Bloomfield insists Luton believe they can end 50-year wait for victory at Sunderland

​Luton boss Matt Bloomfield insists his players have full belief that they can end the club’s 50-year wait for a victory at Sunderland this evening.

The Hatters head to the Stadium of Light without a win over the Black Cats since a 1-0 Division Two success in September 1973, Barry Butlin scoring the only goal of the game, as their last 19 visits have seen the visitors beaten 13 times, the other six encounters ending up all square. Since taking over, although Bloomfield’s return has been just two points from four matches, the new manager has already put some things right, like ending the Hatters’ woeful run of 12 successive away defeats by drawing 1-1 at Sheffield Wednesday last time out.

With that in mind, then discussing his side’s attempts to end their miserable record in Wearside, he said: “There’s never a better time. It’s a massive football club, I’ve had some great trips there over the years and records are there to be broken right? So let’s look forward to going there and doing our best to do that.

"If you look at it, there were five defeats in a row before we came, we get a draw in the first game. No clean sheet since November, we ticked that one off, no point on the road for 12 games, so we have to be pleased with the work we’re doing but go after more as I want to be winning games, that’s what we want to be doing.”

The challenge to do that can’t be much harder for Bloomfield and his players though as they are travelling to one of the two sides who are still undefeated on home soil in the Championship this term, Regis Le Bris’s side winning nine and drawing six so far, with 10-goal forward Wilson Isidor and on-loan Roma attacker Enzo Le Fée, who cost the Serie A side €23 million just six months ago, bang in form.

They have been held by Watford and Plymouth Argyle in their last two matches though, as the Town boss is aware Luton will head there as firm underdogs to everyone but themselves, continuing: “​The expectation is on them to go and beat us because of where they are in the league. Everyone’s expecting us to get beat, but we got a good point away at Sheffield Wednesday and we believe in what we’re trying to do.

"Obviously Sunderland have got a very good team, a real high attacking threat, loads of pace. Any good team has goals and goal threats all over the pitch and they’ve got that. They’ve got good physicality about them, real good energy and intensity in their attacking play, but we believe we can cause them problems. We’re looking forward to seeing the work we’re doing and we believe we can go there and put on a good performance. If you don’t believe you can do it then you’re never going to go and achieve anything and we believe we can.”

Town's quest to stay up was helped last night by Derby County’s home draw with Oxford United which sees the Rams two points above Luton having now played two more games than the Hatters. Struggling Cardiff were also beaten, staying four points above Bloomfield’s men, although their 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth saw the south coast side now six points ahead of Town, who do have two games in hand.

For Luton, tonight's trip to Sunderland is the first of a quartet of huge matches which could start to signal how their season may end up, as Town host title-chasing Sheffield United on Saturday and then bottom team Plymouth Argyle next Wednesday night. The Hatters then finish off with a trip to sworn enemies Watford, as a bullish Bloomfield believes that having had 10 days since they last took the field has already led to some instant improvements on the training pitch.

He said: “I think it was really important. It’s given us some real good time on the grass. The lads have worked incredibly hard which has been fantastic. It was a real morale-boosting point at Sheffield Wednesday, considering the away run that we’d been on, and I thought there were some really good things that came off the back of it.

"It’s been really nice to get some time on the grass with the lads and really go after quite a few bits that we wanted to try and improve on. On the training ground the lads have been great. They've worked really, really hard, there’s signs of our identity coming through which is great. I love the work, I love what goes into it to come out to the finished product. It’s not an overnight thing where you can click your fingers and it’s all right, there’s going to be plenty we need to continually work on and go after, but it's been great and we’ve really enjoyed it.”

Although the Hatters had come through a busy period of games themselves, due to the severity of the situation they are in, the players weren’t afforded much of a break to recharge their batteries, with Bloomfield stating: “We didn’t feel like we were at that point. The boys understood, there was lots of work going on and we haven't had too much time off, but we didn't feel it was the right time to have time off.

"We want to improve results, we want to improve performances, the lads are right on board with that. They understand there’s plenty of time for us to rest when the timing is right, and it wasn’t right, right now. We needed to work, we’ve got two really big, tough games coming up this week and what we tried to do is go after a block of work that will stand us in good stead for the rest of the season.

"We’ve been trying to educate the whole group to make sure when everyone participates in the games, everyone’s ready to go. I need to reiterate this has been a great few weeks for us. We’ve got some tough games coming up, but we’ve got a block of games that we’re really going after and that starts at Sunderland. We don’t want to get cut adrift, also nothing’s going to be won or lost or decided in the next day or two, but we absolutely have high hopes of where this season is going to take us and we have to put that on the pitch."

Although Town’s second tier status is clearly under serious threat, speaking at Hillsborough recently, wingback Alfie Doughty stated he felt there was ‘no chance’ Luton would find themselves relegated this term, which was the kind of thing that Bloomfield wanted to hear. He added: “Alf spoke really well after the game at Sheffield Wednesday. The belief is there amongst the group, but we have to balance that off with the realism of where we are because we can’t be blinded by that. We have to be full of belief but understanding of where the season’s at, and that’s the balance you have to make any time.”