Luton’s 100 percent start to the League One season came to an end at Bradford and Town boss Matt Bloomfield admitted his side were second best, describing the performance as “really disappointing”.
The manager named three changes from the side that won at Peterborough last week, with Nigel Lonwijk replacing the injured Reuell Walters, Mark McGuinness handed his first league start, in place of suspended Christ Makosso and Lamine Fanne coming in for Nahki Wells who picked up a knock in training.
Luton were short of ideas in attack, but not the hosts as they went close twice before opening the scoring on 33 minutes.
McGuinness – on his first League One start after suffering a pre-season viral illness that setback his preparations – didn’t deal with the presence of Antoni Sarcevic and an awkward bouncing ball in the box where the Bantam steered it into the path of Stephen Humphrys to poke over the line.
Then, in the second half, Bobby Pointon stole a yard on the centre half to ram home a whipping cross from former Hatters Academy graduate Josh Neufville.
City should have had a third in similar circumstances when Tyreik Wright was left unmarked and it needed a sprawling point blank block from keeper Josh Keeley to keep him out.
Town did pull one back when Cohen Brama crossed and Gideon Kodua converted a towering header for his first Hatters goal, but it remained a consolation as Town had to swallow their deserved first defeat of the season.
“Bradford showed more intensity and fight than us, which was really disappointing,” Bloomfield told #LTFC + afterwards. “They built up momentum through duels and were able to get a foothold in the game by coming out on top of them. We were a little bit too one paced at times. We broke through lines and then came back again. There’s plenty for us to work on.”
The Hatters were forced into early changes, with Milli Alli withdrawn midway through the first half and Lonwijk replaced at half-time. Bloomfield explained both were precautionary.
“Mills had been booked and gave away another foul,” he said. “The supporters were desperate for a sending off and the referee wasn’t exactly giving us many decisions. It just felt like he was really at risk of a red card. With Nigel, he made a great tackle, won the ball, and somehow it was a foul and a booking. We were concerned, but also we’re still building Cohen’s fitness and he gave us good balance second half.”
Despite two victories in their opening two games of the campaign, Luton have struggled to fashion chances and that continued lack of a cutting edge proved costly.
“There were some good bits from us today. When we did what we’d spoken about, we looked quite threatening, but we just lacked that final touch,” Bloomfield said.
“Even at the end there’s balls going across the box – we’ve got to get on the end of that to tap in. It’s no different to the second goal we conceded, the boy gets across the front and taps in. We have to be better and keep working towards that.”
Bloomfield knows his side must react quickly, with Wigan visiting on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be a tough game, and it’s up to us,” he said. “We have to bounce back. We have to show more fight and show reaction. We have to come out fighting on Tuesday evening, no question about that.”
He added: “We’re bitterly disappointed right now. But we have to let that go fairly quickly and get ready for Tuesday evening.”
