Town striker had been 'raging' after a full debut he called a 'disaster'

Striker Callum Marshall admitted he was left ‘raging’ by a full league debut that he labelled a ‘disaster’ when Town were thrashed 5-2 at Mansfield on Sunday, before Luton bounced back at the first attempt by beating Stockport County 2-0 at Kenilworth Road on Wednesday evening.

The 21-year-old was one of eight summer signings made by Hatters chief Jack Wilshere to bolster his squad with every intention of fighting to attain one of the automatic promotion spots in League One this term. Having suffered a slight knock in his opening friendly encounter against Go Ahead Eagles, it saw the Northern Ireland international miss out on the squad for Town’s first competitive fixture of the campaign, that a 3-0 Carabao Cup first round victory at League Two side Gillingham.

Marshall was then on the bench for the opening third tier contest though, coming on in the 4-3 victory at Reading, before also used as a substitute once more when Notts County were in town, showing just why he was snapped up for an undisclosed fee, and why he enjoyed such a prolific youth spell with the Hammers, swivelling on the edge of the box to drive into the bottom corner to make it 2-2 and earn the hosts a point with one of his first touches.

The forward then got his chance from the start against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup, as although he was forced to defend for the majority of the contest, earned great praise from onlookers for his work-rate in trying to occupy the Blues defenders at Stamford Bridge. It saw Wilshere keep faith with Marshall ahead of top scorer Nahki Wells at the One Call Stadium on Sunday, but he barely featured as Town’s defence produced a woeful display, conceding five times ahead of the hour mark.

With Wells coming on and scoring twice in the closing stages, it led to Marshall being back as a substitute against the other Hatters in midweek, although introduced after 65 minutes, demonstrated his unbelievable finishing technique once more, firing in a scorching 25-yard drive to seal the points for Wilshere’s men.

Having kept a clean sheet after the horror show at the Stags, who themselves lost 5-0 at Reading in midweek, Marshall was thrilled to swiftly wipe the memory of the weekend away, particularly against a County side who had the better of things in the opening 45 minutes and could count themselves unlucky to depart Bedfordshire empty-handed, as speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio, he said: “I’m just happy to get the goal and that was a great win.

"I think we showed a different side to our game. Sunday was a disaster and we had to show that at the very least we were going to get stuck in and show the grit needed to win a game of football as Sunday was miles off it. I think it affects the players more than anyone. It was my first start in the league, so I was raging that that was what my first league start had gone down as. We all knew we had to put it right and luckily we had a game three days later and we didn't have to dwell on it for too long.

"The quicker we get that out of our system, the better I think and we showed that we’re one of the best teams in the league when we play how we should. There’s no good having great tactical footballers if we’re not going to win the battles to get ourselves to play. That was the best thing, showing we could do that as well.

"In the first half, one of the first things I said when we went in, we were under the cosh there for a good bit, but no game of football, especially in League One, are you going to be on top for 90 minutes. We have to show, especially after Sunday, we had to show that we could do the other side of the game and that we can defend as a team, and then when we get our chances, we know we have quality, we can hit them on the break.

"I should have had another on the break which I was disappointed with, but the most important thing in football is winning. It doesn’t matter how you do it in my opinion, you worry about the performance after the result, as long as we try our best and get stuck in, then I think the fans will come with us, but we can’t let Sunday happen again, it has to be a one-off.”

Town will now have to replicate that when they face an in-form Leyton Orient on Saturday, who won both of their away matches in the league without conceding a goal, following up a 2-0 success at Wigan Athletic with a stunning 5-0 success at Bromley on Tuesday night. Marshall added: “We know it will be another tough match. I watched their highlights and they had a big win, so they'll be high in confidence. We’ve got to do the same things again and hopefully we can turn this place into a hard place to come, keep pushing on and getting another three points."