Wilshere will be kept abreast of play-off drama during Trotters clash

Luton boss Jack Wilshere will make sure he is kept abreast of the unfolding drama that is the race for the League One play-offs when on the touch-line at Bolton Wanderers tomorrow afternoon.

The situation for the Hatters is quite clear, come out on top against the Trotters, who are already assured of a top six berth, and then hope that either Bradford City lose to relegation-threatened Exeter City, Stockport County are beaten by Barnsley, or Stevenage fail to beat Wigan Athletic on home soil. A draw would be enough if Stevenage are defeated by the Latics and Plymouth Argyle in eighth can’t win at rock bottom Northampton Town, but that looks less and less likely to happen.

While some managers might prefer not to have constant updates regarding what is happening elsewhere, that won’t be the case for Wilshere, as he said: “For me personally, I’m so in it, I’m so in the game that sometimes you do forget, but we’ve spoken as staff this week about someone being aware of what’s happening elsewhere. We’ll assign someone to that, but my job and my focus is on us, trying to make sure that we put ourselves in the position that if something does happen, we’re ready to take advantage of that.”

It worked well for Wilshere against Barnsley on Saturday, as Kasey Palmer popped up with a late winner to down the Tyles 2-1 and ensure the season did indeed go to this weekend's exciting finale, as he continued: “The last game we played was the first time that Powelly (Chris Powell) called me over and said that we need to win this. Before we scored there was a chance that Ali (Al-Hamadi), we were going to put him on to try and go two up top to try and go and win the game.

“Then we came up with the goal and we felt that we have to win so let’s protect a little bit, which we did really well. Of course tomorrow’s position changes throughout the game so we have to be aware of that, the staff I mean. The players’ job is just to focus on the pitch and try to make sure that we can put ourselves in the position to win the game.”

Knowing that Luton simply have to come out on top in the game if they want to extend their season, then having been involved in a host of must-win scenarios for the past few weeks, able to record seven victories from nine fixtures, claiming 23 points from a possible 27, including lifting the Vertu Trophy final at Wembley too, can be to their advantage, according to Wilshere. He stated: “I suppose it’s a little bit like the cup final we had recently. We know the context, we know the situation that we’re going into, but that being said it’s also felt like that for a few weeks.

"Without necessarily talking about it, we were in that situation, so I feel like the players know how to deal with that. We spoke about it all the time, there’s no point in hiding away from that fact. The context is, yes, we have to win, we spoke about that going into the final, we spoke about people saying don’t play the occasion, but we have to accept what occasion it is.

"We have to accept what we need to do going into it and give ourselves the best chance of doing that. Credit to the players for that, as, as much as I can stand in front of them and say focus on us, we actually have to do that and they’ve done that for the last 10, 11 games where we know going into every game, pretty much that we had to win.

"That creates a certain pressure and the players feel that. They look at the table, they talk between each other and to go and do that and pick up a bit of form, pick up a bit of momentum, even in the games where I felt we weren’t quite at it, I always felt the players knew the importance of it and they’d step up and deliver something and that’s all credit to the players.”

With so much at stake on the day, Wilshere stated just how vital it is that the senior members of the team step up to give themselves every chance of continuing their terrific run of form, saying: “The leaders in the group are really important with that. When you have a few young players, sometimes they don’t quite understand that context. When you have players in that dressing room that have been there, lived it and demand that from everyone, it’s really helpful and that’s my job, but also the job of the leaders in the group.

“We have to make sure that we’re in a position where after the game, we can start talking about our form and who we’re going to play against and what that means going into the play-offs, but we’re not in there yet. That’s been my message to the players who have got themselves in a position where we’ve given ourselves a chance, but that’s all it is. We have to make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity to take that chance and hope that other results go our way.”

On the tone he will set prior to the game, Wilshere added: “The same way we’ve been doing it, try to give the players belief. I think the last two days have been about trying to get the players to understand the plan, how we’re going to play and how we’re going to beat them, and then the next 24 hours when we leave here is making the players feel comfortable, giving them belief, getting them together, increasing the energy.

"There’s a great togetherness in this group and they love being together. Spending time together tonight, having dinner and then tomorrow, have a meeting in the morning with the players, clarify a few things and then it will be about trying to give them confidence, trying to give them belief, trying to give them their own little bit of space before a game which some of them like, and hopefully by three o’clock we’ll be ready to go.”