Matt Bloomfield admits that defensive mistakes have “hurt” Luton’s results, but says the only way to improving his “fragile” side is to keep working on the problem.
Town were the architects of their own downfall yesterday in a 2-0 derby defeat at arch-rivals Watford, as two errors in 12 early first half minutes effectively consigned Luton to a 12th Championship game without a win.
Scoring goals are a problem as the Hatters – now the lowest scorers in the division with 31 in 34 games – drew a blank for the fifth time in Bloomfield’s eight games in charge, but the game definitively swung on calamities at the back.
First Mads Andersen and Thomas Kaminski managed to give away a penalty when the defender was trying to shield a routine ball back to the goalkeeper.
Then Andersen let Giorgi Chakvetadze run half the pitch, with Amari’i Bell beaten as the Georgian picked out Eco Kayembe. At 23 minutes the game was over, though Luton improved after half time, they failed to trouble Hornets keeper Egil Selvik.
It leaves Town rooted to the bottom of the Championship, five points from safety, with just 12 games remaining.
Bloomfield said: “I think the two goals we gave away really hurt our result. [We] gave ourselves a mountain to climb as well, because we were OK. We were fine, we were in the game, it was fine, there’s nothing going on. Before you know it, one situation leads to a penalty against you, 1-0 down.
“Again, the second goal was disappointing. I think it’s probably hurt us for a little while now, giving away those goals, and we have to keep working and we have to keep improving because they’ve hurt our results, there’s no question about that.
“I spoke to the boys in the changing room, in between the two boxes, generally, we’re doing quite a bit right at the moment, if you look at, again the two performances from Saturday, Wednesday. Maybe not from the two goals onwards.
“I thought it rocked us and we were we looked a little bit fragile for the rest of the first half, but the second half, there was a lot to like about us in between the two boxes, but games are won and lost in the penalty boxes, and, it’s not going our way.”
Asked how he can change his side’s proclivity for gifting cheap goals, which has happened all season long, even prior to Bloomfield’s appointment last month, the manager said:“Keep showing it to the boys, keep working. It’s been since I’ve been here and before.
“I think the goals against have narrowed off slightly in the time we’ve been here. We’ve been working a lot on our out of possession shape and trying to be more compact.
“But little moments define football matches and we saw that last Saturday [against Sheffield United], we saw it on Wednesday [against Plymouth] and, irrespective of the game as a whole, those moments put you on the back foot.
“And it’s a mountain to climb after that and we all take responsibility for that.
“I’m not here to criticise anybody, absolutely not. I’m here to take responsibilities. I’m the manager of this football team and I’ll keep working to improve it.”
