Bloomfield wants to celebrate Kenilworth Road's 120th anniversary by setting new club record

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield is hoping to celebrate Kenilworth Road’s 120th year anniversary this afternoon by setting a new club record in the process.

The Hatters entertain a Plymouth Argyle side who coincidentally were the same opponents for their first game at the venue back on September 4, 1905, that day the match finishing as a goalless draw in front of 5,000 spectators. Fast forward to the modern era and a similar result would see Town make it their best defensive start to a Football League season ever, having conceded just three goals from their opening six games which equals the previous best set on occasions, the 1921-22, 1968-69, 1969-70 and 1989-90 campaigns.

With that in mind, Bloomfield is desperate to mark the Hatters’ big day in style, although would much prefer the ball to be in the Argyle net at least once as well, as he said: “It would be lovely to (mark the day with a win), that’s what our focus is on. We want to celebrate such a good day for the anniversary of the ground, 120 years of such a historic and characteristic football ground. It would be lovely to put on a real good show as our firm focus is performing the best we can and trying to pick up the three points.

“It’s (defensive record) crucial. Any good season or any good team is built on solid foundations and those solid foundations are in my opinion, a good defence, a very good changing room full of good people who have a big hunger and desire to represent the football club and to achieve together. That’s the foundations you can build on and without those other bits, they can’t be sustained I don't believe.

"So it’s about us continually building those foundations, trying to be as strong as we possibly can and also having the team that can go and hurt our opposition because essentially scoring goals is what wins you games. But really pleasing as there’s been a huge amount of hard work that's gone into that since we came in in January and we have to keep going after it.”

Town won’t have it their own way against a Pilgrims side who have struggled for results so far this term, but a 4-2 win over Stockport County in their last fixture propelled them out of the relegation zone and doubled the amount of goals they have scored this term. However, they do possess the leakiest back-line in the division, shipping 15 goals already and with Town’s recent improvements in the final third, scoring seven goals in two games against Burton Albion Barnet, plus adding rapid winger Shayden Morris from Aberdeen on transfer deadline day, also seeing Gideon Kodua and Cohen Bramall upping their fitness levels too, then an excited Bloomfield added: “I’m really pleased.

"I’m not sure I’m very good at patience, but I knew the first few games of the season I had to be patient. We bought Nigel (Lonwijk) in to play as a centre half and he was having to play as a wingback. Cohen wasn’t up to speed, Gideon wasn't up to speed, Shayden wasn’t here, so we knew that it was an evolving group and an ongoing process and I had to try and be a little bit patient with that and try and be solid and try and pick up points while we were trying to get to the place that we wanted to be.

"Now we’re showing signs of being the team that we want to be and there’s been some really big signs of hope in the last two games. We’ve created chances, we’ve scored some goals without being erratic, as we want to be a team that plays on the front foot and attacks, especially at home in front of our supporters. We want to give them more goals, more chances, more action to celebrate.

“That’s the team we want to be and that’s where we’re trying to head to. We have to be patient as well as impatient. We want to get there as soon as we can, but we’re also moulding a group together and we’re really happy with the work they’re doing. So the hunger and desire has to be there for more, but in terms of the last two games, what we’ve produced in terms of attacking threat there’s been some good moments.”