Luton Town boss Matt Bloomfield has urged his side to embrace a new identity and show courage as they aim to break their away-day hoodoo at Oxford tonight.
The match marks the manager’s first week in charge of the Hatters and having stopped the rot of five straight defeats in all competitions on his debut day, tonight’s task is to end a dismal run of ten consecutive Championship away slumps.
His bow in Town’s home dugout at the weekend, brought a point against Preston, and while results elsewhere saw them slip into the relegation zone, there were improvements in his team’s shape and approach with and without the ball.
The challenge now is to arrest Luton’s form away from Kenilworth Road, which is not a burden to Bloomfield, though he admitted: “Affects me to the point where I have to understand where everybody is, in the building.
“People are talking about it, and people understand it, so I have to be respectful of that and understand that. There’s no point being naive to think that it’s not there. It absolutely is. But I’m looking at it in isolation, and it’s a game I want to go and compete in and present ourselves in the right way.”
Bloomfield’s early approach is rooted in instilling belief in the squad while remaining pragmatic about the challenges.
“We’ll speak about it a lot—about our identity and character and courage and looking there to go and play. And if the principles are in place, we believe we can put in a good performance. If we can do that, then you give yourselves a chance of getting a result,” he said.
The trip to the Kassam Stadium will mark a week since Bloomfield was appointed Luton boss, so implementing will remain a work in progress, but he praised the players for their openness and quick adaptation to the early changes.
“The players are really respectful. They listen. They look to implement it out on the training ground. And I think if you looked at our performance on Saturday, they’re quick learners. It seems like they’re quick learners, and we want to keep heading in that direction,” Bloomfield said.
Central to his strategy is finding the right balance between defensive solidity and attacking intent — a challenge he recognises is not unique to away games but is particularly vital for Luton’s current form.
“Obviously, away from home, you have to be solid,” Bloomfield said, adding: ” “You have to make sure you don’t give your opposition a leg up and give their fans too much to cheer about, and we’ll be trying to be as solid as we possibly can,.
“But at the same time, as you’ve seen from the away form that we had earlier in the season, in my previous club, we want to attack and we want to win games.”
The Hatters chief is realistic about the time it takes to implement his ideas fully but remains confident in his squad’s potential to succeed on the road.
“We can’t try and be too clever and implement everything we want to do overnight. It’s just not possible for the players to take on that much information,” he explained. “But that doesn’t change my belief that this group is totally capable of winning games on the road. It’s got the ingredients to go and do it, and we absolutely believe in the group that they can go and do so. Again, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that we could turn it around.”
Oxford are a team that have done just that after replacing boss Des Buckingham with Gary Rowett, since going six games unbeaten in the Championship.
Bloomfield said: “(They’re a) form team, very good at home, been picking up results recently. Their shape and style hasn’t changed too much since Gary’s gone in there, but he’s definitely getting more results than what they were previously.
“A man of very good experience and knowledge and knows the level. (He’s) getting a lot out of those boys at the minute, and it’ll be a stern test for us, but we’re looking forward to the game, and we want to continue and build on what we did on Saturday. There’s loads to work on, but it was a good start for us and we’re looking forward to the game.”
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