Jack Wilshere says his only concern about the reaction to Luton Town’s 2-1 defeat at MK Dons is how his players cope with the frustration and boos from more than 6,000 travelling supporters on Saturday.
The Town boss acknowledged the importance of the fixture – as a local rivalry that stretches back over 40 years to when a controversial move was proposed to relocate the Hatters to Milton Keynes – and understood why the away support was unhappy after seeing their side beaten on their first ever trip to Stadium MK, but said his priority was ensuring the players could respond without fear.
Wilshere also admitted Luton should have won the game, expressing frustration that they had again threatened to secure an important away victory only to leave empty-handed. It’s a result which heaps pressure on Tuesday’s visit of Barnsley.
Asked how concerned he was by the reaction from the travelling support, both at half time and full time, Wilshere said: “How concerned am I? I worry about the players and how they cope with that. You never know. I think they all have an individual way of dealing with that. Some players deal with it well, some are fine, some players have experienced that throughout their career, some players haven’t.
“My concern is for the players, that over the next few days, the job is to make sure that we put a team out that have no fear and we know what we’re going into. We know there’s some frustrations. Of course, I understand the importance of this game and I think the players did, so that’s probably why they’re frustrated as well. But my only concern is the ones who can’t cope with that.”
The boos had also been heard earlier in the match after a first half pass was played 40 yards back towards Luton’s own goal, with Wilshere admitting: “I was frustrated in that moment as well because I felt like we could live in their half a little bit more. We could have more intensity to get free or because it’s hard when you face a block and you have to you have to understand what we’re trying to do.
“You have to then be clean technically and you have to do it with intensity. And we did it for most, but in that moment, I felt we could have probably played through it.”
Wilshere said the frustration was compounded by the feeling that Luton have been in a similar position before, having threatened to pick up a significant away win but ultimately failing to do so.
He said: “We wanted to win the game as much as they [fans] did and probably the frustrating thing for them, for me, for us, for the group of players as well, who are also very frustrated in there [dressing room] is that we feel like we’ve been here before, where we’ve threatened to get a good away win, and we come to a game where we should do we should win the game, in my opinion.
“We don’t and then we’ve got a game on Tuesday and it’s the same feeling about, well, we know what we need to do Tuesday. But we had to do that today [Saturday]. So that’s the frustration. I understand the frustration and we have to bounce back, which is annoying.”
The Town boss felt Luton had not done enough in the first half – as they fell behind to an incredible long range goal by Alex Gilbey – but believed they improved after the break, putting MK Dons under pressure without finding the quality needed to turn that pressure into more goals.
Jordan Clark levelled on 70 minutes but nine minutes later George Johnston made a mistake to allow Aaron Collins through on goal and then fouled him to concede a penalty, which the striker converted to seal the points.
“We should win a game like that, I think,” said Wilshere, adding: “The frustration was that it took that long to get back in the game in the second half because they didn’t do that much. I thought the backline dealt with their threat of direct play apart from when we didn’t and they got a penalty for it.
“But apart from that, we spoke at halftime about second balls and being better on them and not giving them the opportunity to land on them. Or, when we do land on them, to try and find a pass or, if we can’t, to hook it behind them.
“I felt we did that in the second half better, and it was us knocking on the door, and we just have to knock on the door harder. We have to knock the door down when we get there so much.
“We knew the game was going to look like that. That’s why the focus for the week was that. It was to attack the box, to have purpose, to have intention when we were in their half, which we lacked a little bit, I felt, in the first half, but definitely in the second half, it was there, it just lacked a little bit of quality in there.”
The Hatters finished with 25 shots, but only five on target, while the Dons rarely getting into the Luton penalty area in the second half.
“Clinical is a word that will come to mind,” Wilshere said, adding: “When you’re facing a team that are in a low block, that probably aren’t pressing, you don’t have to have that much possession. You can get into their half and then it’s about trying to find the right opening, which turned out for us, probably, today, was on the sides. And we didn’t.
“When we did put it in the box, we probably didn’t attack the right spaces. And when we did, and it fell to us, and we got an opportunity, we were a little bit wasteful.
“That’s less a frustration because it felt like we didn’t have to do that much to get there. And they certainly didn’t do that much to score two goals. I’m not sure what their [Dons] number of shots or whatever xG would be, but that’s the frustration.”
On centre half Johnston’s mistake that gifted Milton Keynes their first league win of the season, Wilshere said: “George has been top since he’s been in and he’s fitted into the group, he’s played really, really well. One of our most consistent performers. Apart from that moment, I thought he was good.
“OK, the first mistake happens where you let him [Collins] get the ball, probably should clear it, but then whenever you can see something or a bad moment happens, it’s about having that control then, not to follow up on mistake with another mistake. But George will be fine. He’s been really good for us, and I’m sure he’ll continue to be so.”
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