Wilshere satisfied with Trotters point although felt Luton could have grabbed all three
Town chief reacts to 1-1 draw with Bolton
Although insisting his side could have nicked all three points, Luton boss Jack Wilshere was left satisfied with the outcome when drawing 1-1 against in-form Bolton Wanderers at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.
The Hatters, who had bounced back from losing 5-0 at Barnsley last weekend when defeating Huddersfield Town 2-1 on Tuesday night, while the visitors were having a night off, had to go again on home soil against a side who were unbeaten in six games over all competitions, winning five in a row at one stage, also keeping three successive clean sheets in the league too.
It was Steven Schumacher’s impressive visitors who struck first, former Luton target Aaron Morley taking a touch and and swivelling to fire past Josh Keeley on just eight minutes, as the Trotters were without doubt one of the best sides that the Hatters have faced so far this term. Town weren’t without their moments in the opening 45 minutes, Jerry Yates seeing calls for a penalty turned down, while Liam Walsh fired over the bar and had another attempt deflected narrowly wide.
After the break, despite Amario Cozier-Duberry heading wide from six yards, Luton began to dominate proceedings, especially when Xavier Simons was sent off for his second booking with 70 minutes on the clock. Wilshere’s side were finally able to make their extra man count though, as with seven minutes left, all three substitutes combined, Shayden Morris’s cross deflected by Milli Alli for Gideon Kodua to shoot through the legs of visiting keeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe to earn a point.
Speaking afterwards, Wilshere, who also saw his side force 13 corners in the contest, said: “I think we deserved it actually. I thought we took a while to get going, we were playing against a good team, so they make some nice rotations and cause you some problems we had to solve. I thought we could have maybe solved them a little bit quicker and then they score in that moment which is a bit of a punch in the head, but we responded well.
"Then once we solved what they were trying to do in the build-up, I thought we had some success. We definitely have to have one penalty, probably two penalties in the first half, so probably after the week, the context of the week, how big it’s been and how important it’s been, the five-nil and then to comeback and all the energy we had to put into the game and then recover and go again against one of the best teams in the league, I think I’m happy with the week.
“We probably saw a team that are one of the best in the league, closer probably to a Championship side and the level in the Championship is they have threats everywhere, so I felt like we solved it pretty well after their goal. I know the context is different now they’re protecting something but once we did solve it, we created some moments in the first half, we had the best opportunities after that in my opinion.
"The message at half time was about believing, we have to believe that we can win this game as we’ve created so many good moments and I definitely saw that in the second half. I know they went down to 10 men, but even when they had 11 men, I felt like we were building into the game, we were creating opportunities, one of them just has to go in. We have to score a set-piece at some point, but overall I’m happy.”