Wilshere urges Luton fans to 'stick together' after Town are booed off

Luton boss Jack Wilshere has urged the club’s supporters to try and ‘stick together’ following some ugly scenes after today’s hugely frustrating 1-1 draw with Burton Albion at Kenilworth Road.

With home fans still frustrated following a week in which their side lost to both Cardiff City and Wigan Athletic, the Hatters looked to have given themselves the perfect chance to allay their concerns, moving in front on 13 minutes when Nahki Wells took Joe Johnson’s pass in his stride to go clean through and tuck his finish past Bradley Collins. However a game seriously lacking in anything remotely resembling quality saw Town fail to build on their advantage, without another meaningful effort on target afterwards, which left them open to a Burton side, who hadn’t won in the league on the road since early November, hitting back.

They did so in the second minute of stoppage time, Fabio Tavares escaping at the back post to head home Udoka Godwin-Malife’s cross to snatch a share of the spoils, which immediately led to a cacophony of boos coming from the stands, which increased during the last moments of the fixture, and then reached a crescendo when the players walked round to try and show their appreciation to those who had come out after the full time whistle.

Skipper Kal Naismith had to be held back from confronting one fan by the boss, who also had words himself with another as he made his way down the tunnel, as asked for his reaction to what he witnessed, Wilshere said: “First of all, I understand their frustrations, I do. I’ve said that a lot, but right now we need them, we need them. I understand their frustrations, but it’s not for a lack of the players trying. They’re giving everything every single day, we work really, really hard to try and win games, to try and make supporters happy.

“I think you can see that the players are really lacking belief, they’re lacking confidence. It’s difficult then when in the first minute there’s booing, because we’re trying to create an identity, we’re trying to create a way of playing that we want to move forward with which we’ve done really well I think. Some games we’ve been excellent, I think we need to be more consistent, Cardiff wasn’t good enough, Wigan wasn’t good enough, we understand that, but right now, everyone needs to be together, everyone needs to stick together.

"We have to accept where we are, we’re in League One, that’s happened. I understand where the club was, I understand that supporters want to get back there, but we have to accept that we’re in League One and that’s the challenge. We have no right just to turn up and win games and expect that we can just do that as we can’t, you can clearly see that at the moment that is not the case. I doubt at any level that is the case and especially at this level. I look at teams that have come down from the Championship, this is a tough league where you have to fight for every single thing you get, every single thing to get a point, to get three points, to win a duel, whatever it is.

"We’re trying to do that, I think you can see that in the performance from the players today, I didn’t think we started that well, but we had intent, we wanted to play a certain way, a little bit slow at the start where we couldn't quite find our rhythm, but then we had a little bit of rhythm. We scored and then we tried to hold on to the lead and that for me tells me that the players are lacking in confidence, lacking in belief.

"I have to get the right amount of challenge, the right amount of care. We challenged them at half time, we said, ‘boys that’s not who we were, go and get the next goal.’ You can see they're trying, they're really trying, it’s hard for them right now and it’s frustrating, but it's not through a lack of fight. I thought their efforts were outstanding today and we need to do better with the ball and be more confident, but I thought without doing that we controlled a lot of their long balls and second balls apart from that one chance where we switch off and it hurts.”