Wilshere will continue to take his time with Luton's young 'fox in the box'

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere has reiterated that he will continue to take his time with young forward Dawid Gawel despite the teenager scoring his first senior goal for the club during last week’s Jersey Mike’s Trophy clash against Ipswich Town U21s.

The 17-year-old, who moved to Luton from Everton in July 2025, had a stunning campaign last term, scoring over 40 goals for the Hatters age-groups, while with more than 50 goal contributions to his name, was selected as the SoLYD Young Player of the Season at the Luton Town Supporters' Trust awards evening.

It led to Gawel being handed his first team debut for Town in their Vertu Trophy clash with Swindon Town, coming on for the closing stages, while this season, he has stepped up to play for the U21s on a more regular basis, beginning their recent 4-0 Premier League Cup group stage defeat to Peterborough United U21s.

Back in the first team squad that took on the Tractor Boys just under a week ago, Gawel was then brought on for Devante Cole with 11 minutes left and only needed seven to open his account, taking Joe Johnson’s pass inside the area and clinically picking out the bottom corner with his left foot.

While Wilshere knows and expects that the clamour for his inclusion in the senior squad for their League One campaign will now intensify, he remains steadfast in his decision not to rush him through, saying: “We need to give him the right challenge at the right time and his next challenge in my opinion is to do that consistently for the 21s.

"I’ve watched a few games and 21s football is different to 18s football, as it’s a step up. He’s done okay in certain games, but he also needs to find his way at that level and get the experience he needs there. Score some goals there and then push us, push me. In training he has an opportunity to do that as well, but I’m really happy he got his goal.

“He’s a fox in the box and he might be disappointed as well as he had a couple of other chances. You can see his movement, especially for the last chance, the linesman gave it offside, it wasn’t, but as soon as he recognises the defender’s body shape is in a certain position, he tries to attack in behind them and he’s developing really well.

"Credit to the academy coaches, as we try and get the balance right with Dawid. His goalscoring record with the under-18s was outstanding last season. It’s not normal to score that many goals and now his challenge is to take that into the under-21s and do that consistently, while getting the right amount of first team experience and training like he did. He’s developing really well and he needs to keep going like that.”