Wilshere hails 'excellent' Hatters as Town bounce back to reach Vertu Trophy final

Luton boss Jack Wilshere was thrilled by the manner in which his side bounced back from going a goal down against Northampton Town to reach the Vertu Trophy final with a 2-1 victory over the Cobblers at Kenilworth Road.

Despite dominating large parts of the first period, the Hatters found themselves behind on 17 minutes when a deep free kick saw Kyle McAdam left unmarked to head home at the back post. However, Town were able to draw level early in the second period, a splendid move involving Liam Walsh and Jordan Clark seeing Nahki Wells tap home from close range.

Luton then won it, and earned their spot at the home of English football with eight minutes left, Liam Walsh’s first time strike from Kal Naismith’s corner deflecting into the net off visiting defender Dean Campbell, as the midfielder netted his first goal for the Hatters. Speaking afterwards, Wilshere said: “I thought we were excellent.

"I’m not happy with the goal and I know the players won’t be because I feel like we’ve actually been really good at defending set-pieces and we need to get back to being really, really good at it, because it’s a threat in this league. So I’m disappointed with that, but I thought the way we started the game was good, with real purpose, with intent, variation in the way we attacked, a threat on goal, shots on goal, which lifts the crowd, lifts the energy.

"After their goal I felt like while still being in control and having a lot of control in the game, we lost a little bit of purpose, a little bit of intensity, so that was the message at half time. Let’s lift the intensity, let’s keep the purpose when we’re attacking, really believe in it. We got into really dangerous areas, and probably should have had more, but happy that we came back into it. We showed lot of character and it was a really good performance.”