Wilshere admits Town were made to 'suffer' when narrowly avoiding FA Cup upset

A relieved Luton boss Jack Wilshere admitted that his side were certainly made to ‘suffer’ during their crazy 4-3 FA Cup first round victory over Forest Green Rovers on Friday night.

The Hatters had been coasting early in the second period, as with 53 minutes gone it looked like a case of how many they would get, Nahki Wells doubling his tally for the night, with Lamine Fanne also on target, before the National League side began their comeback. First, Tom Knowles’ effort deflected in on Teden Mengi, who then pushed over Harry Whitwell in the area for a penalty that Kyle McAllister drove into the bottom corner.

Robbie Savage’s side wiped out their deficit with their third goal in 18 minutes, Aidan Dausch slamming home with 11 minutes still left, as they should have then led, Laurent Mendy’s header hitting the crossbar and Knowles hammering over. However, Town substitute Gideon Kodua scored in stoppage time to make it 4-3 to Luton but even then the visitors should have forced extra time, an unmarked Dausch scuffing wide with seconds remaining.

After a pulsating evening, it meant the Hatters took their place in Monday’s draw for round two, as trying to sum up the contest, Wilshere said: “It’s tough to analyse and think exactly what it is, but we found a way in the end and I've just spoken about it after Mansfield, there’s times in football where you have to suffer, you have to suffer and you really see then what people are about and what we are about. Ultimately in the end we won the game, which I’m happy about, but it’s hard to analyse.

“When I talk about suffering, that’s probably the main skill you need in that is resilience, especially against teams that commit so many numbers forward. They put players on your last line and they compete for second balls, then one goal goes in, two goals go in, you’re looking around and then they equalise. They have a few more moments and we have to stay resilient, you have to find something else, you have to find a way. In football people talk about that a lot and that is resilience and suffering and fighting, and those things don’t change."

Although Town were given an almighty scare on the night, one thing that Wilshere was happy with was the fact that have being been pegged back to 3-3, the Hatters, who were a side bereft of confidence when he took over earlier this month, were able to come through that and still have the character to to up the other and and find the net themselves, winning a third game in succession for the first time since April.

He continued: "What I would say is three wins in a week, it’s important for the players. It’s been a while since they did that and it’s important that we keep winning. Yes, we have to look at certain things, but that’s very important and we spoke about that after the game. Especially where the players have been when I first came in, people talking about belief and a lack of confidence which there clearly was. There are things you can do in training, you can make it a little bit more enjoyable, you can give the players a little bit more clarity, but ultimately winning games is the best way of building confidence, is the best way of the players being convinced that we have to play in this way to win games.

“It’s tough as when you play against opposition like this and ultimately in the end how you win games is by showing your quality and we spoke about that before. I mentioned their effort and then trying to kill their spirit by being good on the ball and I think you saw that in the first half. At times we played out their first line, they pressed with a single nine, we played down the side, came back the other side, it was the right thing to do and we had to keep doing it.

"Then the second half changed, we lost our rhythm a little bit and then they created a little bit of momentum, but again credit to the lads. Ultimately in the end it was the quality when Ali (Al-Hamadi), the ball goes over him and instead of flicking it on, he’s got a bit of calm, makes one pass, then Sav (George Saville) makes a good pass, we clean it, a little bit of quality and we win the game.

"There’s so much over the last two weeks since I’ve been in that I’ve learned, but also it’s clear for the players that they know when we’re good it’s like this, and when we’re suffering a little bit we have to be like this. So we have to keep working on both of them and make sure that if we are winning 2-0 or 3-0 that we can manage the game and see it out in a better way.”

One thing that Wilshere did accept needs improving though was the manner in which Town tried and failed to keep the ball out of their own net during that made 20 minute period in the second half, as Rovers netted three times, and looked dangerous every single time they got within shooting distance of Josh Keeley’s goal.

He added: “Defending is a team thing. People go, ‘oh look at the defenders,’ but it’s really, really important that we defend with 11 players and so of course we don’t want to concede goals. Off the top of my head, I can’t even remember what they were like, they were very similar where we didn't defend our box well enough or we made one mistake and tried to fix it, and it led to another one.

"I can think of a few moments where we miss a tackle or we were out of position, we tried to fix it with someone else and I always think when that starts to happen and you make one mistake and try to fix it, there’s another and another. That is normally when you start to concede goals. We’ll show the players that and one thing I will say about this group of players as well is when we’re in the auditorium or when we’re having meetings, they are outspoken, they want to be coached, they want to be held accountable and that’s important.

“We have a group of players that want to grow and I think we know the way that we have to. So we have to look at that, of course we do, try and help the players get better, but as I said, I’m happy that we’re through. That was the main thing tonight, that we came here, we knew it was a big night, cameras were here, it was on TV, that creates a little bit of pressure as well. We managed it and we came through it in the end. It was amazing for the neutral and I’m sure there’s a lot of people at home watching it excited for the rest of the games this weekend. It was a good way to start it for them, not so good for me, for my heart-rate, but we won it and we’re through to the next round.”