Wilshere happy to 'provoke' Al-Hamadi in a bid to repeat his Iraq heroics for Luton
Forward impresses during second half cameo against Cobblers
Luton boss Jack Wilshere was happy to ‘provoke’ striker Ali Al-Hamadi into delivering what he felt was one of his best displays when coming off the bench against Northampton Town on Wednesday night.
The 24-year-old recently scored for Iraq in their play-off win over Bolivia to help his country reach the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1986, and when back in Bedfordshire again, followed that up by being introduced in the early stages of Town’s Easter Monday trip to AFC Wimbledon, replacing Nahki Wells inside 20 minutes due to a groin issue.
The on-loan Ipswich attacker went on to open his Hatters account in the second half at the Cherry Reds Record Stadium, with an excellent clipped finish in the bottom corner from Jake Richards’ through ball, as he was expected to not just be involved at Wembley in the Vertu Trophy final on Sunday, but more than likely take his place in the starting line-up due to the doubts over Wells.
That didn’t happen though, Wells fit enough to lead the line at the home of English football, scoring an excellent brace of goals in the 3-1 victory, while when he came off to earn a well-deserved ovation from the 30,000-plus Hatters fans in attendance during stoppage time, it was Devante Cole rather than Al-Hamadi who got the final few moments.
A few days later, Al-Hamadi was preferred over Cole in the match-day squad on home soil, as this time he did come on for Wells midway through the second half, entering the fray with the scores level at 1-1, Luton desperately needing a win to move within three points of sixth-placed Stevenage, who had been hammered 5-1 by Bolton Wanderers just 24 hours earlier.
He was almost the hero when going the long way round to hit a shot from 25 yards that beat Cobblers keeper Lee Burge all ends up only to crash against the post and fall just beyond the lurking Shayden Morris, before, with five minutes left, it was Al-Hamadi who was tripped for the free kick that skipper Kal Naismith curled into the top corner and bring the house down.
Discussing the forward, Wilshere said: “Against Wimbledon, Ali scored his goal, assisted, but he could have been a lot cleaner in certain moments, helped the team get up the pitch, linked play and that was my message to him. Then he was disappointed that he didn’t feature at Wembley and rightly so, he’s a player that wants to play and I understand that. He’s that type of character where you can provoke him a little bit and it creates a fire in him. I thought you saw the best version of Ali that you’ve seen since he’s been here on Wednesday night.
"When he came on he had one purpose and that was to score the winning goal for us. He came really close and looked sharp with his movement, he gave a different type of threat to what Nahki does, so really happy. We spoke when Ali scored his goals for Iraq, that we need that Ali here, we need that Ali between now and the rest of the season. We’re certainly starting to see a better version and I think there’s more to come.”
Although Town were never at their best against the Cobblers in midweek, mainly due to the comedown from the highs of Wembley, they still managed 25 shots on goal, with five on target. That came about after 15 shots when lifting the cup at the weekend, also managing 24 and 17 over the Easter period against Wimbledon and Peterborough respectively.
On his side’s greater attacking output, Wilshere added: “That has taken some time to get there and we’ve worked on that a lot. No matter what we do, whether we’re possession-based, whether we want to be a little bit more direct at times, always, always you have to carry a purpose and the purpose is to score goals. Whether you’re trying to play short to attract them to try and then get behind them, sometimes we haven’t got that balance right and sometimes that’s on me as well.
"When I stand in front of the players and say today’s a game where we need to play and attract them on and sometimes then they forget the purpose is we need to get behind them. I feel like the players are really developing that and we’re getting more threat in behind from the front-line and Kasey (Palmer) gives you something as well with that and his ability to open up spaces and find the right passes. Clicker’s (Jordan Clark) been outstanding at arriving in the box, so we’ve definitely got more threat.”