Shea 'desperate' to get the nod from Wilshere and finally play at Wembley
Experienced stopper hopes he is named between the posts on Sunday
Luton goalkeeper James Shea conceded he was absolutely ‘desperate’ to finally take his place between the posts at Wembley Stadium on Sunday when the Hatters face Stockport County in the Vertu Trophy Final.
The 34-year-old, who has been with the Hatters since July 2017, has been to the home of English twice before in his career to date, but is yet to step foot on the pitch, named among the substitutes for AFC Wimbledon’s League Two play-off final win over Plymouth Argyle in 2016, and then Town’s Championship play-off final success against Coventry City just over three years ago.
When Luton started this season’s Vertu Trophy, Shea was selected for the opening group stage 4-1 victory over Barnet in September, and has played every single minute of the competition since, starting against Cambridge United, Brighton & Hove Albion U21s, Exeter City, Swindon Town, Plymouth Argyle and Northampton Town.
Although he has made just one League One outing, that at Exeter City on New Year’s Day, and began the FA Cup second round defeat to Fleetwood Town, summer signing Josh Keeley has been Town’s number one for the rest of the campaign, giving manager Jack Wilshere a real headache over who to go with at the weekend. Shea didn’t hide his wish that it was him, saying: “I’m not going to lie, I’m desperate to play. I’d love to be playing, I've been to Wembley twice and never played and hopefully it’s third time lucky.
"I was on the bench when Wimbledon won the play-off final against Plymouth before I joined here. That was a fantastic day, then I came here and the journey began and it’s still going. Not really (has he spoken to Wilshere about who gets the nod). I’ve played every round so far, I’d love to play, I’m sure Josh would love to play as well, but whoever the gaffer goes with, both of us will be backing each other.
"It would be everything to say I’ve played at Wembley. It’s above my pay grade at the minute, I’ll leave that to the gaffer to decide. Whatever he decides I’ll back his decision 100 percent. It would be fantastic to look around to a sea of orange like we had in the play-off final as it gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
“I might be able to say I’ve completed the EFL if we were able to win it. It would be another thing to tick off, so hopefully we can do that on Sunday. Whatever happens it’s going to be a fantastic day and then we move back to the league and hopefully we can keep the momentum going for the Northampton game.”
Playing your so-called number two in a cup final has been called into question recently, with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta doing so when picking Kepa Arrizabalaga ahead of David Raya for the Carabao Cup showpiece event against Manchester City last month, only to see the Spaniard make an error that gifted Nico O'Reilly the opening goal. Despite that, Shea still felt it was the right call to make, although will throw his support behind Keeley if Wilshere opts against doing that himself, as he continued: “I think it was the right decision.
"He (Kepa) played every round, the manager’s trusted him to go out and do the job and I see no problem in it. Of course I would (back Keeley). If Josh is to play on Sunday, I’ll be backing Josh one million percent and likewise if I do get the nod, Josh will be backing me one million percent. Whatever happens, we’ve got a really good group, goalkeeper-wise, the GK union and we’re really lucky in that sense.”
Although Shea didn’t get on against the Sky Blues when Luton were last at Wembley, behind Ethan Horvath in the pecking order that campaign, he did have one of the best seats in the house to witness the excitement play out. With the game finishing 1-1, it came down to penalties to decide who took their place in the top flight, defender Fankaty Dabo missing the 12th spotkick to ensure it was the Hatters who did just that.
Shea was then one of the first Luton players to be in the thick of it, showing an impressive turn of speed to celebrate with the USA international, as on that, and his experience of the day, he continued: “I was rapid, absolutely rapid! The physios still get on me now for that, even now you see when that penalty went over, it was just pure emotion, pure joy, you just run.
"Nothing will ever compare to that day, it was incredible. I remember I did absolutely nothing, all I did was sit there and I was so exhausted after. I remember sitting there at half time thinking, ‘we’re all right, we’re going to the Prem,’ and then 15 minutes later they equalised and you’re thinking, ‘oh my god, we’re not.’ Then it all changed again, and then extra time and Joe (Taylor) scored and you’re thinking ‘fantastic!’ Then it gets disallowed and you’re thinking, ‘oh no.’ Then it goes to penalties and it’s just a lottery.
"Then they miss and it’s just the joy and the emotion, nothing will ever match that day. It was horrible as you’re sitting there and there’s nothing you can do, but it was such a great day for everyone at the club. Everyone dreams of getting to the Premier League, everyone dreams of winning play-off finals and to be able to say we did that, it was incredible.”
With Town scoring six from six when stepping up to the spot, on whether the Hatters have been put through their paces from 12 yards ahead of Sunday’s contest, Shea stated: “We’ve done practice in previous rounds before, we haven’t done any yet, but I’m sure we will when we go through our processes, like we did for the play-off final. We’ve lost a penalty shootout (at Fleetwood Town in the FA Cup) already, hopefully it doesn’t come to penalties, but we’ll do our work and do our practice and come Sunday we will be ready for whatever happens.”
With Luton selling over 30,000 tickets for the final, Shea can’t wait to see Town’s supporters flooding to the home of English football once, although he knows that Hatters will go into the contest somewhat as underdogs due to the other Hatters sitting fifth in table, some five places above Town. The two sides drew 1-1 at Kenilworth Road recently, Luton leading at the break, only to be pegged back by Oliver Norwood’s goal in the second period, as Shea added: “It’s a completely different game, two completely different teams.
"Stockport are a really good team there’s no denying that. We had a really good game with them a couple of weeks ago, I think we probably had the better of the first half, they probably had the better of the second half. They’re fifth in the league, so they’re higher for us and you’d say they’re probably favourites as the league doesn’t lie at the minute, but we know on our day we can give everyone a good game and we can go there and hopefully get the win.”
Meanwhile, with every outfield player no doubt hoping to be the hero with the deciding strike on the day, then questioned as to whether he had any personal dreams regarding the final, like making a match-winning penalty stop, Shea added: “Just to win! I don’t care. Of course a penalty save and everything like that, but no-one needs the stress of that really. All the players think about is winning the game, let the strikers take all the selfishness and get the winning goal, but just to be able to win at Wembley, you just can’t beat it.”