Bloomfield praises Kodua's reaction after on-loan Hammer was unhappy at being dropped for Lincoln
Youngster responds with injury-time leveller at Blackpool
Luton boss Matt Bloomfield has praised the manner in which Gideon Okua has responded after revealing the West Ham loanee hadn’t been happy when he was left out of the squad that faced Lincoln City recently.
Having signed the 21-year-old from the Hammers for the third time in his managerial career, Kodua heading to Wycombe Wanderers twice when Bloomfield was in charge of the Chairboys, the FA Youth Cup winner with his parent club headed to Kenilworth Road on a season-long loan in the summer, and after getting up to speed in training, made his debut when coming off the bench in the 2-1 defeat at Bradford City, also on target to open his account for new club too.
The wideman then featured in the next five games, impressing in the majority of them, with three starts, however, he wasn't part of the match-day 18 who were named at the LSER Stadium last month, despite making the trip to the Imps, a game that saw Town put in a shocking display as they lost 3-1. Kodua was back in the squad for the 1-0 win over Doncaster Rovers last Saturday, coming on in the second period, a role he also fulfilled at Blackpool in midweek, winning and converting a stoppage time penalty to help Luton fight back from 2-0 down to earn a point.
Discussing the youngster’s impact and his reaction to being left out of the squad, Bloomfield said: “Fair play to Gids to step up and take the penalty, it shows what we think of him as a boy, as an individual, as a man. It is really important as some of our boys have not done three games in a week for a while so we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for that. Some are not 90 minute players yet, so we’ve got to have options from the substitutes bench as well.
"Gids knows our work inside and out because of the time we’ve spent together before, in the formation, so that helps him and continuity and consistency is really crucial to having a really cohesive unit. We’re going after that as quickly as we can and Gids is someone we think highly of. He’s not the finished product yet, he’s still got loads of improvement to go after, but I left him out of the squad two weeks ago at Lincoln and he wasn’t happy. He’s fought back and showed in the right way that he wants to play and that’s all you can ask for from our young players.”
Kodua was part of a triple alteration that changed the game, as coming on with Jordan Clark and Joe Gbode in the 57th minute, Luton having just conceded a second goal, it was Clark who got the ball running when his deflected effort wrong-footed Tangerines keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell to make it 2-1 with 13 minutes remaining.
Lasse Nordas and Jake Richards had already been introduced at this point too and Bloomfield admitted the substitutions gave Town the impetus they had been searching for, especially in what was the second match of a three game week, as he added: “It was the spark that we needed and the spark that we were missing. There’s always that Saturday, Tuesday debate that goes on in your head, all Saturday night, all day Sunday, how many changes is the right amount to get freshness and how many changes is the right amount to just keep the continuity and consistency within your team?
"That will always be the case between Saturday, Tuesday. If you win the Tuesday night game you’ve made the right decisions and if you start a bit slow then you always question whether you could have made more changes to really come out with a spring in your step. It took us until late on in the game, but I thought all second half, the goals came later, but we were pushing. Too much so for Blackpool’s second, we were over eager to get ourselves that equaliser, committed too many bodies to the box, so it’s about striking that balance for us.”
The way in which Town fought back from a two-goal deficit at Bloomfield Road, against a team who have impressed on home soil this term as well, was also something the manager was eager to highlight, adding: “Blackpool away isn’t an easy game by the way. They beat Huddersfield, they beat Barnsley, drew with Bolton, all good teams in our league. We went to Lincoln and went under, but the boys found a way to fight back. The finishers came on and had a really good impact, so plenty of positives. Obviously some moments we’re not happy with, we didn’t start the game with enough intensity, we have to be better at that, but some positives for sure.”