{"id":237031,"date":"2025-11-01T02:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/237031\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T02:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:36:11","slug":"spared-his-blushes-jack-wilshere-avoids-fa-cup-humiliation-with-goal-from-star-who-broke-his-heart-at-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/237031\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Spared his blushes’ – Jack Wilshere avoids FA Cup humiliation with goal from star who ‘broke his heart’ at Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Wilshere made it three successive wins as Luton Town\u2019s new manager, but he had an almighty fright on Halloween from a familiar face.<\/p>\n

Wilshere saw his League One side throw away a 3-0 lead against a team two divisions below them in the first round of the FA Cup<\/a> before they sealed a 4-3 win in stoppage time.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Two very familiar faces clashed in the FA Cup, and Savage nearly left Wilshere embarrassedCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The former Arsenal<\/a> midfielder’s team were 2-0 up at half-time against Forest Green Rovers and then bagged another for a comfortable lead.<\/p>\n

However, Rovers\u2019 manager Robbie Savage worked his magic with three of his substitutes finding the back of the net for a remarkable second-half turnaround.<\/p>\n

It looked like the National League<\/a> side would at least earn extra time, if not a win in 90 minutes, as they had two huge chances after Aidan Dausch\u2019s 79th-minute equaliser.<\/p>\n

Yet it was Luton who found the winner through Gideon Kodua in the second minute of stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Cameras instantly switched to Wilshere on the Kenilworth Road touchline, and the 33-year-old wasn\u2019t celebrating; instead shaking his head at the collapse.<\/p>\n

Perhaps when things cool down, he will realise how remarkable the goal was, given his history with Kodua.<\/p>\n

Describing the moment, talkSPORT\u2019s Ian Abrahams said: \u201cKodua won an FA Youth Cup as captain of West Ham against an Arsenal team coached by Wilshere two-and-a-half years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just spared Wilshere\u2019s blushes here with a fine finish in the penalty area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilshere had already reflected on his relationship with the forward, saying shortly after arriving at Luton: \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about him!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was excellent in that game, and the first time I saw him, I said hello to him. He was all shy, and I said, \u2018Don\u2019t forget what you did to me.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Kodua<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Kodua was Wilshere’s hero, two years on from beating his Arsenal youth teamCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“He started laughing, but in that game, actually, last season as well, when someone breaks your heart like that, you follow their journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he had an interesting season last year, and it\u2019s definitely a season for him to kick on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has the ability to, we need to get him positions more where he can show his ability, but he\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kodua was quick to praise his new coach post-match, saying: “He’s brought out a lot.<\/p>\n

“First session, I was asking a lot of questions and he told me ‘don’t worry, it’s a long season, you’ve got this, show what you’re capable of’.<\/p>\n

“I think I’m showing it, and we’ve just got to keep going now.”<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

West Ham-owned talent Kodua scored as the Hammers beat Wilshere’s Arsenal youth team 5-1 in the 2023 finalCredit: GettyWilshere: ‘It wasn’t done’<\/p>\n

Speaking to talkSPORT post-match, Wilshere said it was an important lesson for his players that a game isn’t finished even at 3-0. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is we won, we\u2019re in the next round,” he said. <\/p>\n

“We have to look at what happened, but as I said to the players three wins in a week is tough.<\/p>\n

“This level is relentless and we have to have players that can go Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday so I\u2019m happy with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not ever had a moment as a coach where I\u2019ve felt the game is done, I don\u2019t think you can and I think it\u2019s important the players realise that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something you don\u2019t want to go through but there\u2019s always positives with games like this and I\u2019m happy we\u2019re through.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Wilshere made it three successive wins as Luton Town\u2019s new manager, but he had an almighty fright…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[220,2948,49,100206,100207,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-237031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-fa-cup","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-jack-wilshere","12":"tag-luton-town","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}