Wilshere reveals Republic of Ireland international will earn FA Cup recall

Luton boss Jack Wilshere has confirmed that Republic of Ireland international Josh Keeley will be back between the posts for tomorrow afternoon’s FA Cup first round tie at home to Forest Green Rovers.

The 23-year-old had been number one for the majority of Wilshere’s time in charge since the former Arsenal and England star took over in October last year, starting every League One encounter bar the New Year’s Day 1-0 defeat at Exeter City. However, a poor start to the campaign individually saw Keeley dropped after conceding 13 goals in six games, beaten disappointingly from range in the 2-1 loss at Stevenage, as the James Shea came in for the 1-0 defeat at Bradford City.

The long-serving stopper has kept his place ever since, breached just eight times in eight matches, with his first clean sheet in the 2-0 win at Peterborough United on Saturday, going on to produce a commanding display in Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at league leaders Huddersfield Town as well. However, with Wilshere swapping his goalkeepers in cup competitions last term, that will be the case once more tomorrow, as speaking this afternoon, he said: “Josh Keeley will play tomorrow.

"He deserves it, and again, someone that I’ve been in constant communication with. He’s knocked on my door to see what he has to do to get back in the team, which I like, I was waiting for that. He knows what he has to do and part of that is training hard, working hard and he’s certainly done that. So he will be starting tomorrow, and it will be good to see him back.”

Having been on a punishing run of six games in 18 days going into the FA Cup, with five wins in that time propelling Luton up to fifth, Wilshere will have to make the decision on who can go again and who he rests against their non-league visitors, especially with Town not in league action again for another fortnight. He added: “How we work is we go game to game and you hear me sit here all the time saying about process. We’ve done some really good things which as a consequence you get better results, and we’ve done it more consistently which is nice.

"It’s another opportunity to keep building on that and it’s the FA Cup which I love, everyone loves. So another game that we have to keep building. The schedule has been really demanding and naturally players are tired. However, I’ve also been there when you do feel a bit of fatigue as a player, but the team are playing well, you’re competing well and you just want the games to continue, so there’s that.

"It gives you an opportunity to maybe change a few players and rest a few, but then the international break then gives you an opportunity to rest and recover. We know that we’ve got some days after to recover, so we want to get the balance right in that break of the rest the players deserve as they’ve earned it, but also get some work in the areas that we think we can improve.”