Hatters duo in contention to return for Town's trip to AFC Wimbledon
Andersen and Al-Hamadi could feature at Plough Lane
Luton boss Jack Wilshere will run the rule over striker Ali Al-Hamadi and defender Mads Andersen ahead of this afternoon’s League One trip to AFC Wimbledon.
The pair both missed Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Peterborough United that rekindled Town’s flagging play-off hopes, Al-Hamadi having only just returned from helping Iraq reach the World Cup Finals by scoring in the Lions of Mesopotamia’s 2-1 success over Bolivia in Mexico during the early hours of Wednesday morning, although midfielder Kasey Palmer did make the squad following his international exertions with Jamaica.
Andersen, meanwhile, has missed the club’s last six matches after suffering a foot problem in the Vertu Trophy victory over Plymouth Argyle, as asked on Good Friday if either would be ready for today’s fixture, Wilshere said: “Mads is training so we’ll see how he is, we’ll assess him over the weekend. Ali is fit, my decision around him was, Kasey and Ali are in the same position where they both arrived yesterday at midday, so they didn’t train with us.
“We got them in to see how they were, and my decision was to put Kasey in the squad and not Ali, because Kasey has played a lot of minutes for us, he’s played a lot of games. Ali has been a bit stop-start for us and I know he came off the bench against Stockport, but he hasn’t got that load behind him where he can just fit into the squad. So we’ll assess how he is, we’ll train over the weekend and go from there.”
Hosts AFC should be safe from relegation this term as they sit seven points above the drop zone with six games left, but following the 1-0 loss at Lincoln City on Friday, are now five games without a triumph, with four defeats in that time. Their record at Plough Lane had been excellent up until recently too, as after winning four successive matches on home soil, haven’t tasted victory in their last two contest on home soil, beaten 4-2 by Leyton Orient and drawing 1-1 with Peterborough.
Asked about today’s opposition, Wilshere continued: “They’re a good team, I know the manager there, Johnnie Jackson, but also the coach Dave Reddington. He was my coach when I went to Denmark at the end of my career, so I know him, I know how hard he works, I know how he thinks about football and how much he loves it and the same as Johnny.
"They’ll try and get everything they can out of every single player and it’s going to be a tough game, a tough place to go. Away from home has been tough for us this season. We won the last game (against Wycombe), but it requires something a little bit different, so we’ll go there with a plan to try and get all three points, but we’ll expect a tough game.”
With the Hatters beating Peterborough a few days ago, it saw Town cut the gap sixth placed on Reading to four points, as the Royals conceded late on to draw 1-1 against Huddersfield Town. Luton were able to gain ground on three others sides above them too, as both Wycombe Wanderers and Plymouth Argyle were beaten, while Stevenage also drew, meaning victory for the Hatters could propel them up to seventh with just five games remaining.
On his hopes of extending their campaign, Wilshere added: “It’s the same answer for me, next game. Today it was really important we got the three points, now our focus goes to Wimbledon, how we recover, what message we give them and then we go to Wimbledon to try and win a game and put us in a better position. So same message, same process, recover and go again.”