Luton boss Jack Wilshere admitted his men were “not good enough” as they slumped to an embarrassing 1-0 defeat to ten-man Huddersfield who, for a numerically depleted hour, still outfought and outthought them, condemning the Hatters to a third straight away loss by the same scoreline.
A sensational halfway-line strike from Terriers captain Ryan Ledson – the hosts’ only shot on target – proved decisive but it barely told the full story of a night that felt season-defining for both clubs. With the Yorkshire side starting the evening in sixth and Luton just below them, Huddersfield reignited their promotion push under new boss Liam Manning, while the Hatters were left in despair. Empty.
Fans may now point to the tumbleweed of a rapidly closing transfer window, in which Town have so far only tempted two loan signings, in Manchester City youngster in Emilio Lawrence seeking his first foray into men’s football and Hull’s Kasey Palmer. Wilshere hinted at movement in the final few days, but warned there is no quick fix.
“There is an opportunity, there is a chance,” he said. “But I don’t think bringing one player in is going to solve everything. There’s issues we have to look at to try and solve within this group, within this culture, within the whole place. we can bring one or two players in but we need to change a lot of things.”
Luton’s play-off hopes are not mathematically over, but their away form tells a brutal story, while the 18 games left suggests they don’t have the time or the ability to break into the top six. It’s now one solitary point and no victory away from home for close to three months now. Circumstances dictated that this was the worst reverse in that run.
It all points to a destination of mid-table obscurity, a long way from the stated ambition of an immediate return to the Championship.
There were faint signs of promise in the first half, though without troubling keeper Lee Nicholls, as Palmer showed glimpses of quality before becoming the victim of Alfie May, who was sent off for pulling his hair just before the half-hour mark.
From that moment, the game should have tilted decisively in Luton’s favour. Instead, it unravelled.
After the break, disaster struck when Ledson launched an audacious effort from over 50 yards that sailed in, leaving the Hatters shell-shocked. What followed was even more damning. A Luton side with an extra man were bullied, with Huddersfield looking more likely to score again, even rattling the crossbar, before expertly seeing out seven agonising minutes of injury time.
Luton, yet again with the lion’s share of possession, mustered just one shot on target, a tame effort from Jordan Clark, who was bizarrely deployed as a lone striker, while strikers Nahki Wells and a returning from injury Ali Al-Hamadi remained on the bench until the 61st and 76th minutes respectively.
Wilshere did not attempt to sugar-coat the performance afterwards.
“Not good enough. Hard to take,” he told the BBC. “We have to win the game. Not even take a point. I thought we were the team that were trying in the first half and we spoke at half-time about what we need to do, make sure we did the basics really well and try to create more threat and put more numbers on the last line, and we simply didn’t do it. Not good enough.”
Captain Kal Naismith was resigned to the bench and while questions were raised about leadership, Wilshere was clear where he believes the real issue lies.
“I don’t think it’s a leadership problem, especially in the playing group,” he said. “Football’s different now to when I played. It demands a different type of leader. In my opinion we do have a leader like that in Kal. Kal is that guy.
“So, I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s a quality thing. You can see that we lack the final moment. We don’t trust ourselves enough to risk the ball in the final third, which you have to do. I wouldn’t say it’s a leadership problem.”
That lack of belief in decisive moments has become a recurring theme for three managers now, particularly away from home.
“We didn’t create enough clear-cut opportunities,” Wilshere admitted. “Against a block, we’ve struggled quite a lot this season, but they had one less, so we have to do better. When we do create moments there wasn’t enough bodies in the box, but we have to create more of those moments. as well”
The tension on the touchline was evident, but Wilshere took responsibility for the shortcomings.
“It’s frustrating but it’s on me,” he said. “It’s my job. My job is to make the players better and make sure they know how to create clear-cut opportunities. It’s frustrating but I’m also constantly thinking how can we change it, who can we put on? Can we put another forward player on? We tried to do that in taking Mads [Andersen] off, but we still couldn’t create those moments.”
The next challenge comes at home to Blackpool on Saturday, in front of Luton supporters Wilshere expects to be upset.
“We have to go into a place where fans wil be angry, rightly so,” he added of the Kenilworth Road occasion. “That wasn’t good enough tonight. We have to start by showing some character, some resilience, to win a game of football that we have to win.”
But even if the Hatters are able to do that, the bigger picture and question is: where do Luton go from here? Increasingly, it feels like nowhere at all.
Be the first to comment