s been a long time coming. I thought we’ve probably played better at times away from home, but probably our most mature performance.

"Two set-play goals, we were good in the first half and probably could have created a little bit more when we got into the final third. We made the wrong decision sometimes, but set-pieces we spoke about so much this season where we need them. We work on them a lot, they executed them today, so fair play to them and second half I thought we managed it. We were comfortable enough without creating too much ourselves, which we still want to do.

"We spoke about that before, we also spoke about allowing too much pressure on to us, we didn’t do that until the end, but we defended our box really well at times. I thought defensively we were very good, especially in the first half. We caused them a lot of problems with our high press. We won the ball back a lot of times, and then we dealt with the direct play as when you press a team really well, eventually they’re going to try and go over you and you’ve got to deal with that, you have to land on second balls. I thought we did that really well and I just thought in the first half when we won the ball back high, we could have maximised it a little bit more, but set-pieces we’re happy with.”