Jack Wilshere apologised to Luton’s travelling supporters after admitting he “didn’t recognise” his side during a 5-2 humiliation at Mansfield Town.
The Hatters had been praised for their performance in Thursday’s 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Premier League Chelsea but produced the complete opposite just 65 hours later as the Stags tore them apart at the One Call Stadium.
Town conceded three times in the first half, through a Nathan Moriah-Welsh’s brace and a Louis Reed goal, and they conceded another two inside the opening 12 minutes of the second, when Jon Russell helped himself to a double before substitute Nahki Wells scored twice late on to narrow the scoreline.
The defeat was Luton’s first in League One since March and ended their unbeaten run across the end of last season and the opening weeks of the new campaign.
Wilshere made five changes to the side that had competed so impressively at Stamford Bridge but refused to use the gruelling schedule as an excuse for what he described as an unacceptable display.
“We can’t use that as an excuse,” he said of the efforts at Chelsea, adding: “We knew what we were coming into here, and we weren’t there in the first half. It’s been a while since we’ve lost a game, but I said the other day about ways to lose and what we can accept. We’re not going to win every game, but we can’t accept that, not if we have ambition.”
“I’d like to apologise to the fans. Their anger should be at me, that’s fine. They’ve supported us a lot and we’ve built a really big connection with them.
“We lost on Thursday, I don’t care if it’s against Chelsea, that’s still the right way to lose, when you’re trying, you’re fighting and we didn’t show that today, so it’s hard to accept.”
After that defeat in the week, Wilshere said his players were frustrated and called on them to use that feeling as fuel for the Mansfield game.
Instead the Stags bullied Town. All five goals came from players afforded too much time and space to finish, with Luton repeatedly losing individual battles as the hosts took control.
“I didn’t recognise that, I’ve never seen that, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that,” he told the BBC, adding: “Maybe the energy from Thursday was taken out of us, maybe bringing players in that don’t really understand us, don’t know us, starting the game, maybe, that’s on me, and we can’t accept it.”
Wilshere’s decision to make five changes included handing new Tottenham Hotspur loanee Jamie Donley his Luton debut just a day after completing his season-long move.
The 21-year-old struggled to make an impact before being withdrawn in the second half, and Wilshere said: “It’s tough for him to come into that, that fight.
“We play games like this and we’ve matched the fight, we’ve won the right and then we’ve earned the right to have the ball. We never did that, we never earned the right to have the ball, we never had momentum.
“We were still trying to play and find spaces that weren’t there. I think it’s difficult for him to come into that, he’ll learn a lot from it, but it could have been anyone who was brought off at half time.”
Donley would make way after the hour mark, but before that was a triple change at the interval as Kal Naismith, Isaiah Jones and Emilio Lawrence all got the hook. It did not help as Luton shipped two quick goals to firmly put the contest to bed.
Wilshere said: “I always look in my mirror first and that’s why I’ve apologised to the fans. Every week, even when we win, there’s some decisions I don’t get right and there will be definitely some today.”
Luton have little time to dwell on the defeat, with Stockport County due at Kenilworth Road on Wednesday night.
But after the highs of Chelsea and the lows of Mansfield, Wilshere knows his players must produce a response quickly to avoid the feeling that bubble may have burst after their long unbeaten run came to a crushing end.
“That’s on me, I apologise, we’ll be back Wednesday,” he said.
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