Bloomfield satisfied with the foundations laid by his Hatters side during Lilywhites stalemate

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield thought his side began to lay their foundations during this afternoon’s goalless draw against Preston, even if he was frustrated by the lack of goalscoring chances created throughout the 90 minutes.

Having been appointed on Tuesday afternoon, the former Wycombe Wanderers manager only had a couple of days to work with his new squad before sending them out to do battle with the Lilywhites. The visitors had clearly come for a point, as they barely showed anything in an attacking sense, with just two attempts, none of them on target.

At the other end, the Hatters had nine efforts, but although four of them required stopping, Freddie Woodman easily gathered Jordan Clark’s angled first half attempt and another free kick late on. He also collected Carlton Morris’s snapshot after the break, plus Elijah Adebayo’s stoppage time drive from range, as summing up the display, Bloomfield, who saw his team keep their first clean sheet since beating Hull City 1-0, said: “Some good and some not so good.

“I thought out of possession, it was nice to get a clean sheet, the first one in 12 I’m led to believe, since November and stop a run of five straight defeats as well. So there’s some bits to be pleased with, identity-wise, I thought there were some bits that came out, obviously we’d have loved to have scored, created more clear-cut opportunities, we didn’t quite do that as we were going after today, but I don’t think that’s been just today, I think that’s been throughout the season. So more work to be done but a good foundation for us to build.

“You learn a huge amount in game situations, both individually and collectively, so what I’ve learned today is that as a group they're willing to take on the work and really try to implement that on a Saturday afternoon, so that’s really encouraging and pleasing. The work-rate can not be questioned, the desire to defend their goal, no shots on target, clean sheet, is not very often you come away with that, so that has to be pleasing. Of course we would have liked to create more opportunities, that’s a given, but I think it’s probably a good foundation for us to build.”