Wilshere felt 'passion' was behind angry scenes following Tykes win

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere felt the passion and determination to win was behind the melee between both sets of coaching staff following last night's 2-1 victory over Barnsley at Kenilworth Road.

During the contest, headers from Mads Andersen and Nahki Wells put the hosts 2-0 in front in the first half, as substitute Makenzie Kirk then replied with an hour gone, before there was a moment of controversy in the 90th minute when Amani Richards broke into the box and went over the outstretched leg of Kal Naismith.

Referee Carl Brook instantly blew his whistle, but with Town’s captain’s heart no doubt in his mouth, the official didn’t point to the spot, instead giving the hosts a free kick and booking the Tykes substitute for a dive, leading to both managers having words with each other on the touch-line following the decision.

Luton were then able to see out the final moments to secure victory and make it five straight defeats for their visitors, as when going to shake hands after the result, Wilshere reacted angrily to opposite number Daniel Stendel, which led to some pushing and shoving between the pair. As Wilshere walked away to congratulate his players, head of goalkeeping Kevin Pilkington also got involved, as did the two sets of backroom staff and substitutes, with players also running over, before it eventually died down.

Asked for his reaction to the incident, Wilshere said: “He just grabbed my hand, listen, he wants to win, I want to win. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and his team. I watched them a lot over the last few days, probably four or five games, they haven’t got the results they wanted, but they’re a good team. You can see they’ve got threat, I thought (Patrick) Kelly was outstanding in midfield, (Reyes) Cleary’s obviously continued from last season so they’re a threat and they’re also going through a transition period where they’re changing the style of play.

"They’re a high pressing team, they want to hit you on transition. I thought we managed that really well, but nothing but respect for them. At the end we shook hands and it’s just passion, I want to win, he wants to win, and that’s that. Listen, we have to be respectful and we are and they were as well in my opinion, but also sometimes you can see the togetherness in those moments where we wanted to win so badly and we’ve got each other’s back.”

Briefly giving his version of events afterwards, Stendel, who returned to Oakwell in the summer, continued: “It was a misunderstanding between me and Jack Wilshere. I tried to talk with him and it's not a big problem.”

Meanwhile, questioned as to whether he felt his side had a lucky escape by not conceding a penalty, Wilshere added: “Honestly, I don’t know, you never know in those situations, especially when there’s some things that the ref was letting go in the game and there’s some things he wasn’t. There’s a little bit of you don’t really know what’s a foul and what’s not. Kal is convinced it’s not, so I trust my skipper on that one.”