John Askey urges Shrewsbury to toughen up after Luton loss

Shrewsbury boss John Askey called on his players to “man up” after they twice let a lead slip before losing 3-2 at Luton.

Shaun Whalley’s strike was cancelled out by Jorge Grant before a bizarre Lee Angol goal put the visitors ahead again.

The visitors retained that advantage with 17 minutes to go before Jack Stacey and Elliot Lee ensured Hatters came out on top.

Askey said: “That was disappointing. It was a golden opportunity to get the three points so we’re not too happy to come away with nothing having led twice.

“Second half we were hoping we were going to win instead of making sure we did.

“Lee’s (Angol) goal was a gift and that should have been enough to take us on to the win. But we switched off and gave too many free-kicks away on the edge of the box.

“Their third goal was a fluke but that’s the way it’s going at the moment. Instead of digging in and fighting one or two of our players capitulated a bit.

“I’ve learned a lot about one or two players today and it’s up to me to put it right, but one or two of them need to man up.”

The visitors went in front after 23 minutes when Whalley was brought down in the area by Jack Stacey before getting up to convert the penalty.

Luton drew level after 51 minutes, Grant curling home a wonderful 20-yard free-kick.

Shrewsbury were back in front with a controversial goal after 66 minutes. Keeper James Shea, clearly thinking Angol had been adjudged offside, put the ball down for a non-existent free-kick and the Shrews striker tapped into the empty net.

Town equalised through Stacey and Lee’s 22-yard free-kick deflected past Joel Coleman for the winner.

Luton could have had breathing space, James Collins’ penalty was saved by Coleman as Shea redeemed himself late on, instinctively denying Angol.

Luton boss Nathan Jones felt his side were rewarded for a much improved second-half performance.

“First half it was tough, we couldn’t get any fluency,” he said.

“They sat in, put 11 men behind the ball and tried to frustrate us, tried to nick something, and they did that.

“We didn’t have any real energy and a real tempo about us and we had to generate that.

“Then we fell behind to a bit of sloppy defending, the amount of time they had on the ball without anyone pressing or putting in a tackle in wasn’t good enough.

“Second half, we came out and were excellent, barring a calamitous second goal, we’d have won that far more comfortably.

“We were the better side, we really had an ambition about us to win the game and I thought it should have been more again.”