Wilshere urges Town fans to 'stick with us' after a 'special' Kenilworth Road welcome
New boss gets wonderful ovation before first game in charge
New Luton manager Jack Wilshere thanked Town’s fans for giving him one of the best moments of career ahead of his first game in charge at the weekend, as he went on to urge supporters to ‘stick with us’ following the miserable 2-0 defeat to Mansfield.
Ahead of kick-off there was a clear and quite obvious buzz around a sold-out Kenilworth Road, as those in attendance couldn’t wait to herald their new boss’s arrival, the ex-England international named as Matt Bloomfield’s successor on Monday, heading back to a club where he had been part of the Centre of Excellence prior to moving to Premier League Arsenal as a youngster.
Waiting inside the tunnel for what seemed like an age, Wilshere eventually headed out to a wonderful ovation from his new fans as he applauded all sides of the ground when making his way across the playing surface to take up residence in the home dug-out for the first time. Asked just what it felt like to hear such a noise from the crowd, plus what it felt like taking his first game as manager, he said: “First of all the moment before the game probably hasn’t sunk in yet, but it was probably one of the best moments of my career. I felt the love, I heard the noise, my kids were in the stadium as well, so it was a special moment.
"I didn't know what to expect when I went out, they were amazing so thank you. Of course we would have liked to have repaid the fans with three points but our message to them is stick with us. This is a journey, this is something that we have all committed too. We know the size of the task, we know the pressure of the task, but we’re going to give it our all to try and help the players, get them to be successful and I loved it. I loved it on the side of the pitch, its been four months (since his time at Norwich City) and you can’t quite replace that feeling with anything so amazing. Unfortunately we didn’t get the win, but we’ll be trying next week.”
With Town trailing 1-0 to Rhys Oates’ curler just before half time, they then conceded again on the hour mark, Tyler Roberts’ comfortably doing what Nahki Wells had failed to do when the scores were goalless, netting from the penalty spot. From that moment on, Luton’s shoulders visibly slumped though, as bar a late Zack Nelson shot that flew over, the hosts never realistically looked capable of threatening any kind of consolation.
Although Wilshere himself received some applause afterwards, the lack of fight and desire on display led to Town’s players booed off yet again at the end by those who had remained at the ground, the Hatters now dropping to 14th in the table, as asked about seeing that for the first time, and whether it tempered his experience ahead of the fixture, Wilshere added: “Of course I can understand it, but it doesn’t take that moment away in my opinion. That will always be with me and of course we wanted to repay them with three points, but it wasn’t to be. As I said, my message to them is stick with us. Of course I understand frustration, of course I’ve only been here one game and they’ve experienced since the Premier League a lot of times where they’ve lost games, so stick with us.
"I’m not naive enough to think this is going to happen and everyone’s going to smile next week, we’re going to turn up and win. We have to get to work and if we’ve learned anything about this league then you have to compete in every single moment and I think we did. I didn’t ever think we weren’t in any duels, I didn’t ever think that the players weren’t trying. It was just a game of spells and changed when they scored so we need to get better but also stay calm.
"It’s going to be a journey and I felt like the performance was more important. We didn't get a consistent performance, could we have expected a consistent performance? Maybe not because of all the things that have happened this week, all the changes. We had players away, they came back Thursday, so listen, this is the start of a journey that we are fully committed to, I am fully committed to. I feel like the players are as well and we’ll get better. It might take some time, but we’ll do that.”