Wilshere was always confident Town striker Wells would reach double figures from the spot
Forward makes it 10 for the campaign against Barnsley
Luton boss Jack Wilshere had every confidence that Nahki Wells would reach double figures for the season when stepping up from the penalty spot against Barnsley on Saturday.
The 35-year-old had been jostling with Jerry Yates to be Town’s go-to man from the spot earlier in the season, netting his first attempt in the 3-2 defeat against Plymouth Argyle in September to get his season up and running. However, he then missed against Doncaster Rovers when Ian Lawlor saved his effort, and again during Wilshere’s first game in charge, a 2-0 home loss to Mansfield, Liam Roberts able to save.
That saw him taken off such duties, Gideon Kodua assuming the responsibility at Blackpool, while Jordan Clark then stepping up and going on to score four from his five efforts this term. However, with Clark injured and missing from Saturday’s contest, it meant someone else would be needed once Hakeem Odoffin went over under the challenge from Luca Connell inside the area and referee Harry Wager pointed to the spot.
It looked initially like skipper Kal Naismith, who has done once before, was going to take it, until Wells got the ball and was able to send Owen Goodman the wrong way to open the scoring and bag the 23rd spotkick of his career. Asked if there had been any nerves, Wilshere said: “I think Nahki’s probably been waiting to take one, but when Jordan Clark’s on the pitch, he takes them.
"Nahki’s probably been waiting for that moment and I was confident when he stepped up. He takes them in training and before the first game we didn’t have Jordan Clark, he made it clear that he wants to take them. So I think when a player is that clear and confident, you just let him go and take it.”
The goal meant Wells, who arrived in Bedfordshire on a free transfer in the summer, reached double figures for the 11th season in his lengthy career. Although he has had a tough time at Kenilworth Road, scoring just four goals in 28 matches to begin with, he has enjoyed a far better time of it recently, netting six in his last 14 appearances, with five of his goals coming in the Vertu Trophy, bagging a double in the final against Stockport County, and FA Cup.
Wilshere was pleased he had reached the landmark every striker wants, continuing: “Everyone knows what I think of Nahki and how important he is to the group with his leadership qualities, but also with his ability on the pitch and what we want from a number nine. Nahki will be the first to say that he’s probably missed some chances when he should have scored and deep down he’s a proper number nine who wants to score goals, so to reach 10 I think he’ll be happy with that, but wanting more next season.”
The goal didn’t make it plain sailing for Luton as Barnsley hit back through Adam Phillips’ equaliser 10 minutes later, meaning that the Hatters needed a late winner from Kasey Palmer to take their play-off quest into the final game. Wells had gone off at this point, but following a period where Town struggled in front of goal, they were able to net twice for the ninth time in their last 10 matches, as Wilshere added: “I thought we started okay and then credit to Barnsley, they’re a really good team.
"I think he’s (Conor Hourihane) a really good coach with good ideas and if you give them time on the ball they’ll start to rotate, start to move and make it difficult for you to press them and they did that. We needed to be more aggressive with our high press, but the most important thing was we got over the line and I feel like we’re going to create chances as we’ve got quality players on the pitch. There was a spell where and we haven’t recently kept enough clean sheets, that we kind of knew we’d have to score two goals in a game to win it because we couldn’t keep a clean sheet.
"I think that is really important how you train and how you shape it to the boys because of course we want to keep clean sheets and of course we need to work on that and train it, but if you know that’s the case and you can’t solve it straight away then you’re going to have to work on your attacking play and putting players in good positions, trying to create chances. We spoke about that, how happy we are with the chances we’re creating. We’d like to score more at times and today was one where we didn’t quite create the clear-cut opportunities, but there was a feeling between the players I felt that the chance was going to come and thankfully we took that.”