Jack Wilshere pleased with ‘excellent’ Luton display in win against Peterborough

Jack Wilshere thought his Luton side were “excellent” as they claimed a 2-1 win over Peterborough to boost their chances of reaching the Sky Bet League One play-offs.

The Hatters had led 2-0 thanks to goals from Jake Richards and Jordan Clark, before Jimmy Jay-Morgan pulled one back with 15 minutes to go.

Town were able to see out the final stages, though, and Wilshere said: “I thought we were excellent and not necessarily with the ball, but when you play against a team who like to dominate the ball, there are two ways you can look at it.

“You can try and match them – which at times we did – but you can also set up to really be aggressive in your press and we won the ball back so many times in the first half.

“We probably didn’t quite find the right pass or the right timing to capitalise on that, we spoke about that at half-time, having a little bit more threat in behind and I thought the players, for the first 30 minutes of the second half, executed that really well.

“We’ve got some good things we can build on, but also we have to be better at putting our chances away.”

It was Luton who broke the deadlock after 13 minutes when Kal Naismith’s ball forward was left by the visitors’ defence, only for an alert Richards to nutmeg goalkeeper Alex Bass.

Posh then won a dubious penalty in the 35th minute when Josh Keeley was adjudged to have fouled Harry Leonard in the area, but the forward put his spot-kick too close to the Town stopper.

Luton doubled their lead after 50 minutes when Emilio Lawrence’s cross was turned in by Jordan Clark for his 12th of the season.

Kyrell Lisbie’s cross was headed in by Jimmy Jay-Morgan to make it 2-1, while Kasey Palmer should have had a penalty for the hosts in the closing stages but his appeals were waved away.

Peterborough boss Luke Williams said: “We started the game well, but of course the goal changes everything. It looks like a mix-up and that’s a real shame, and then of course the missed penalty which means that instead of going in level, we’re chasing the game.

“I think when we conceded the second goal we looked weak at that point, but credit to the players that came into the game as they gave us a different energy.

“Having conceded the goal and missing the penalty it felt like Luton had the wind in their sails when they scored the second goal. It looked like they had that belief, but a very good response in going 2-0 down.”