Bloomfield thrilled to see the smiles return to the faces of Luton's long-suffering travelling fans

A beaming from ear-to-ear Luton boss Matt Bloomfield was ecstatic to finally see some smiles amongst the long-suffering travelling Hatters fans as Town ended their horrific run of away form with a much-needed 2-1 win at Cardiff City last night, as they boosted their hopes of staying in the Championship this term.

Since beating Millwall last September, the club’s visiting supporters had turned up at away grounds up and down the country increasingly in blind hope rather than any kind of expectation of a result, losing 14 out of 15 league encounters, taking just one point out of a possible 45 in that time when drawing with Sheffield Wednesday. In fact, a more detailed look at the stats showed just how depressing it has been outside of Bedfordshire, as other than that 1-0 victory over the Lions, Town had suffered 22 defeats from their 28 matches on the road in the Premier League and second tier since 2024 rolled round.

After a scrappy first half, it looked like there was going to be further misery as well, Luton falling behind to a Calum Chambers strike that bounced past Thomas Kaminski just five minutes into the second period. However, things were different this time, as the 400 visiting fans saw Jordan Clark volley in an absolute screamer seven minutes later to restore parity.

It got even better too, January signing Thelo Aasgaard in the right place to take advantage of a poor clearance to slam home his first goal for the club, meaning Town just had the final 10 minutes plus stoppage time to secure the triumph, which they did without any major alarms to secure a first victory on the road having conceded first since a 2-1 success at Huddersfield Town in January 2023.

With Bloomfield and his players able to celebrate in front of the away end, the clearly thrilled Hatters chief unveiled a delighted fist pump celebration too, as speaking about the feeling of a long overdue victory, having failed to his his previous five away matches, he said: “It’s incredible as I do this job because I love those moments. It’s like a drug you chase. Once football management gets in your system it’s in.

"You have to endure tough moments and I dare say there will be some tough moments to endure between now and the end of the season, but we have to use this as I believe there will be lots of moments like that. That’s why I do it. It was lovely to share that, as I’ve not been able to do that enough with our supporters. They’ve been following us and we haven’t given them enough to cheer, so it was lovely to see those smiles. They’re incredible supporters and I really, really hope and I really, really believe that we’ll give them more to cheer between now and the end of the season.”

For Bloomfield too, there was no wiping the widespread grin off his face when he went back to the tunnel or when facing the press in the confines of the Cardiff City Stadium afterwards, as he added: “When I came in, it’s mid-season, you don’t get to know everyone as well as I’d like to. I want to get to know everyone a bit more, I want to share that smile and have those moments with people as I care about the job.

"Those supporters care about their club and I’m trying to do them proud. That’s what gets me up every morning, I want to do them proud, Gary (Sweet, CEO) and the board have put incredible faith in me and I’m doing everything I can to repay them. It was a lovely moment to share with them and we have to make sure we turn on up on Saturday and share another one.

“We’re not getting carried away, we have to enjoy the moment as football is about these moments. It’s about using it as confidence and belief, but we’ve got a tough game on Saturday against Middlesbrough and we want to use this as momentum. Going into the international break we want that momentum to be continued, so the only way we do that is get our feet on the floor, work hard and be ready to go Saturday.”