Wilshere felt Town got 'everything we wanted' from Carabao Cup triumph

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere stated his side’s 3-0 win at Gillingham in the Carabao Cup first round this afternoon was ‘everything we wanted’ as Town made comfortable progress through to the next stage.

Luton handed debuts to two youngsters who had come up through the ranks, Benny Benagr and Jayden Luker, as Benagr made it 2-0 with a close-range finish in the second half, while Luker provided a terrific assist for Nahki Wells’ opener. Gideon Kodua then came off the bench to add a third, as the visitors also kept a clean sheet, meaning a hamstring injury for Luker was the only sour point of the encounter.

Speaking afterwards, Wilshere said: “It was everything we wanted, really good. I thought we were relentless with how we wanted to attack, we had variation in our attack, we probably could have maximised a few more opportunities in the first half but it doesn’t always happen. What you have to keep doing is keep that intent, that spirit and purpose to the attack and we did that, and we got three goals as well.

“We were in control (in the first half) and we created a few chances, but I liked our spirit to keep going with it. We want to play with purpose, we want to play with intent, but if a team is sat in a block you have to be patient, and we did that well. Then in the second half I thought they stepped out a little bit more, tried to be a little bit more aggressive, but credit to the players for recognising that, young Benny getting in behind them a few times, but we had variation which we’ve been crying out for for a while.”