Wilshere praises Luton's winning response to being 'punched in the face' by Barnsley

Luton boss Jack Wilshere praised his side for recovering from being ‘punched in the face’ by Barnsley on Saturday to beat Huddersfield Town 2-1 just three days later at Kenilworth Road this evening.

After the weekend’s 5-0 humiliation at Oakwell in what was an absolutel horror show for the visitors, Town ensured they put that behind them at the very first attempt, as they began brightly, Jerry Yates going close from a corner, before the hosts did take the lead through Jake Richards’ excellent 22-yard drive that took a nick off Ryan Ledson to wrongfoot keeper Owen Goodman and fly into the roof of the net on 34 minutes.

Having produced their best 45 minutes on home soil since the ex-Arsenal and England star was appointed, the Hatters were then slightly off the boil in the early moments of the second period, Leo Castledine firing in a magnificent 25-yard free kick to level the scores just after the hour mark. Rather than go under though, Town took the game to their opponents, particularly through Lamine Fanne, as it was his shot that saw Jerry Yates slide in to turn over the line from a yard out on 71 minutes to secure all three points.

Asked how pleased he was with the reaction from the weekend’s debacle, Wilshere said: “It was very important. We got punched in the face on Saturday, punched, and it was tough. Sunday the boys were in, we sat down, we looked at the game, we gave them our opinions, they gave us their opinions and the most important thing tonight was that we got up, we showed character, we showed passion.

"It wasn’t a tactical thing, it was about desire, it was about winning duels, to play forward, to attack with a purpose. I thought we did that and I’m really proud of them for that. Second half they score, we get punched in the face again and we have to show even more character and they did that and I was really proud of them.”

Wilshere had made five changes to his side from that loss in South Yorkshire, with Nigel Lonwijk, Hakeem Odoffin, Fanne, Yates and Richards coming in for injured duo Nahki Wells and Izzy Jones, as Mads Andersen, Gideon Kodua and Zack Nelson dropped to the bench. On his selection, the boss added: “Nahki’s injured, Izzy wasn’t fit, but we spoke about that before. I made that clear to the players before the game at the weekend that someone might not be in the squad for this game, but they’re probably going to play Tuesday and it was the same tonight.

"We’re only allowed seven subs in this league, so sometimes when I’m picking a bench it’s really hard and literally the only thing I can say to the players is we don't have space on the bench. I have to make those decisions and it’s going to be like that. The players, they just need to make sure they’re ready. They need to eat right, they need to sleep right, they need to train right and when called upon, be ready to go.”