Bloomfield admitted he 'felt awful' when taking off Town youngster Fanne against Sky Blues

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield admitted he ‘felt awful’ when deciding to substitute young midfielder Lamine Fanne during the early stages of the second half against Coventry City at the weekend.

After taking time to acclimatise to the pace of English football since arriving from Swedish top flight side AIK in January, then up until the trip to Derby County on Good Friday, the 21-year-old had been restricted to just eight appearances in the Championship, with only three of them from the start. After getting the nod against the Rams though, Fanne kept his place for the next three games, including starting what was a massive game against Coventry City at the weekend.

Keeping both Kal Naismith and Jordan Clark out of the side, Fanne was deployed to play in a deeper midfield berth alongside Liam Walsh. However the dismissal of Sky Blues’ defender Jay Dasilva after just 12 minutes meant there was plenty of space to be had in the centre of the park, as the Senegal-born player went on to have most probably his best performance in a Luton shirt so far, able to take up some advanced positions as Town searched for the break through.

He saw one curling effort deflect off the head of a visiting defender when it looked destined to beat City stopper Bradley Collins, while he was denied the opening goal on 56 minutes, having been clipped through brilliantly by Carlton Morris, he was denied by the onrushing keeper. Before play could restart though, Fanne saw his number surprisingly raised by the fourth official, such was his growing influence on proceedings, which meant he had to make way for Clark.

Speaking about the substitution, Bloomfield said: “I thought Monday (against Bristol City) he was very, very good and I felt awful as he just had that chance when we had Clicker ready to come on and it felt a bit bad that we were taking him off after that. It wasn’t a reflection on that, it just felt like we were getting around the box loads of times and Clicker, we’ve seen it here a number of times, when he’s either got the goal or assist.

"I thought Lamine was excellent. We’ve had to be patient with Lamine as he came over in January and he’s been building up his understanding of the English game and what we require. The performances of some of those around him have probably limited his opportunities at times, Walshy, Clicker and Thelo (Aasgaard) have been the midfield three for the majority and I think they’ve done particularly well, but he’s now played three in a row Lamine and I’m really pleased with him.”

Fanne wasn’t the only tactical switch made by Bloomfield during the contest, as he also opted to take off defender Christ Makosso at the interval, with Naismith on in his place for the second period, Teden Mengi moving to the right of the back three. That decision came down to the early red card picked up by the visitors, as with Town dominating possession and City showing little ambition other than to sit in for a point, it was expected the January window addition’s extra creativity on the ball would be able to help unlock the stubborn back-line.

The Hatters boss added: “Because Teden was on his wrong side and we were having so much of the ball, being right footed, predominantly he was coming back inside the pitch. We just wanted to get that balance on the left hand side, so it was a choice of bringing Kal on or dropping Amari’i (Bell) back and bringing Chongy (Tahith Chong) on as left wingback. We just felt with Kal’s know-how and leadership and being able to organise those around him, it felt like it was the right choice at half time to bring him on to the pitch.”