Wilshere shares why he played Robbie Savage's pre-match chat to his Luton players before cup tie

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere revealed he showed some of Forest Green manager Robbie Savage’s press conference to his Luton players in the changing room prior to their 4-3 FA Cup triumph at Kenilworth Road on Friday night in an attempt to gee them up ahead of the tie.

The 51-year-old former Wales international, who took over the National League club in the summer, had been discussing his side’s chances of causing an upset in their first round clash, and drawing comparisons between the squad he had at his disposal and those at Wilshere’s who are currently playing two tiers higher in League One.

Speaking to the Rovers official website, Savage had stated: “My players are more than capable of playing against a League Two team, a League One team and winning. What's the difference between a League One player and our players? Are they as dynamic? No. Are they as motivated? Probably the same. Are they as passionate? No. Are they as together? Probably the same.

"What League One players do, and some of our players have played in League One, they’ll make the right decisions more consistently, they’ll take things on board a bit quicker, they'll see pictures quicker, but inevitably in terms of work ethic, work-rate, some of our players can play at League One. So I’m going to tell our players, go and show everybody how good you are.”

When doing their preparation for the match, TNT Sports had a camera in the Hatters’ changing room which captured Wilshere pointing out to the TV screen that was showing Savage’s interview. Asked why by host Laura Woods, the Town chief said: “He was saying about the difference between his players and League One players and I wanted the players to see it. I showed them it and I agree with him, I agree with a lot of the stuff he said about decision making, but I said actually I think we’re not League One players, we've got a bit more quality than that and you need to go and show them. I thought we did in the first half, second half we can look at it, but I wanted them to see that.”

While the game was on, Savage was particularly animated on the touch-line, blowing his top when a ball over the top flicked off the head of a Luton defender to send one his players through, only to be wrongly flagged offside. Trailing 3-0 with an hour gone, he was far happier once his side had got it back to 3-3 late in the second half, with a rye smile on his face when Gideon Kodua scored in injury time.

The ex-Leicester midfield then had his head in his hands after an unmarked Aidan Dausch sliced a volley wide in the final seconds, as on what it was like going up against the ex-Leicester and Derby player, Wilshere said: “Since I came in here and my first job as a manager, I’ve been trying to really look at how I behave on the touch-line and try to stay calm and try to help the players be able to make good decisions, which I think I’ve done a good job of.

"Listen I love Robbie’s energy, I love his character, he said to me at one point, ‘that chance was onside,’ and I said to him, ‘you’ve only said it about 100 times!’ So we had a nice little bit on the bench, but I said it before, if you think of a Robbie Savage team, that is it, it’s a credit to him and I wish them all the best for the rest of the season.

“I think there’s mutual respect, I respect him, he respects me. He’s trying to find his way as a coach and I’m trying to find my way as a coach. I think there’s a lot to be said for that and he can probably help me with certain things, I can help him with certain things, as coaches as ex-players, we have to be able to help each other.”

Keeping his cool calm when in the dug-out was something that Wilshere feels is vital, no more so than when Town were conceding goals in such a short space of time during the second period. He continued: "It's tough, you have to stay calm and you have to make decisions and you want the players to see you’re calm as well because at times I felt we were a little bit rushed. When they got the second, I felt like we panicked a bit and I wanted the players to see we were calm and trying to make the right decisions.

"It's difficult, of course it is, but it's always tough when you’re a player and sometimes you make a mistake and then you don't fix a mistake and then you make another mistake. I think it was probably a little bit of where we've been all season, when we are challenged, it’s tough for us sometimes, but night’s like this, even though it feels like it was tough, we came through it and we won it and hopefully we can use it.”

One thing that Wilshere knows his side will need to do more is cope with the carnage better that was created during a second period in which Rovers threw caution to the wind and dominated proceedings, coming inches away from causing one of the upsets of the round. He said: “It just felt like one of them where every time they were going in our box, it wasn’t like a nice bit of play, it was a bit of carnage and it would fall to someone. Sometimes you need to ride your luck and we certainly did then.

“I’ve said before, some things they don't leave football. There’s so many amazing things and you look at Pep (Guardiola) and Mikel (Arteta) and people say it’s amazing, let me tell you, I’ve seen the way Mikel works, the standards he demands and out of possession, winning your duels and earning the right, that doesn’t leave the game.

"We have to make sure that we’re still doing that, but we’ve got a good group of lads, we’ve got leaders in there, we’ve got characters in there and you saw that at the end. I know at times it’s probably felt like it’s been missing this season, but since I've been here, the Mansfield game we probably could have done better and showed a little bit more courage, but since then it's been there and we have to keep that.”

One thing that Wilshere was happy with was the way his side varied their attacks though during the evening, as he added: “Even in certain moments we can do better. In the first half, I agree we had a lot of control and the game we spoke about was trying to trust the possession a little bit more, not being stupid and playing in dangerous areas, but maybe going one side and then moving across to the other side to open up more spaces. We did that a few times and had some real nice passages.

"We have to be more consistent with it, but we have to also understand when they’re being a little bit more aggressive that it’s probably not the right time to do that and we have to get behind them, but I think we are, we’re getting better at that. We’re developing that and that's something that’s going to take a while, but what it takes is experiencing it, sitting down and showing the players it. That is the process of development, but we’re definitely on that road.”