Mansfield Town 5-2 Luton Town: Jack Wilshere apologises after Hatters suffer Stags mauling

Impressive Mansfield Town ended Luton Town’s unbeaten start in League One with a comprehensive 5-2 victory.

Nathan Moriah-Welsh’s brace and a Louis Reed goal put the Stags firmly in control at the break.

And any hopes of a Luton comeback were ended when Jon Russell bagged a brace before the hour.

Nahki Wells scored two late consolation goals for Luton but it was too little, too late.

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Apologise

Luton boss Jack Wilshere apologised to the fans following their drubbing.

“We knew what we were coming into here and we weren’t at it in the first half,” he said.

“It’s been a while since we’ve lost a game. There are ways to lose and that wasn’t one of them.

“We’re not going to win every game but we cannot accept that, not if we have ambition.

“I would like to apologise to the fans. Their anger should be at me, that’s fine.

“They have supported us a lot and we have built a really big connection with them. We lost on Thursday but it was the right way to lose.

“We didn’t show a fight today and it’s hard to accept. Maybe the energy from Thursday was taken out of us but we cannot use that as an excuse.

“We cannot accept that level of performance. We’ve played games like this where we’ve matched the opponents and won the fight and we never did that today.

“We didn’t earn the right to have the ball, we never had the momentum.”

Match action

Mansfield made a good start count when Moriah-Welsh converted Russell’s knockdown in the 17th minute.

The winger doubled the advantage with a thunderous effort from just inside the box 11 minutes later.

Reed extended Mansfield’s lead on the stroke of half-time with a first-time hit from Moriah-Welsh’s cross.

Russell made it four with a simple finish after Luton failed to clear their lines two minutes into the second half and the Jamaican wrapped it up when he picked out the top corner from Michael Smith’s header in the 56th minute.

Wells scored a consolation penalty with 13 minutes to go, before adding another from distance in stoppage time.

Delighted

Mansfield boss Nigel Clough was understandably delighted with his side’s five-star display.

“Getting the third goal right before half-time was absolutely vital,” he said. “We wanted to keep the momentum going after the break and get more goals as soon as we could.

“Luton had a tough game on Thursday night and we started the game well and saw the benefit in the first hour or so.

“Sometimes you get a little bit of benefit. There was 44 games of the season to go before today so it is important to not get carried away.

“Nathan Moriah-Welsh scored two brilliant goals, two different types of goals. It was that sort of day and those goals will give him plenty of confidence.

“It was really encouraging to see Jon Russell get in the position to get those goals.

“We eased off a bit in the closing stages and it is slightly disappointing not to have got the clean sheet in the closing minutes.

“It’s a great result and one we hope to build on. It was good to be able to make the changes today and use our squad.

“It’s been a successful week but we have to back it up at Bradford.”

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