Forward came on as a late substitute against Wigan
Luton boss Jack Wilshere admitted it was a tough call to drop top scorer Gideon Kodua for a game that many considered pivotal to the Hatters hopes of reaching the League One play-offs this season, the 1-0 defeat at Wigan Athletic on Wednesday night.
The Hatters headed to the Brick Community Stadium looking to end their hideous run of five straight defeats on the road, and with results going their way the previous day, cut the gap to the top six to a single point. To do that, in what had been labelled a must-win contest, they needed to threaten the Latics goal far more than they had done to any of the others sides visited in their miserable sequence outside of Bedfordshire, as Wilshere opted to change to a 4-4-2 formation to do so, picking two strikers in Ali Al-Hamadi and Devante Cole, who are yet to score for Town so far, or have a shot on target, putting Izzy Jones and Jake Richards on the wings.
It meant that having been taking off at half time during the 3-1 defeat to Cardiff City a few days previously, Kodua was one of two changes that Wilshere made in Greater Manchester, along with Joe Johnson, as despite reaching double figures for the Hatters and being second in the squad for expected goals on target with 6.1 and joint top for shots on target with 0.9 per game, he had to watch on from the bench.
Leading marksman Gideon Kodua wasn't brought on until the latter stages of Wednesday night's defeat at Wigan - pic: David Horn / PRiME Media Imagesplaceholder image
Leading marksman Gideon Kodua wasn't brought on until the latter stages of Wednesday night's defeat at Wigan - pic: David Horn / PRiME Media Images
In his absence, Luton once more struggled to create anything of note, Kasey Palmer’s free kick saved by Sam Tickle in the first half, as Shayden Morris was the first replacement used, for Richards, on the hour mark. Kodua was then part of a triple substitution readied in the 70th minute, as they were stripped and waiting on the sidelines just prior to Wigan taking a deserved lead through ex-Hatter Joe Taylor’s smart finish.
He along with Davy van den Berg and Nahki Wells were then held back for over 10 minutes before Wilshere did eventually bring the trio on, as it wasn’t until the final seconds of stoppage time that the Hatters remotely threatened an equaliser, Kodua himself involved, with his shot blocked as were efforts from Palmer, Davy van den Berg and Nigel Lonwijk in an almighty goalmouth scramble.
On the difficulty in leaving his leading marksman out for such an important game, Wilshere said: “That was selection based, I had a good chat with Gids and Gids has been outstanding with us and I wanted that to be clear. It was selection based on what we had, what’s come before us, all the games, but also what we’ve got coming up as we’ve got another three game week next week.
“It is (difficult not to include him), I’ve said it before, when he’s on the pitch, if he plays 60 minutes and there’s maybe a doubt about his fitness or we’re having conversations about how long can you play and when it gets to that 60th minute, you don’t want to take him off because he does give you a lot of threat, same with Jordan Clark.
"So at times it is tough, but also we have to think about games where if we’re just going to go away from home at the minute and make it a game that we want, part of the plan is sometimes stay in the game and keep it close, or we know we’ve got players who can come off the bench and try and make that difference. We wanted it to be at nil-nil on Wednesday, but it wasn’t. You can see he came on and he probably came closest to scoring, so at times it’s tough but we have to think of the players as well.”
With Kodua having made 34 outings for the Hatters this season, far more than he has done at any stage of his short time as a pro at West Ham United and loan spells with Wycombe Wanderers, then there is also an element of Wilshere not wanting the young attacker to break down for what he hopes is an extended campaign either. He added: “Gids has been outstanding and probably one of the best things that I love about him is that he wants to keep going and going and going.
"He’s played more minutes than he’s every played in his whole short career, but we want to get him to a place where he’s able to do six games in two weeks and we have to be careful at times as you can get carried away. You always want your best players on the pitch, I understand that as well, so we’re trying to find the right balance for everyone. He’s okay, he’s available again and we’ll see what the team is tomorrow.”
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