Bloomfield left 'bitterly disappointed' as Luton turned in a display to forget against Blackburn

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield admitted he was left ‘bitterly disappointed’ by the Hatters’ dismal showing when seeing their hopes of staying in the Championship severely dented by a 1-0 defeat against 10-man Blackburn Rovers at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

Going into the game, the expectation was that Town, who celebrated their 140th birthday in the week, would build on their five match run by taking all three points when taking on a side who hadn’t tasted victory in their last eight fixtures. However, a woeful first half in which Mark McGuinness put Luton’s best chance over the bar, was then followed by a below-par second period, the hosts falling behind on 52 minutes when Yuki Ohashi went clean through to beat Thomas Kaminski.

Rovers then saw Kristi Montgomery dismissed just before the hour mark for his second booking in quick succession, but Town couldn’t capitalise, the Hatters’ shooting very much more miss than hit, Thelo Aasgaard blasting against the underside of the bar, with Milli Alli’s cross-shot also deflecting off the woodwork, although the duo and Josh Bowler put wild efforts into the stands.

Late on, Reece Burke and Teden Mengi, who had replaced Izzy Jones and Christ Makosso, both shot straight at Balazs Toth, but on the manner of his side’s display, just when it mattered the most, a downbeat Bloomfield said: “I’m really bitterly disappointed and frustrated. It’s not the performance or the result that we wanted. We weren’t at our usual levels at what we’ve been recently. We’ve been on a good run, but today wasn't that and we’re bitterly disappointed with that.

“I felt it quite early on in the game, I felt we weren’t just quite at the same intensity that we’ve been at recently, so we’re going to have to go and look at that and to figure out the reasons why. It’s the same group of players who have been going game after game, so maybe that’s a contributing factor and maybe we’re going to have to consider that. It’s really, bitterly disappointing as we’ve been in a good spot and that’s not the performance we wanted or needed today.”

Having made one change for the clash, Alli in for the injured Alfie Doughty, Bloomfield had revealed there was a bout of illness at the club during his pre-match press conference, but on who that was and whether that had affected his side, the boss added: “Izzy’s been ill the last few days and he was touch and go, but felt a bit better this morning. We’ve lost Alfie as one wingback and we wanted Izzy to be okay as long as he was. It meant that we couldn’t keep him on for the whole game, as he didn’t have the right energy levels, he’s not eaten for a couple of days.

"I think the formation really, really suits us as we’ve had Alfie and Izzy going down either side, Milli’s done it particularly well Tuesday evening and had his moments again today, but we’re playing a formation to suit the players and ideally you would have those players available. It’s frustrating that Izzy hasn’t had the right preparation for the game today, but it was the decision we made and then in the second half we felt like we needed energy down the right hand side.”