Jack Wilshere rues dropped points as Luton battle back to draw with Mansfield

Jack Wilshere felt his Luton side should have earned more than a point from their 2-2 draw at Mansfield, despite watching them battle back from two goals down.

Jon Russell’s brace in the first half hour put the Stags in the driving seat, but goals either side of half-time from Kasey Palmer and Shayden Morris brought the scores level.

Luton then failed to finish off a string of chances while Mansfield remained dangerous in a thrilling clash, and Wilshere admitted his players were disappointed not to have come away with more.

“That was two points dropped today – that’s the feeling in the dressing room. But there is a lesson there to be learned,” he said.

“We can’t give two goals away like that. Mansfield have some good players and they punished us.

“But credit to our players in the second half. They showed personality and character to come back.

“We kept creating chances and there was only one team in the game in the second half.

“There were some top performances, especially in the second half, and that’s the team we want to be – on the front foot and attacking in different ways. It was all there apart from the final touch.

“We are still in this and still fighting and need to take the lessons from today and start games right.”

Mansfield were ahead after 21 minutes as Russell finished from close range and the same player then drilled in a second seven minutes later after coming inside from the right.

However, Palmer turned home a low Emilio Lawrence cross in the 40th minute and Luton were level five minutes after the restart as Morris drilled in a low effort from a tight angle on the right.

Kai Naismith then hit the post for Luton from a yard out while team-mate Hakeem Odoffin headed against the bar before home goalkeeper Liam Roberts denied Palmer one on one.

The point was enough to make Mansfield mathematically safe, and boss Nigel Clough said: “When you are scrapping and every single point is so vital, it is difficult to open up a bit.

“But we can now be more expansive, so let’s stay unbeaten now until the end of the season.

“We started the game very well again and we had three good opportunities before Jon poked us ahead.

“We scored the second but, against Luton, you never really feel comfortable, especially when they scored five minutes before half-time.

“It was one of those games that could have ended 7-7. They had some good chances, but so did we right to the last minute.

“It is a good point but we’re disappointed in some ways, having been 2-0 up. But I think it was more about Luton’s quality than us throwing the lead away.”