Bloomfield feels summer signing has been 'unfortunate' not to have featured more for Luton

Town boss Matt Bloomfield believes teenage midfielder Jake Richards can consider himself ‘unfortunate’ not to have featured more for the Hatters since his summer move from Exeter City.

The youngster, who was named EFL League One Apprentice of the Season last year, was brought in by Luton as one of their first signings of the summer, heading to Kenilworth Road in early July after Town agreed to shell out an undisclosed fee to the Grecians to acquire his services. Despite only just turning 18 last month, having come through the youth ranks in Devon, Richards was highly thought of by his boyhood club, making his debut as a 16-year-old, and then being fast-tracked into the first team, playing 31 times in all competitions over two seasons, with 19 League One appearances.

Having impressed in pre-season while getting used to his new surroundings, Richards has had to patiently bide his time to feature, not included in the match-day squad for any of the opening five League One matches until the 3-0 victory at Burton Albion recently, although did get the final half an hour from the bench when Town were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Coventry City.

Richards was then handed a first start during the Hatters’ 4-1 victory over Barnet in the Vertu Trophy before the international break and caught the eye immediately with his desire to get on the ball, even if under pressure, showing a refreshing willingness to pass it forward, with a busy display in the advanced midfield areas, always looking to have a shot whenever the chance arose too.

With that in mind, he did his chances of being in Bloomfield’s selection thoughts for the 18 that the picks to face Plymouth Argyle at Kenilworth Road tomorrow no harm at all, as on his lack of game time so far, the boss said: “I think he can count himself really unfortunate because he did well in pre-season. He’s training really well, again it’s probably the number of senior bodies he’s got ahead of him that has held him back in terms of his contribution.

"But age absolutely isn’t a factor in that, it’s just the number of players we’ve got in that area. He did really, really well against Barnet and we believe he’s going to be a big player for us. It’s just about giving him the amount of minutes he needs to really go and claim that place in the team but again there’s other players in that position. Clicker (Jordan Clark) and Zack (Nelson) against Burton I thought were very, very good, Lamine (Fanne) as well, so we have got some real good competition in there.”

Having also been hugely impressed by his efforts against the Bees, Richards getting through around 80 minutes on the night, Bloomfield added: “He’s a good player, really creative, I love the way he accepts it on the back foot, he goes through the lines really nicely and takes a mid-third possession into an attacking possession really quickly so there’s a lot we like. It’s why we brought him here and we want him to really force his way into the team. He’s got good experience already for such a young player so we want him to be a big part of what we’re going to do and we believe he can be.”