Town chief praises 'personality' of on-loan Hammer after another last-gasp equaliser

Luton manager Jack Wilshere hailed the ‘personality’ of youngster Gideon Kodua after Town’s saviour popped up with yet another late, late goal to earn the Hatters a point at Leyton Orient on Tuesday night.

The 21-year-old, who signed a season-long loan from West Ham United in the summer, stooped to head Liam Walsh’s well flighted corner into the net in the fifth minute of 10 added on at the end of the game, after O’s keeper Killian Cahill made a hash of his attempts to claim, cancelling out Theo Archibald’s tap-in moments after the interval and make it 1-1.

Although the visitors couldn’t find the net again, Kodua is now fashioning a real name for himself at Kenilworth Road when it comes to last-gasp heroics, with Tuesday night the third time he has scored in stoppage time, twice now earning his side a point, netting from the penalty spot in a 2-2 draw against Blackpool in September.

The other time he did so was the 4-3 FA Cup success over Forest Green Rovers, his fierce strike sending the Hatters through to round two, while he was also on target with seven minutes to go to make it 1-1 against Bolton Wanderers recently as even his first goal for the club, at Bradford City in a 2-1 loss, arrived in the 85th minute.

The FA Youth Cup winner with the Hammers, who scored for the first time having been on for the whole game this time, his other four strikes all happening when coming off the bench, had struggled at times on the night before the late drama, with his control letting him down when driving forward, as his passing also went astray, especially when trying to pick out the overlapping Cohen Bramall in the second period.

However, he still had the confidence to have a crack from range in the opening 45 minutes, and then get into the box to take responsibilty for the situation as Luton were able to stretch their unbeaten league run to three games. Speaking afterwards, Wilshere said: “I love Gids, he’s got loads of personality, loads of character. He gave the ball away a few times, but he’s the one that’s trying, he’s the one that, until Jordan (Clark) came on, looks like he’s going to be the one to give us something.

"Credit to him as he’s a young lad as well, still learning the game, still developing, but he’s got something different, a little bit of character which I like. I played at West Ham and to play at West Ham and come through the system there you need personality, you need character. They’ve done a fantastic job with him and we’re fortunate that he’s ours now. He still needs to develop, he’s still young, but when you've got character and personality like that, he’s speaking in the dressing room after, I really like that. That’s something for a coach that you want to work with.”

With midfielder Jordan Clark coming on to change the game in a 20-minute cameo, the long-serving Town player was eager to praise his young team-mate for coming up trumps once more, adding: “He’s a great lad. He’s always working, always learning, he’s played in different positions a lot which is never easy and he’s been in and out of the team which is also never easy. But credit to him, he’s a great lad and he works so hard on the training pitch. If you work hard in training then you get your rewards and that’s what he’s doing.”