Luton Town boss Matt Bloomfield has called on his players to replicate their newfound performance level in tonight’s crucial Championship relegation battle against Plymouth Argyle.
The Hatters were desperately unlucky to lose to promotion-chasing Sheffield United on Saturday, having served up one of their best performances of the season.
Buoyed by returning players and seven changes, particularly the first half at the weekend, offered some hope that Town can rescue themselves from a second consecutive relegation, even though it stretched their winless run to ten games and set a new club record of four home games without a goal.
The 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United also saw them slip to the foot of the table because previous basement boys Plymouth beat Millwall 5-1 to leapfrog them. It all sets up tonight’s tussle as virtually a must-win for both sides.
“We know what we need to do,” Bloomfield said, adding: “We know what we need to do for the rest of the season. We know that the levels that this group are capable of, absolutely.
“Saturday showed us, and that’s got to be the minimum between now and the end of the season. It’s about our mindset and our, determination to go and reproduce that as, as often as we possibly can in every game if we can. That’s the level that the boys have set themselves. That’s the level that they’re capable of.
“And there was never a doubt in my mind that they weren’t capable of that. I knew that the potential we have within the squad we’ve spoken before about confidence and belief and momentum, all those kind of bits. But it feels like off the back of Saturday, even though the result didn’t go our way, off the back of the performance, I feel like there’s a bit of momentum within the crowd, within our supporters and within the group. It’s been bubbly the last couple of days and we want that to to reflect again [against Plymouth].”
Despite playing well against the Blades, Luton failed to take their chances, with Elijah Adebayo missing two and Thelo Aasgaard hitting the bar before the visitors beat the offside trap to score the winner in the 79th minute. Nevertheless, Bloomfield remains optimistic.
“I believe in the forwards we’ve got. I believe in all the players that we’ve got,” he said. “It’s about us going and believing that, and going and proving it on the pitch.”
With both Luton and Plymouth battling to avoid the drop, the fixture carries significant weight, but Bloomfield is keen to ensure his squad handles the occasion with composure.
“I don’t believe adding pressure to the situation will help,” he said. “We all understand where we are. We’re very understanding of the situation we find ourselves in. But we have to approach the game with the edge that we had on Saturday, but also the calm minds that can go and implement performance.”
Bloomfield added: “I think every game is really important to us. I’ve never played in a football game that isn’t important. They’re all important, and we have to approach it that we want to win the game.
“I’ve never played any game as a player or sent a team out as a manager that I didn’t want to win.
“I want to win, of course we do. But we have to be, we have to be calm and we have to just keep approaching the fixtures like everyone is important to win.
“We’re looking forward to the game, and we want to replicate the performance of Saturday and look to improve.”
Plymouth, who have shown defensive solidity in recent weeks, and knocked Premier League champions elect Liverpool out of the FA Cup, will pose a stern challenge, but Bloomfield is more focused on his own team’s approach.
“We understand and respect that they’ve had a big improvement,” he said. “But if we can implement ourselves on the game, we showed on Saturday against top-quality opposition that we can really impose ourselves.”
With key players like Alfie Doughty, Amari’i Bell and Shandon Baptiste returning from injury, Luton’s manager hopes their experience will provide a much-needed boost.
“We’ve now got Shandon back available, Burkey, and Alfie — big players for this football club,” he said. “Saturday was a good performance, absolutely, and we have to use that as momentum.”
With survival on the line, Bloomfield is clear on what his team must do: “There’s no point leaving that [performance] on Saturday. One performance doesn’t make a season. We have to make sure we do more and be consistent.”
Tonight will be Bloomfield’s first managerial experience of Kenilworth Road under the lights and he said:
“I’m really excited, really looking forward to it. You know, I’ve spoken a lot about the, the atmosphere and, our football club, our supporters.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that they saw the performance on the pitch because they reacted accordingly. And it’s up to us to put another performance out there for them. They pay their hard-earned money, follow us up and down the country and haven’t had a huge amount of cheer recently. And we have to make sure that we give them more to cheer.”
The Fans’ view…
The Luton Town Supporters’ Trust gave their view that this is a six-pointer and whether the Hatters can get the result that will show they can survive in the Championship this season.
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