Luton striker regrets taking the 'wrong decision' when fluffing his lines at Vale

A rueful Nahki Wells admitted he regretted taking the ‘wrong decision’ when not going for goal during Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Port Vale on Saturday.

With the 35-year-old having opened the scoring after just five minutes, and then seeing Vale draw level on the half hour, the experienced striker had a brilliant chance to put the Hatters back in front immediately afterwards, when Vale keeper Joe Gauci came recklessly charging off his line to try and win the race to a ball over the top.

Unsurprisingly, the on-loan Aston Villa stopper got nowhere near, seeing Wells nipping in to pick up possession ahead of him and although the ball was on his left foot, with the angle narrowing, there had to be no other outcome than pulling to trigger to try and fire into the empty net to double his tally and make it 2-1.

However, on a bobbly surface, the 35-year-old didn’t appear to trust his weaker side, opting to get it under control and cut into the area, as rather than go for goal, attempted to find team-mate Jake Richards inside the box, only to see his intended pass cleared away by a covering defender as the golden opportunity ultimately went begging.

Asked afterwards why he chose the option he did, Wells said: “In hindsight now, I just wish I took it. I know on my left side is always a bit more difficult because of the angle I’m on and I definitely need to see it back. I remember I could have taken it, then I didn’t as I didn’t get it down properly and it was bobbling and I saw Jake and I just went to pick him out.

"I just think I put it too far in front of him as at that stage I didn’t take it quick enough which I do regret as I probably could have scored. If I miss, I miss, but just to get nothing out of if was the frustrating aspect as it came out of nothing really. I just chased a lost cause, I just got to it before the keeper and it just didn’t settle right and I chose not to take it which in hindsight is the wrong decision.”

Although referencing the bobbly nature of the pitch, which due the poor weather recently was an extremely difficult one to play up, cutting up badly on side, while the bounce was never true for both sides, Wells didn’t want to use that as a reason for Town’s inability to triumph, as he continued: “It is tough and in reality it’s two teams playing on the same surface, so I don’t want to make any excuses. But when you’re a side that wants to play, wants to try and work your way from back to front, it makes it a lot harder.

"They know what they are, they’re used to the pitch, they’re fighting for their lives and the easy thing to do when you’re them is just try and get the ball forward, try and get it away from danger and they did that well. We weren’t really able to play the style of football we wanted and when we did go route one and we had some success from that. We didn’t do it enough and caused them enough problems, recognising what type of game it was.”

After Wells had broken the deadlock when turning home Emilio Lawrence’s inviting cross from a few yards out, Town looked like they might end their woeful away form of six straight defeats and no win since November against a side who had picked up just two victories in front of their own fans all campaign. As they have done in their last eight trips though, Jack Wilshere’s side weren’t able to keep a clean sheet, Ben Waine going through unmarked on the half hour mark, and he did trust his left foot, slotting past the advancing Josh Keeley.

Discussing that, and his side’s lack of a goal threat after his own missed opportunity, their only chance of note coming once he had gone off, second half substitute Ali Al-Hamadi seeing a low shot easily saved by Gauci, Wells added: “It’s been a bit of our Achilles this season, not scoring enough goals and then when we’re not scoring enough goals, we’re not able to keep clean sheets at the minute.

"It’s not a finger-pointing thing at the defence, it’s us as a whole, us as a collective. We know what to expect from a side like this, they’re going to be route one and just some basic elements. We consistently feel like we’re being punished in times that we don’t necessarily warrant it, but that’s football as well. Some teams make their luck, they get their goal and we just aren’t able to find it in ourselves to and carve out another really good opportunity which is a very frustrating aspect.

“The easy thing to do is to do it in spells, of course it’s a lot of variables which makes it hard to be consistent and continue to turn the pressure. The side (Port Vale) is fighting for their lives, away from home, difficult conditions, it’s not as easy as we probably think it should be to just constantly turn the screw and put the pressure on them.

"We have to constantly deal with their threats and their strengths, but we’re frustrated that we couldn’t capitalise on what was pretty much a good start and get the second. It caught us out of the blue with their goal and just weren’t able to go and get the winner, which wasn't through a lack of application or a lack of effort, is just down to circumstance and probably a lack of quality at times in the final third.”