Town chief knows away form improvement is key to any promotion push for Luton

Luton boss Jack Wilshere knows that the only way his side are going to have any kind of promotion push this term is if they can once and for all sort out the woeful the away form that is threatening to condemn the Hatters to another season in League One.

When the former England and Arsenal star was appointed back in October, it was at home the club were struggling, as his first two league successes came on the road, defeating Northampton Town 1-0 and earning a brilliant 3-0 success at then leaders Stockport County on November 8. Since that triumph at Edgeley Park though, Town’s efforts outside of Bedfordshire have fallen off a cliff, with five defeats from six games, taking just one point from a possible 18 when drawing 1-1 at Leyton Orient, meaning their last victory is now over three months ago.

They have conceded 12 goals in that sequence, failing to find the net themselves for almost two months too, when Nigel Lonwijk netted in a 3-2 reverse at Reading before Christmas, losing their last three matches by a solitary goal to Exeter City, Plymouth Argyle and Huddersfield Town. Luton still have 16 games left, seven at home and nine on the road, as after visiting leaders Cardiff this weekend, they have to go to Wigan Athletic, Port Vale, Wycombe Wanderers, Rotherham United, AFC Wimbledon, Mansfield Town, Bolton Wanderers and Doncaster Rovers.

With Town now four points away from the top six, on how improvements are essential to give them any chance of finishing above that dotted line, Wilshere said: “Yes, I think that’s clear. When I came in it was the other way around, as I remember having conversations about, we’re going away from home now and it’s probably a little bit easier. Credit to the players for turning the home form back around and getting the fans back with us, getting the fans believing in what we’re doing and the players do that with their behaviours and how they act on the pitch, but then ultimately it’s about winning games.

"We’ve been able to do that at home, of course results haven’t been good enough away from home, but if you broke down the performances and the moments in the game then we have shown some good spells. We have to show more ability to bounce back after a tough moment away from home. I think we find it easier at home with the energy the fans have been bringing us, so we have to find that away from home. That’s something that we’ve been speaking about and trying to improve, trying to cut out moments where we give away cheap goals.”

Asked if he has been making a big thing of it with his squad, Wilshere continued: “It’s clear, the players and me, we’re not stupid. We know that it’s not been good enough, we know that it requires something different. We’re not playing it up, we’re not playing it down, we’re just talking about the fact that we want to be winning games, some games are at home and then some games are away.

"We want to be going there with the same intention to try and win a game, but then understand that it’s going to be a little bit harder. There’s going to be moments where we’re going to have to suffer together like I said, so it’s clear for us. I don’t need to talk it up or talk it down as we’ve got players that really understand that.”

Having beaten Bradford City 2-1 at the weekend, it means that the Hatters were able to stretch their unbeaten run to 10 games on home soil, with six wins. On whether he is looking to try and replicate the kind of preparation that is going into games at Kenilworth Road, Wilshere continued: “We are, is the answer to that question, but it’s also quite difficult as it’s about finding comfort in the uncomfortable. Everything is different when you go away from home, we speak about that a lot, being together and having unity, even the dressing room and how they prepare is a little bit different and it’s not quite the same as it is at home.

"That’s something that we speak about, but we’re always looking at everything, even down to me and how I speak to the players, how I address them at half time, what do they need? What type of messages? Is it tactical? Is it a little bit more energy? Whatever it is, we’re always trying to find that little advantage for us that can help us because we know that it’s not been good enough.”

Wilshere does also know that just one positive result on the road could lead to a change in fortunes, as it has done at home, although also appreciated they couldn’t be going anywhere tougher to do it, the table-topping Bluebirds having won nine out of their last 10 league matches on home soil with one draw, their last defeat coming back on September 30 when they were surprisingly beaten 1-0 by Burton Albion.

He added: “That’s the beautiful thing about football and the crazy thing about football is that people will build it up and say it’s not been good enough, we know that and we don’t want to focus on that too much, but we also understand that. The other thing is we’re going away to top of the league and we want to go there and impose our game and try to win the game, if it does then everyone has a different perspective of it.

“We’ve struggled away from home with teams that are direct, put balls in your box. I’m not saying that they won’t put balls in our box, but they try and do it in a different way which we have to be ready for, so let’s see. It’s a good game, a good challenge for us, a good marker to see how far we’ve come since I’ve come in and test ourselves against top of the league.

“It’s a game that excites me, excites us and we’ve been talking about it this week. I’ve spoken about certain games in this league, maybe Bolton, Huddersfield as well, exciting games where in my opinion, teams try and play the right way. Every coach has a different way of playing, that doesn’t mean that either way is right or wrong, but these games excite me, excite the players. When you add that little bit of, a big stadium, I’ve played there as a player, been there as a coach last season, they’ve got good fans, they’ve got loud fans, so it’s an exciting game for us.”