Jack Wilshere hails Luton for recovering from ‘punch in face’ with Terriers win

Luton boss Jack Wilshere praised his side for recovering from being “punched in the face” against Barnsley on Saturday as they beat Huddersfield 2-1 at Kenilworth Road.

After being thumped 5-0 at Oakwell, the Hatters responded by taking the lead through Jake Richards’ 22-yard drive in the 34th minutes as, although the Terriers equalised just after the hour mark when Leo Castledine fired in a magnificent free-kick, Jerry Yates won it late on.

Wilshere said: “It was very important. We got punched in the face on Saturday and it was tough. Sunday the boys were in, we looked at the game, we gave them our opinions, they gave us their opinions and the most important thing was that we got up, we showed character, we showed passion.

“It wasn’t a tactical thing, it was about desire, it was about winning duels, to attack with a purpose. I thought we did that and I’m really proud of them.

“Let’s not forget that the purpose is to score goals, is to attack, is to put the opposition under pressure.

“The more pressure you can put them under the more opportunities you’re going to have.

“I thought we did that really well in the first half. Second half they score, we get punched in the face again and we have to show even more character. They did that and I was really proud of them.”

After Yates was denied by Owen Goodman early on, Luton went in front in the 34th minute when Richards let fly, his shot taking a slight nick to fly into the roof of the net.

In the second half, Castledine levelled the scores with a superb free-kick in the 64th minute, only for Yates to slide in Lamine Fanne’s shot from a yard out to secure all three points just seven minutes later.

Terriers boss Lee Grant said: “Luton clearly came out for a very physical sort of game, unsurprisingly in terms of a reaction to their previous result, so we were prepared for that.

“Part of me quite enjoyed watching us defending those moments and seeing those moments off, however, we dropped our intensity in a second phase moment on the edge of the box and we don’t do enough to stop a cross, don’t do enough to land on the seconds on the edge and it cost us and that’s a real shame.

“We got the response we asked for at half-time and the lads delivered everything we wanted them to in the second half in terms of their intent, in terms of their aggression, in terms of going after the game.

“We scored a fantastic goal and the game is where we want in terms of an away performance, and it’s undone by a really poor goal collectively.”