Luton Town’s promotion hopes remain alive heading into the final two games of the League One season, but Jack Wilshere knows his players must be solely focused on their task in hand — even though earlier results for Stevenage and Stockport could play a big factor tomorrow.
The Hatters are on a ten-game unbeaten streak, in which time only newly crowned champions Lincoln have kept pace with them in the form table. Back-to-back wins against Barnsley and in their final fixture at Bolton could yet be enough to break into the top six, but only teams above Town drop points.
Stevenage sit three points above the Hatters in the final play-off place, so not only to Luton need to win their remaining games, they need their nearest geographical neighbours to slip-up at Doncaster Rovers, while fifth-placed Stockport could also be pulled into the picture if they drop points too, in their lunchtime game at home to Peterborough.
“I’ll be trying to make the players focus on our game, but I think, as coaches, we’ll keep our eye on it and see what we need to do,” Wilshere said of the two key early kick-offs. “I think that’s important because it changes the context of the game, potentially.
“The players have to focus and do all they can to try and focus on Barnsley and winning that game and giving ourselves the best opportunity no matter what happens in those too early games. But I’ll be keeping my eye on it, yeah.”
Luton beat Stevenage 2-1 back in January, but have really found consistency since early March. That was after a damaging late defeat from the jaws of victory against then promotion hopefuls Reading looked to have badly damaged their play-off dream.
“I must say, as well, with Stevenage, I’ve been really impressed with them,” Wilshere said, adding: “I think, from when we played them, I thought we were excellent against them and we were probably in that point where we weren’t as consistent as we want to be and we should have maybe pushed on from there.
“But Stevenage have been consistent and that’s what we’re trying to do, that’s what we’re trying to achieve.
“We went to Doncaster. Doncaster was a tough place for us. We felt like we got a good point there, rather than dropping two points, so hopefully they can make it difficult for them [Stevenage] and try and get something out of the game.”
Despite that external dependency, Wilshere has doubled down on a message that has underpinned Luton’s late-season surge — that his men focus only on the next task.
“We’ve given ourselves the best chance if we do that,” said Wilshere when asked if six points will be enough for Luton to qualify for the play-offs. “That’s the aim, the focus. First of all, is Barnsley.
“I’ve always said this season, one game at a time. The next challenge is that and we’re ready for it. We know the situation and what that creates at this stage of the season. And our job and the players’ job is to focus on trying to get maximum points on Saturday.”
There is also an acceptance that Luton’s current position, which has left them needing favours, is the result of inconsistency earlier in the campaign.
“We’re not where we want to be. Of course we’re not,” Wilshere said, adding: “But we give ourselves the best opportunity to try and reach our ambition this season.”
However, the last seven weeks of improved performances, and a growing sense of resilience, has at least given Luton a fighting chance heading into the final week.
“What I’ve learned about this league, about the group of players that we’ve got, is that it’s just next game. That’s the mentality,” Wilshere said. “We’ve always done that this season and it’s taken some time to find our rhythm and be consistent with everything we talk about, but we seem to have found a little bit of that.”
With the margins so fine in the race for the play-offs, that mentality may yet prove decisive.
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