Bloomfield highlights the significance of Luton stopping the rot with Owls draw

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Town avoid matching away record of successive defeats

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield highlighted the significance of his side ending their sequence of 12 successive away defeats with a 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

The Hatters had been one more loss away from equalling an unwanted club record for consecutive away reverses that had been set in the 1898-99 and 1927-28 campaigns, had they left Hillsborough empty-handed. At one point, Town were on their way to arresting the slump with victory courtesy of Alfie Doughty’s absolutely terrific first half strike, before conceding a penalty on the hour mark that Michael Smith tucked away.

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With no further goals though it meant that for the first time since September 14, the Hatters picked up a point on their travels, and although Bloomfield had only been responsible for one those defeats, the 3-2 loss against Oxford United, he knew what it meant, saying: “I think it’s really important. If you look at the Oxford performance, the psychology of that and we probably played a lot better football that day.

Mads Andersen looks to get the ball clear at Sheffield Wednesday - pic: Jess Hornby/Getty ImagesMads Andersen looks to get the ball clear at Sheffield Wednesday - pic: Jess Hornby/Getty Images
Mads Andersen looks to get the ball clear at Sheffield Wednesday - pic: Jess Hornby/Getty Images

"We scored two goals but ended up losing the game, so to stop the rot and finish it the way we did with some blocks was good. In football everyone would like it to be rosy all the time, but it’s not and you build really deep and strong connections when you’re in the trenches together. The boys did that today and I’m really, really pleased with that.”

The fact that Luton did emerge with a point was mainly down to the visitors’ defensive efforts after Smith had levelled the scores, goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski making a handful of good saves, while in front of him, Mads Andersen and Mark McGuinness in particular made some terrific blocks, one from the latter in stoppage time truly excellent.

Bloomfield continued: “Macca’s top, he's a fantastic character. I know that he’s desperate to do well for our football club. He’s a great guy, I've got to know him quite well in this short period of time and we’re really excited to work with him. He’s a die-hard, he wants to defend, wants to put himself in the way. I thought Mads did as well a couple of times, so the pair of them have done well in the two games. With Kal’s experience helping them, then we’re pleased with those two.”

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With Town having conceded three goals during Bloomfield’s first away game at the Kassam Stadium, punished for leaving their opposition unmarked in the area, this time they prevented the Owls from scoring from open play. Asked how he had been able to engineer that kind of turnaround in the space of a week or so, Bloomfield said: “It’s a lot of things. It’s talking, it’s showing them, it’s practising on the training ground, it’s getting some habits individually and as a team that we believe work and result in clean sheets and conceding fewer. It’s all of that, but it’s the buy-in from the players as well.

“Nothing can happen without that and they’ve worked really well this week, they honestly have. It’s been tough for the guys and I’m really pleased that at least they’ve got a point. I thought the structure and the shape and the discipline that we played with in the first half was fantastic. Second half, bringing on big Smith that allowed them to play into him a bit more and took our shape out of the game a little bit as they were able to go over it, which someone of that physicality, you're able to do. So that changes the game inevitably, but I felt like the boys dealt with it well to a degree.

"We obviously conceded territory quite a bit but to defend the way we did, I’m assuming there’s going to be some good habits in there as you don’t defend like that and get bodies in the right places without having those habits. Hopefully it’s a good step for us. We’ll go through it this week, we’ll analyse it, there’s going to be plenty for us to work on, absolutely, as it wasn’t the perfect performance but we have to be pleased with the positives.”

Although he was happy with how his side defended after the equaliser, Bloomfield did think that they could have done better in preventing Wednesday winning a penalty when the tricky Djeidi Gassama made his way into Town’s area having started off in his own half, Reuell Walters and Jordan Clark unable to stop him, before Lamine Fanne was adjudged to have fouled his as he shaped to shoot.

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He said: “We just tried to tackle him from the wrong side a couple of times. We've got some young boys who will develop and improve and work with as we need to tackle from the right side, not the wrong side. It makes it a lot harder. We need to make sure we get ourselves goal-side first, also the state of the game, if you need to foul, foul higher up the pitch. Little bits and pieces of game management that comes with experience, but we’ve got to try and get that experience into the boys as quickly as we can with the ones that need it.”

Having made four new signings ahead of the game, Bloomfield handed attacking midfielder Thelo Aasgaard an immediate start, while he also brought on Josh Bowler, Millenic Alli and Kal Naismith during the second period. On the quartet getting an instant taste of first team action, he said: “There’s nothing better than when you get new players at a club to get out on the pitch and share that with your team-mates. Training’s great and getting to know everyone but there's nothing like getting your hands dirty on a Saturday afternoon and being out there, fighting and scrapping with your team-mates to really integrate into the group so it's great to get them all onto the pitch.”

With over 1,300 supporters making the trip to Yorkshire, giving their players a hearty ovation afterwards, Bloomfield was happy to see them leave with something tangible this time, adding: “It was nice to share that with the supporters at the end. To back the boys like they did and to clap them like they did, I thank our supporters for that because it’s not easy for them. They keep spending their hard earned money and keep travelling up and down the country with nothing to cheer, so a genuine thank you to them. We have to see this as a stepping stone to more, we have to believe and we have to move on to better times.”

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