Matt Bloomfield says Luton’s increasingly precarious relegation position is “concerning” but says he and the players can’t let themselves “bogged down” by their current plight.
The new manager’s first three games in charge have brought one draw, one defeat and two misfiring home performances, with the manager agreeing that its lays bare the scale of Town’s current problems.
A Championship defeat to Millwall by a solitary goal at Kenilworth Road on Saturday – a second reverse in a row – has left the Hatters in the relegation zone and now three points from safety and Portsmouth who have a game in hand.
Bloomfield said: “I’m not here to start trying to spin anything. It’s concerning where we are in the league. Absolutely. Of course it is.
“That’s the reality of football where we are at this time of year. But we can’t get sidetracked with that. We can’t get bogged down with that. We can’t get the weight of that bother us, because if you do, you become passive and you become disjointed.
“So we have to be positive and we have to be confident in what we’re doing. I’m definitely confident. I know the group of staff. And together with the players, we’ll move forward. I have no doubt about that.”
The defeat on Saturday led to anger and boos from the home supporters, first at the players as they did their customary lap of appreciation after the final whistle, and then to the board members in the Main Stand.
And next up, Luton face two away trips to Sheffield Wednesday and promotion-chasing Sunderland, where two more defeats will equal (13) and then set a new record (14) for the longest away-day run of losses in the club’s history.
Bloomfield, who will now have his first full uninterrupted week of coaching ahead of that trip to Hillsborough on Saturday, said: “I totally understand the size of the task. There’s no sugarcoating anything. We know what we’re in for, but we’re willing to roll up our sleeves and fight and that’s what you need at this stage of the season when you’re in where we are.
“But we’re willing to fight. We absolutely will fight together as a football club that’s so vital and imperative that we do that. We believe that we can do it, do the job that we’ve employed to do.”
While his first two games in the dugout drew positives without resulting in victories, the game against Millwall continued the Hatters’ trend of not taking a single point this term in last of a three-game week.
It came days after they’d been 2-1 up by half time at Oxford in one of their best 45-minutes on the road this season, only to lose 3-2.
“The disappointment of losing maybe was a bit of a hangover. Possibly. Looking at the performance, that was what you’d suggest,” said Bloomfield of the effect of their Kassam Stadium slump on a disappointing display against Millwall.
“I certainly didn’t feel it during the week. The lads have been working hard and doing their work, but ultimately, I understand that we’re judged on Saturdays, and performances like [that] will be frustrating for everybody because we weren’t good enough.
“We had some moments, mainly from set pieces that could have resulted in a goal and when things aren’t quite going your way, those ones that just evade the back post on other days when things are going your way, they creep in.
“I understand the fine margins of football. We have to keep working towards something better.”
Millwall’s winner, a volley from Mihailo Ivanovic on 61 minutes, left enough time for Town to rescue something on home soil, but they failed to force a clear-cut chance.
“It looked a little bit leggy, I think, at times. We didn’t have the same energy and zip and intensity about us,” said Bloomfield.
“I think a few of the boys are playing the third game in a week for the first time in quite a while, maybe that showed.
“We played we made four changes and possibly could have, in hindsight, made a few more because of the energy that we needed.
“It was a stop-start game. It wasn’t a huge footballing spectacle, I don’t think. It was a game of set pieces and we didn’t quite come out with enough second balls and start to build momentum and keep the ball on the pitch.
“It was too stop-start and ended up being a scrappy affair and it was always probably going to be one goal that that made the difference.”
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