Luton boss Jack Wilshere said his side rediscovered the “good things” that made the Hatters such a formidable side at the end of last season after they routed Wycombe Wanderers 4-1.
Town have never lost at Adams Park, which was already a Football League record of most games played away from home without losing against an opponent. Fifteen if you’re counting. But going to Buckinghamshire on the back of two defeats on the spin in League One, there was some concern among fans.
But that melted away as Kasey Palmer and Jamie Donley scored stunners in the first half, with the former appearing like his old self that helped inspire that 12-game unbeaten run at the end of last term.
Nahki Wells got back on the scoreboard for the first time in four games, netting inside just 40 seconds of the second half for his sixth of the season in ten appearances, and then Devante Cole continued his scoring streak to bag his first league goal for Luton.
That’s three goals in three for the striker after finally breaking his nine-month duck in the EFL Trophy games against Ipswich Under-21s and Colchester United.
Wilshere was delighted with the performance but said Luton must not get carried away after ending their losing run with an emphatic away victory.
“The boys were excellent,” he said. “We have to stay humble because it’s one game. We just lost two, and now we’ve found a way away from home at this place again, which is nice. And we’ve done a lot of really, really good things today.
“The only disappointment, well, two things I think we could have gone and scored four or five or six at times, especially in the first half, and then not getting a clean sheet. But we’ve done so many good things that, when we were on the run and when we were successful last year, we did consistently well, and we’ve done that again today.”
The Town boss was particularly pleased with the work that went into Palmer and Donley’s first-half strikes, highlighting the importance of winning the ball back quickly when possession is lost.
“We lose the ball in the final third. We do everything we can to try and get it back. They try and transition, they’re open, and we’ve got quality players in that area that can do two quality finishes,” he told the BBC.
“But you don’t get that if you don’t work hard and you don’t, when you lose the ball, that first five seconds to try and win it back. It’s so important in this league away from home. Because if you don’t do that, you end up sprinting 60 yards back and they’ve got some good players on transition.
“So, yeah, two excellent finishes. But the work before it is really important.”
Wilshere was also pleased with how Luton approached the second half, with Wells’ goal coming seconds after the restart to give the visitors a three-goal cushion.
“The goal just after half-time, I mean seconds after half-time, sort of killed it,” Wilshere said, adding: “And that was the message. And to be fair to the boys, that was from them. We now approach this game like it’s 0-0. We go and try and get the next goal, which I’m really proud of.
“Last year, how many times we spoke about feeling like we were holding on at times? We didn’t want that mentality at any point this season, and certainly not today.”
Wells’ strike, teed up by Jordan Clark, helped take the game away from Wycombe after the hosts had been given a chance to build momentum by getting back into the contest.
“When it’s 3-0, it’s a dangerous score. Everyone knows that in football, you’re one goal away from a team getting momentum,” Wilshere said. “To take the game away from them with a really well-worked goal was important.”
The Hatters’ display was built on more than their attacking quality, with Wilshere praising their aggression, pressing and ability to win individual battles.
“Again, away from home, there’s no hiding place in this league. You have to outwork opposition. You have to press. You have to be aggressive. You have to win second balls,” he said.
“We were [aggressive] today in duels, really aggressive on the sides and, yeah, I’ve said it before, you can have the best high press in the world, but eventually it’s going to come to a duel and you have to be good and you have to be brave and aggressive, which we’ve done. And it opened up the pitch for us. And we nearly scored from a few moments of that.”
There was just one downside for the Town boss as his side conceded a 94th-minute Jack Grimmer consolation, which wiped out what would have been their first clean sheet in over a month.
Wilshere admitted Luton could have done more to protect their goal, but said the late strike should not overshadow the quality of the overall performance.
“We need to make sure that we analyse it as we always do. We stick to our process whether we win or whether we lose,” he said.
“There’s some things we’ve done really well today, but there’s also some things that we can do better. And, yeah, we’ve got another away game next week, so we can take this energy and this momentum and the good things we’ve done and try and build on that.”
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