Luton boss Jack Wilshere: We’ve set the standard now so let’s keep it up

Luton boss Jack Wilshere urged his players to keep up the high standards they showed in an emphatic 3-0 win over AFC Wimbledon for the rest of the season.

The Hatters are just three points outside the Sky Bet League One play-off places after goals from Kasey Palmer, Ali Al-Hamadi and Jake Richards sealed a fourth win in five games ahead of Sunday’s EFL Trophy final against Stockport.

Palmer was the game’s outstanding player and fired his side ahead after 12 minutes with a powerful finish before Al-Hamadi, who helped Iraq book their spot in the World Cup last week, added the second. Richards slotted home the third 10 minutes from time to cap off a dominant performance from Wilshere’s side.

The boss said: “We’ve had spells in games where we have threatened to do that to teams and I felt that performance was coming and it did today. We’ve set a standard now and the players now need to do that consistently.

“Away from home sometimes we have struggled this season and that has been disappointing but I think the players have taken the lessons from those games. Today was a really good performance but a lot of hard work has gone into that.”

Al-Hamadi, who is on loan from Ipswich, has struggled since joining Luton but Wilshire believes helping his nation book a place at the World Cup for the first time since 1986 has given the 24-year-old a huge lift.

“Ali has been unlucky, we signed him injured then he went away with Iraq and got injured again and then it is hard for a player to get some rhythm,” said Wilshere.

“It was obviously massive for him, his family and his country to qualify for the World Cup and sometimes that can give you that spark you need.

“At times he needs to keep the ball better and be tidier but he is a goalscorer and hopefully we will see more from him.”

Dons manager Johnnie Jackson admitted his injury-hit side deserved nothing from the game but said the loss of centre-halves Patrick Bauer and Joe Lewis in the opening half-hour was a huge blow as the hosts slipped to a fifth defeat in six matches.

Jackson said: “We knew it was going to be a challenging afternoon because of the opponent. They are a tough team, but going into it with a depleted team and adding to the mix losing two players in the first half and another in the second half made it impossible for us.

“The point I made to the players was that this was a tough day and everything that could go wrong went wrong and we accept that. We could play out of our skin with our best side and still lose because they have good players and are a good side.

“Today was one of those days, they were too good for us so I probably won’t dwell on this one.”