As a player, Matt Bloomfield survived a “catastrophic” relegation and now, as Luton boss, going into a crunch clash at Derby County, he is hoping to replicate one of “most extreme highs” he’s ever experienced to steer the Hatters to Championship safety.
As a career-long Wycombe Wanderers midfielder, he was in his testimonial year with the Chairboys 11 years ago, when the club were on the brink of slipping out of the Football League altogether.
Their fight had gone to the last day of the 2013/14 season, but they needed a set of extraordinary results to happen for them to avoid the non-league.
Wycombe needed to win at already relegated Torquay, while also requiring either Northampton or Bristol Rovers to lose to spare them. Wanderers held up their end of the bargain, beating ten-man Torquay 3-0 and Rovers lost 1-0 to Mansfield to take Wanderers’ relegation place. At the time, Bloomfield called it his “proudest moment”.
Now, as Luton manager, it might not yet be the last game of a tumultuous season, but with four left to play, second-from-bottom Town travel to a Derby County side three points above them, just outside the Championship drop zone, knowing that, realistically, only a win will do to keep their survival hopes alive after a bitter blow losing to Blackburn last weekend.
“I know that there’s been a lot of disappointment after our game last week, but [if] we win [at Derby], we are right in this,” said Bloomfield. “Nothing’s cut and dried. Nothing’s been decided yet. And I have the belief. I have the fight in me to keep going until someone tells me it’s done.”
Bloomfield has remained confident of swerving the trap door since his arrival at Kenilworth Road in January. In his short managerial career, he has helped engineer league survival for Colchester United and then back at Wycombe, who he left to join Luton. That and the final day miracle of 11 years ago, in part, fuels his belief that the great escape is still on for the Hatters, despite some fan fears to the contrary.
“My memories of Torquay are that we were relegated. By all intents and purposes, everyone thought we were down,” the 41-year-old recalled of the climax of the 2013/14 campaign.
“It was one of the most extreme highs I’ve ever experienced because going out of the Football League for Wycombe Wanderers would have been catastrophic.
“It was also my testimonial year, so it wouldn’t have been great to do that in that, but we believed that something incredible was going to happen and the belief in the group was that we were going to do it and ultimately we did.
“Had that gone the other way, who knows what had happened to my playing career? The football club, the gaffer’s career at that point.
“He [Gareth Ainsworth] was very early on in his career, to go out the Football League, and he achieved incredible things with that football club before he moved on to QPR.
“So life throws these events at you, and you only come out of them by fighting and scrapping and believing.”
Luton have already beaten Derby this term, back in December when two goals in the last two minutes earned a 2-1 comeback victory at Kenilworth Road. Since then, the Rams have brought in former Blackburn boss John Eustace and they are currently the fourth most in-form team in the division, with only one defeat in their last seven.
For Luton, last weekend’s dispiriting 1-0 defeat at home to a Blackburn side that had lost to almost all of Town’s relegation rivals in the last month, was their first loss in six. On the road, the Hatters are unbeaten in three, including important victories against drop zone candidates Cardiff and Hull City.
But defeat at Pride Park would widen the gap to safety to six points and that may prove a mountain too high to climb for Luton. But a victory would claw them to within goal difference of safety, meaning they would have to better Derby’s final three results to survive.
“We understand how big the game is. We understand what implications it can have for our season and we have to attack the game. We have to impose ourselves and we have to go there believing we win and we do,” said Bloomfield.
“Results have been good recently away from home, so we’ll be looking to replicate that. It’s a completely new game, a completely different game. Derby have been in obviously good form, so it’s a tough one for us, but we’re a good team ourselves and we’re we’re looking forward to it.
“It’s a crucial game. It’s a really important game but, again, nothing is decided [at Derby]. We can’t be too anxious about the situation. We have to be calm and we have to just go and deliver. That’s where we are right now.
“We have to find a way to win the game and we have to believe in ourselves and our team – and we do. So, we’ll be we’ll be looking to go and leave everything out on the pitch. Good, good Luton teams leave everything out on the pitch and that’s what we need to do.”
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