Bloomfield doesn't want Luton midfielder to lose his 'edge' after winning red card appeal

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield doesn’t want to take away the ‘edge’ from Liam Walsh despite the midfielder seeing red for the third time this season during Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Coventry City.

Luckily for the 27-year-old, the decision by referee Oliver Langford was instantly appealed by the Hatters, with an FA statement confirming on Wednesday that it had been rescinded. The incident came about when Walsh, having just been booked, shoved Sky Blues defender Luis Binks following a foul on Izzy Jones, but was somehow given his marching orders by the referee.

Despite the City player thematically throwing himself to the floor, pretending he had suffered a head injury, replays showed quite clearly afterwards, that the Tow player had simply shoved him on his arm. Having rightfully seen red against Oxford United and Blackburn Rovers earlier in the campaign, but only picked up two cautions in his recent extended run in the side, asked if he had spoken to Walsh about trying to stay clear of trouble in the future, as the midfielder hadn’t needed to get involved, Bloomfield said: “I get your point about putting himself in the position, but he didn’t really do anything.

"We’ve spoken about it, we’ve discussed it, we want him to not be near any trouble, but also he’s at his best when he plays with an edge, his passing’s crisp, he bites down in tackles and drops on second balls. We’ve got to be careful, we don’t want make him too passive and we don’t have the same player, so absolutely, we don’t want any more red cards. We’ve discussed it, but I thought the evidence is there he was very harshly done by and he’s been in great form recently and that’s the Walshy need on the pitch tomorrow.”

Bloomfield was pleased that he is able to select Walsh, who had been looking at a five game ban if the appeal hadn’t been successful, against West Bromwich Albion in the season finale on Saturday. He felt there had been no other option by the FA to come to the decision and clear his player, as he continued: “Because it happened so quickly, I didn’t quite realise how far away a red card it was at that exact moment until I saw the replay.

"Yes, it’s the right decision. I don’t know what the official report said, Walshy was told something like he pushed him around the neck, obviously we saw the footage that was not that, so we were able to appeal and we got the confirmation through Tuesday evening. I didn’t actually read the report, we were then moving on to the focus of this week.

"It’s that fine balance again of how much you revisit it, or let’s focus on getting the appeal done and moving through. I’m not sure it mattered what it said as we all looked at it and we could all see it wasn’t a red. So the guys, the secretary, behind the scenes they sorted out all that kind of stuff. As we spoke about after the game, the intention was to appeal and I’m glad that it’s been successful.”

With Walsh now having the chance to start his 14th game out of 15 at the Hawthorns tomorrow, Bloomfield praised the way in which he has been able to not just get himself consistently fit, but also maintain that level of fitness for one of the first times in his career in the last few months, adding: “He’s a top footballer. We’ve discussed him before, he’s been robbed of lots of football in his career because of injuries, but let’s touch wood for him. I don’t think he’s barely missed a session since we’ve been here.

"He’s been out there and that consistency of training, we’re now seeing that coming out in his performances. That robustness, that resilience to get out on the training pitch because without players on the training pitch it’s tough for the message to go in as quickly. So we’ve had to be patient with that as we’ve had boys who have come back from injuries and had to miss sessions, but the group is growing and we’re pleased where we are right now.”