Wells and Yates will get further chances to lead the line for Luton

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere has stated he will give Nahki Wells and Jerry Yates further opportunities to prove themselves as a front pairing despite their struggles against Rotherham United on Saturday.

With Town looking to make it five straight wins in all competitions against one of the in-form teams in the division, Yates was selected as George Saville’s replacement, the midfielder both suspended and away on international duty with Northern Ireland, as the former Blackpool striker started his first league game under Wilshere. He began on the left-hand side of Luton’s attacking trio, with Wells central and Jake Richards on the right, but it became apparent from early on that he and Wells would switch roles in what was a fairly fluid partnership.

Although the Hatters went on to absolutely dominate possession, most of it was in their own half, meaning Wells in particular struggled to have an impact, with a mere 17 touches during his hour on the field, making just four passes with a 50 percent completion rate, also having no shots at all, although he was fouled twice. Yates, who then took over as the number nine when Wells was replaced, fared slightly better, having 37 touches, with two attempts on goal, one flick not testing visiting keeper Cameron Dawson and another after the break that was touched away by the stopper, making one key pass too.

However, neither ever looked like adding to their tallies to the campaign, as from a combined 24 outings in the league, they have managed just two goals between them, both of those coming from the penalty spot against Plymouth Argyle, their other five goals arriving in the Vertu Trophy and FA Cup. Discussing the pairing, Wilshere said: “We talked about those two playing close together because I don’t think too many centre backs these days face that, two number nines where they combine with each other.

"They’re intelligent players, all week they’ve been doing it really well, but we also tried when we were building up, to get them to occupy the outside centre backs and leave the middle guy free and I think they did. We probably didn’t use them enough in the first half when gaps opened, we turned them down too many times when we could have played through to them and then started to attack the defensive line.

"In the second half the game was a little bit different in terms of what we told them, we wanted Jerry to be more of a nine and Nahki to be a little bit free around him, but it’s tough for them combining in a game like that for two number nines, that like to show, that like the ball into them because when a team comes and they get into a block, they keep the distances between the lines very tight.

"Yatesy, he hasn't started a game in the league for a while, he showed some nice moments and will probably be disappointed that he didn’t get the opportunities he would have wanted, but he was busy, he linked up the play nicely at times. Nahki has had an up and down week where he felt something a little bit, but you can see the type of person he is, he wanted to play, he wanted to be out there, wanted to help the team.

"I thought he had some nice moments as well, it's tough against a block and a back five when you’re trying to drop off into spaces and maybe you have to take them the other way first, but we'll look at it, review it and we'll go again. That’s something that we’ll do again this season as they’re two good players who can combine well together.”