I must admit when I left my house to go to Gillingham on Saturday, I didn’t foresee what a potentially important day it would turn out to be for Luton Town.
Of course, there was always the chance that, were we to beat Gillingham, we would get an away tie with either Chelsea or Tottenham, which is about as good a bonus money spinner as you are going to get in a transfer window.
We now know that tie has materialised and, despite the fixture farce it has created, that it could be vital to any late additions to the squad arriving. But the other reason why it turned out to be a big day was the emergence of two young stars to add to a growing collection of academy products making their way through the ranks.
I will admit I was a little surprised to see the names of Benny Benagr and Jayden Luker on the team sheet at Priestfield Stadium, but it was soon obvious to see why, with Luker assisting the first goal and Benagr scoring the second in a period where he terrorised the home defence.
Unfortunately for Luker, the day ended in disappointment as he limped off with a hamstring injury but for Benagr you would imagine the opportunities for him to impress will come along at a fair rate.
I’ve been lucky enough to see so many of our academy products come through and make names for themselves from Kingsley Black to Curtis Davies, Kevin Foley to Keith Keane, James Justin to Joe Johnson and everyone in between and as a fan there is nothing that makes you prouder than to see one of our own flourishing.
The debuts handed out on Saturday are in addition to Fin Evans, Zach Ioannides, Harry Fox, Jack Lorentzen-Jones and Dawid Gawel who all debuted under Wilshere in the Vertu Trophy last term, while Johnson and Christian Chigozie are recent graduates of the academy too.
That is to the credit of Wilshere for having the will to play those players, to the excellent academy staff headed up by Paul Benson and Wayne Turner who are doing a brilliant job and the players themselves for being good enough.
We might have to wait a while to see the continued progression of Luker but already all eyes will be on the team sheet on Saturday in the League One opener at Reading to see if Benagr has kept his place.
Whether he does or he doesn’t, based on his wonderful performance at Gillingham and subsequent news of him signing an extended contract, we are going to get the joy of seeing plenty more of the exciting winger.
With a really promising crop of youngsters gathering ahead of our move to our iconic new Power Court stadium in two years, as a mobile phone company once told the world, “The future’s bright, the future’s Orange!”
Fans’ view
Kevin Harper is the co-host of the newly rebranded They Tried To Kill Us Off… podcast. Watch the Reading v Luton preview episode below as he and The Lutonian writer James Cunliffe discuss more about Benny Benagr:
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