Bloomfield doesn't want to make a big deal about Luton's goalscoring issues

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield doesn’t want to make a big deal about the Hatters’ continued woes in front of goal despite his side managing what was a fourth blank in six home games since his arrival during Saturday’s incredibly frustrating goalless draw against Middlesbrough.

The Town chief was expected to bring goals aplenty with him when leaving a Wycombe Wanderers side who had racked up 50 goals in just 25 League One matches when getting the nod to replace Rob Edwards in the Kenilworth Road hot-seat during January. However, it just hasn’t proved to be the case, the Hatters failing to score in seven of their 12 games under Bloomfield, and only managing to find the net on seven occasions in the other five matches.

Just one of those goals has come from someone considered an actual striker too, Jacob Brown coming off the bench to net with his first touch in the 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle a month ago, the five other players on target being Jordan Clark twice, Mark McGuinness, Tom Krauß, Alfie Doughty and Thelo Aasgaard.

Saturday’s stalemate with Michael Carrick’s play-off chasers highlighted the point as the Hatters finished with an xG (expected goals) of 2.23 but despite a fantastic first half display, up until the final third and even closer to goal than that, their problems were laid bare for all to see, Aasgaard missing twice from a matter of yards, while an out of confidence Elijah Adebayo fired a one-on-one straight at keeper Mark Travers.

Town tried their luck from range when possible too, Liam Walsh having three attempts, Carlton Morris two, while Doughty had a pop as well, with the second half seeing McGuinness and Lasse Nordas both go close. With Adebayo and Morris, who both reached double figures in the Premier League last term, on barren runs stretching to 18 and 13 matches respectively, it means the Hatters are the worst scorers in the division, with just 34 to their name and failing to score in 14 of their 38 matches, a stat that could very well see them playing League One football next term.

Asked what he can do about it, Bloomfield said: “Keep practising, keep believing, psychologically we have to be really careful not to make too big of a deal of it, I think, as it could weigh on the players’ shoulders and it’s not the right thing. I don’t think we’ve spoken about a number of games, the Sheffield United game, chance creation, you’re looking at the game today, Plymouth, there’s been a number of home games where we’ve created more than enough chances to win the game and if we keep doing that, football has a habit of paying you back.

"We have to keep believing in what we’re doing and keep creating the chances. We work incredibly hard on the training ground on style of play, formation, tactically how we want to break down our opposition, and I’m really proud of the way the boys implemented that. It’s (scoring) always a part of our focus, the two ends are. Stopping the goals one end and scoring goals the other end, it will always be a focus as it has to be. It's what the game is all about so we’ll absolutely be working on it between now and Hull as we’ve got eight big games when we come back.”

Luton’s chances of finding the net weren’t helped when Brown came on to replace Adebayo early in the second and was then forced off 14 minutes later after injuring his ankle catching his man rather than the ball when going go for goal, cautioned in his infinite wisdom by referee Farai Hallam, despite making a genuine attempt to shoot. On the issue, Bloomfield added: “It’s an ankle problem for Browny so we’ll have to get that assessed. It was just when he was going to shoot and got blocked and he ended up getting booked for trying to shoot. We’ll have to assess that and see how he is, so I’m not sure about that right now.”