Wilshere reveals what his message was at half time ahead of Luton fightback

Luton boss Jack Wilshere revealed just what message he told his players during the half time interval which saw them able to turn a 3-1 deficit into a remarkable 4-3 victory at Reading this afternoon.

After taking an early lead through Jake Richards, Town were then hit three times in around half an hour by former striker Jack Marriott, as he was able to score a hat-trick that appeared to have consigned Wilshere’s charges to defeat on the opening day of the season. However, the Hatters, buoyed by their manager’s words of wisdom, went out for the second period and scored three times themselves, Kasey Palmer with two of them to ensure they were level by the 52 minute mark.

The near 2,500 away fans then had to wait until deep into stoppage time to celebrate again, although they did so in something of a frenzy when substitute Gideon Kodua slammed home right in front of them to make it 4-3 and claim all three points. Asked what he had told his players, Wilshere said: “That was my message, come on lads, let’s be who we are and be good at it. We’ve worked really, really hard to get into this spot and every single day in training we’re doing things that are going to help us. It’s for these moments when you get to the big stage on a Saturday, when you’re playing a game, it’s not, we don’t do it for fun, we have to do it to win games, have a threat, to be dangerous when we’re with the ball.

"I would say the second half I thought we did that really well. We recognised how we’re going to stop them being aggressive with the press, Walshy (Liam Walsh) was outstanding in there and we had a threat. Sometimes the first game, everyone, including them, including us, me, their manager, is so desperate to win and do well. I think there’s a little bit of anxiety, probably from everyone, and that’s when you have to fall back to your processes, your principles, of what you always work on.”

Although Wilshere’s words helped his players go out and perform the heroics he did, the Town boss was eager to praise his squad for being able to keep their heads, even when changing ends facing a two-goal deficit, especially against a side who had done the double over them last season. He added: “We have to start with the character and resilience of this group, which I keep saying.

"Yes we have to do a lot of things better, I thought in the first half we were comfortable at times, we got the goal, got the start we wanted, started on the front foot, put them under pressure, but we stopped doing it We had a lot of control, but I thought they were comfortable with that, and then we have to have different types of threat, more variation in attack. Even that being said, I thought at times when we got into the final third, we didn’t close the pitch up, we didn’t lock them in, and we gave them three goals which is frustrating.”