Wilshere doesn't want Luton to keep having to demonstrate their fighting spirit
Town suffer defeat having come back from 2-0 down at Reading
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere wants his side to stop being forced into showing the kind of ‘character’ and ‘resilience’ they have been having to demonstrate on a regular basis in recent weeks.
During Luton’s last handful of outings, Town have had to constantly hit back from behind, first trailing Bolton Wanderers for a large portion of their League One contest at Kenilworth Road before Gideon Kodua slammed home to make it 1-1 and earn a point in the closing stages. Wilshere then saw the Hatters reply twice when being 1-0 and 2-1 down against Fleetwood in their FA Cup second round fixture, only to eventually suffer a penalty shootout loss.
Kodua bagged yet another late goal, heading home in stoppage time to earn a 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient, before Luton had fallen 2-1 behind at home to Port Vale on home soil recently, but were able to salvage something courtesy of Mads Andersen’s header from Liam Walsh’s corner. They were at it again on Thursday evening as conceding twice before the hour mark, were then able to get back to 2-2 thanks to strikes from Jordan Clark and Nigel Lonwijk that restored parity.
On this occasion they still left empty-handed though, the Royals taking advantage of some slack defending to immediately retake the lead and triumph 3-2, as although Wilshere was happy with the fighting spirit, he doesn’t want it to become a constant theme, saying: “I know people don’t want to hear it, and I keeping saying it, but there has to be something in that character, that resilience, that will help up, that will help us later in the season in tight moments.
"Ultimately we want to stop having to show that character and resilience, but at the moment we keep having to do it. I think we can stop those moments and show a different type of character, a different type of resilience to really keep the foot on their throat and kill them, enjoy attacking, sustained attacks and stop transitions, then we’ll be better for that, as it’s (defeat) really frustrating.”
The Town manager does believes though that after over two months in charge, his charges are beginning to produce the kind of football that he is going after, although their inability to prevent goals from going in at the other end, as was the case at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Thursday evening, is proving an issue, continuing: “We’re starting to build that identity and who we are, but the identity involves in possession, out of possession, transition moments, set-plays, in this league especially.
"I said that to the players. I said you know this league better than me, you’ve played more games in it, you know how tough it can be in the moments, you know how tough it can be if you concede first, you know the stat about if you concede first you’re going to lose the game a lot of the time. It’s frustrating as we spoke a lot about how we start games and how we want to take control early, build momentum, kill their spirit a little bit and I felt like we did do that, but then that one moment in transition where they get a penalty, it’s so frustrating."
With over 1,000 Hatters fans making the trip to Berkshire last week, Wilshere felt that those in the away end were able to witness what his players just are trying to achieve too after a disappointing showing when facing Port Vale in their previous encounter, adding: “I think they can see, they’re frustrated, we’re frustrated with the goals and they should be frustrated with the goals as well, but they can see our intentions to try and dominate, try and attack. They were good and we appreciate their support at the end of the game as I think that helps the players.”