Still: Whalley is latest Luton start to come good

Livewire winger Shaun Whalley is getting back to something near his best according to Town chief John Still, writes Mark Wood.
Luton Town v AldershotLuton Town v Aldershot
Luton Town v Aldershot

The right winger shone in pre-season for the Hatters but, after missing a late penalty in Town’s 1-0 opening day defeat at former club Southport, Whalley seemed to lose his mojo.

Still continued to persevere with Whalley until losing his place in the team, but the Town chief is confident he’s back on the way to rediscovering his best form.

He said: “I think that Shaun’s taken a while to settle, if I’m being honest.

“I think I said a few times that players leave home and some people take a bit of time and his girlfriend’s now back with him.

“We’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks’ training and in the development games that he’s been involved in, he looks like he’s back to what we know he can be. He came on the other day and, forget the penalty, he earned the penalty.

“It was typical Shaun Whalley wasn’t it, that’s what we brought here. That’s making the squad stronger now.”

And Whalley is just one of a number of players that have struggled at times this season, only to come good.

Still continued: “I think if we look around that people that may have started slow, I think Scott Griffiths started slow, but all of a sudden now, if I look at the other night, he was our best defender and he started the season slow.

“That’s good to see. Gradually now, we’ve seen it in training, we’ve seen it in development games, and we saw it when he came on the other night.

“It’s nice to make a change and bring on a player and they change the game for you.

“Alex Wall came on on Saturday and he’s had an horrendous time with illness and injury and sendings off.

“And he’s come on and won us the game. That’s all credit to people that have had these problems.

“They’re showing a mental strength that we’re going to need.”

Whalley’s introduction on Tuesday saw him win a penalty which he subsequently scored to earn Luton a 3-3 draw against Aldershot.

The game before Wall came off the bench to score a wonderful winner in the 4-3 victory against FC Halifax Town.

But rather than revelling in the success of another game-changing substitution, the Hatters boss paid tribute to the players.

He added: “I don’t really subscribe to that (great substitutions). You bring them on, they come on and change a game and people go ‘the manager knows what he’s doing, it’s a great substitution’.

“If they don’t, they go ‘can’t see why he changed that’. You never know, but it’s nice to know that we’ve got people that can come on and change games.

“And that’s every credit to them. When it hasn’t been the best time for them for different reasons.”