Hatters duo can't wait for Wembley return in Vertu Trophy final

​Luton duo Ali Al-Hamadi and Kasey Palmer can’t wait to make their return to Wembley for this afternoon’s Vertu Trophy Final against Stockport County.

​Town head to the home of English football to take on the fellow Hatters this weekend, where they will be cheered on by over 32,000 supporters. Although on the bench, Al-Hamadi had his confidence boosted by helping Iraq reach their first World Cup Finals since 1986 last week and then netting a first goal for the club since arriving in the summer during Easter Monday’s 3-0 victory at AFC Wimbledon.

The forward also has experience of success in the capital as well, part of the Bromley side who won the FA Trophy when defeating Wrexham 1-0 in May 2022. Speaking about the game, Al-Hamadi said: “Wembley will be nice. I’ve been lucky to be there with Bromley as well a couple of years back and I’ve experienced that winning feeling, so that can galvanise our team and our fanbase.

"Hopefully we can go there and enjoy the day, but we’re there to win a game of football. I’d like to say I’ve been involved in a pretty high pressure game recently, so I’ll take it in my stride. I’ve had the experience in the past few years, promotion, Iraq and with Bromley as well, so hopefully I can just give that to the lads as well. It’s going to be a great day for everyone, so hopefully we can take a bit of momentum into that one.”

Meanwhile, Palmer, who has experienced both sides of the coin at Wembley, winning the Championship play-off final with Reading in May 2017 and then being in the Coventry City squad who were beaten three years ago by Luton when Town reached the Premier League. The Jamaican international continued: “I’ve lost there against these fans that are going to be wanting to support me next week and it’s a great day out for the fans.

"You can look forward to it now, we’ve got a bit of form going into it, the momentum is kind of with us. Stockport are a good side, but we’re bringing 30,000-plus which will be an amazing occasion for the fans, for the players. We’ve just got to enjoy the day and it will be better if we win, it will be more of a memory if we get the win.”

With Luton winning on penalties when they last headed to Wembley, defeating Coventry City to reach the Premier League, as on whether they have practiced spotkicks in the build up, boss Jack Wilshere said: “We practiced it before every knock-out stage game we’ve had. The process stays the same and again it’s very individual. It’s very hard to recreate that feeling of walking down at Wembley, but we try and give the players the best possible chance of if and when that does happen, we’ll be ready for that.

“I feel we’re quite lucky as in my opinion the standard setters for was Gareth Southgate and England and how they changed the mentality around that. We’ve got Chris Powell who was involved in that process, so we’ve got someone who really knows what they’re talking about, so he’s taken the lead on that. There is a lot around the psychology, it’s about the process, about the individual, about breathing.

"We’ve spoken about that as well as giving the players a choice. It’s easy for a coach or coaches to say you’re taking it, you’re taking it, when deep down you don’t know if that player actually wants to take it. So it’s giving them the opportunity to pick where they would want to go and also the timing of where they want to go. Eventually it could come down to the coach making the decision, but at lest you have the feeling of where they’re at and how confident they’ll be.”

Finally, midfielder Jordan Clark added: “Everyone’s saying we’ve hit the form at the right time, but for us we’re just focusing on game to game. We’ve got to hit the right vein of form for this game, simple as that. There’s a good feeling about the places, players are in good confidence and there’s a winning feeling now. Maybe we’ve been a bit guilty this season of looking too far ahead and thinking if we win these three, four games, but now it’s just focusing on keeping the winning run going.

"Sunday’s the next game and fingers crossed we can cross that hurdle and then on to the Northampton game on Wednesday. You get that (confidence) by winning games of football. It’s been a tough season for the majority of it, but the only way you get out of it is by working even harder than what you did the previous week and when you’re on that winning run, it’s hard to stop.

"Thankfully we’re on that now and as we’ve seen this season, especially with the away form we were on that losing run and we couldn’t get off it. Hopefully now we can take this good feeling around the place and the confidence and just keep it going. You can feel it with everyone here and even the fanbase now it’s buzzing and it’s what we want. It’s good to see so many smiles after games which we’ve not had this year, especially from the fans.

“We know they’re a good side, they’re up there for a reason, the table never lies in football, but obviously we’ve got to take confidence from the last game. We’ve got four points from them this year, that’s really good as they are doing really well in the league. It’s going to be a different occasion, different pressure, different environment, so we’ve just got to handle the nerves a bit better than them and execute our gameplan a bit better than them and hopefully be on the winning side of it as well.”