Luton Town manager Matt Bloomfield has called on his side to show “more fight” against Wigan Athletic at Kenilworth Road tonight as they look to respond from their first defeat of the League One campaign at Bradford City.
Town went down 2-1 at Valley Parade on Saturday and the Hatters boss admitted afterwards that the Bantams “showed more intensity and fight” than his men.
It was Luton’s second successive defeat after a fully changed side went out of the Carabao Cup 1-0 at Coventry last Tuesday, having won their opening third tier tussles without conceding a goal.
Ahead of the visit of the Latics, who have an identical league record of two wins and a defeat, Bloomfield said: “We need to bounce back. We need to show more fight. We need a reaction. We need to come out fighting on Tuesday evening.”
The game marks a return to home turf for the Hatters after three consecutive matches on the road, something Bloomfield believes can help his players produce a response.
“It’s been a lot of travel but I’m really looking forward to being back at the Kenny. Evening games there are special under the lights. It’s now up to us to put in a performance.”
One positive for Luton at the weekend was another 45 minutes for new signing Cohen Bramall, who replaced Nigel Lonwijk to avoid the Dutchman collecting a second yellow card.
“[We’re] trying to build him up to fitness and I think he gave us gives us good balance when we’re able to get him on the pitch,” the manager said to the BBC about the left wing-back, adding: But again, you know, he’s still only in the second week of his pre-season, so we’re trying to build him up as quickly as possible and hopefully he’ll be better.”
On the injury front, Bloomfield revealed striker Nahki Wells is a “possibility but not certain” to feature against the Latics after missing out at Bradford. Meanwhile, both Tahith Chong and Teden Mengi are set to step up their recoveries in training this week, though tonight’s game will come too soon for the pair.
