Jack Wilshere believes Luton Town are starting to shed suggestions they can be pushed around, after watching his reshaped side stand up to a physical Bradford City team in what he described as one of his side’s most complete performances of the season.
The Hatters followed up last week’s hard-fought win over Blackpool with a 2-1 victory at Kenilworth Road to extend their unbeaten home run in League One to ten games, with goals from Jake Richards and Shayden Morris rewarding a front-foot approach that mixed attacking intent with resilience out of possession.
For Wilshere, one of the most satisfying elements was the manner of the win rather than the scoreline itself, as they dominated the play-off hopefuls from Yorkshire.
“I have a feeling, and I don’t know this, but I have a feeling – I think about the Stevenage game, I think about the Lincoln game – that teams will think they can come here and they can bully us and we won’t stick up for ourselves and we won’t fight,” the manager said. “That is the complete opposite. The first thing we demand is that we compete, that we win our duels.
“Yeah, we want to play our football, but it doesn’t happen if you’re not able to defend set pieces, defend direct play, stick up for yourself at times on the pitch. We want to be a team that is aggressive as well as good on the ball.”
He added: “We can stand up for ourselves. We can compete, we can defend direct play, we can defend set pieces. We speak about it all the time, we train it all the time, and we need to keep going that way.”
The Luton boss was also pleased with the attacking intent his side showed from the outset, having named a bold-looking front line, which included new striker signing Devante Cole.
“I thought the intent to attack, was really good,” Wilshere said. “Our intensity with the ball, to play forward, to break lines, to be clean, to try and attack centrally and get behind them, I thought we were really good at that.”
The build-up to Richards’ opening goal – a 20-yard cracker – was a reward for that approach, with Wilshere highlighting both his technical quality and his response to selection.
“Jake technically is clean,” he said. “He’s one of them players that never really wastes a touch. Every touch has a meaning. It was a top finish from him.”
Morris’ winner, which came on the counter-attack early in the second half against the run of play, also drew praise, particularly for the decision-making involved.
“We knew their wing-backs get high and if we win the ball back, can we manage that moment and attack in the wide areas,” Wilshere said. “Shayden’s a perfect player for that. I thought he was going to shoot with his right, but he cut back and it was a good decision.”
While Luton briefly made life difficult for themselves late on, when Stephen Humphrys notched an injury-time consolation, Wilshere accepted that there are still lessons to learn.
“We didn’t need that moment,” he said. “The performance was so good, so we have to highlight that, but also get better at managing the game.”
Beyond the tactics and goals, Wilshere felt the connection between players and supporters was growing, something he believes is underpinned by visible effort and fight.
“There has to be behaviours that the fans can get behind,” he said. “That’s winning your duels, that’s running, that’s competing in every moment. I think the fans are starting to see that and feel that.”
With attention now turning to the toughest test of all up next – a trip to the league leaders Cardiff – Wilshere made clear that the standards shown against Bradford must become the norm, particularly if they are to correct their woeful away form, which hasn’t seen victory since early November, coincidentally at the then table-toppers, Stockport County.
“We have to keep doing the basics really well,” the Hatters boss said. “It’s not simple because it becomes hard when teams repeat it and repeat it, but that’s what this league is about. We need to keep going that way.”
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