Hatters boss describes long-serving midfielder as the 'heartbeat' of Luton Town

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield has described recalled midfielder Jordan Clark as the ‘heartbeat’ of the club.

The 31-year-old is the longest serving outfield player at Kenilworth Road, having joined back in August 2020 on a free transfer after ending a four-year stint with Accrington Stanley. Clark has gone on to play a huge role in the club’s rise to the Premier League, scoring in the play-off final victory over Coventry City, both in normal time and during the tense penalty shoot-out that followed.

Part of the team who couldn’t quite maintain their top flight position, Clark is now doing his bit to try and ensure the Hatters don’t suffer a second successive relegation to League One, scoring the only goal as Luton finally ended then 12-game winless run against Portsmouth with a 1-0 triumph on Saturday. Speaking about the midfielder, who has now played 169 games, scoring 16 goals for the club, Bloomfield said: “He’s a fit boy, he’s one that covers the most distance for us every week.

"He looks after himself, he’s a proper character, he is a proper character. He’s the heartbeat of the training ground, the football club. He’s obviously had some really big moments for this club over the years and he had a big one today. When moments fall like that to characters like Clicker, you’re really pleased for him because he conducts himself properly.

“Sometimes I think it’s football instinct. He’s got a huge amount of football intelligence Clicker and that’s part of the reason why we went with him and (Liam) Walsh because of their football intelligence. Clicker has just got a knack of landing on things, he’s done it for a number of years and it was lovely he got that moment.”

On being told of such praise from his boss, Clark himself continued: “It’s nice to hear. I just try and be myself and try to give my all every day. Try and be as bubbly as I can, try and always be positive as even in the tough times we know we’re only one result away from our season changing which we’ve always emphasised.

"It’s been a tough old season and it’s not nice coming in every week and we’ve lost or we haven’t won. You’ve just got to pick the players up and I try and take that on myself because we’ve got a lot of young kids and a lot of foreign players now. It’s just helping anyone out as much as I can and making sure everyone sticks together.”

The midfielder is now under his third full-time manager at Kenilworth Road, having been initially signed by Nathan Jones and then playing for his former Barnsley team-mate Rob Edwards as well. Asked what it has been like with Bloomfield, who finally got to celebrate his victory at the ninth attempt on Saturday, he added: “Really good, he’s a really nice guy, a really top coach. Him, Thommo (Richard Thomas, assistant manager) and H (Lee Harrison, first team coach).

"I’m really pleased for them as it’s been not the ideal start they would have wanted. We’ve had some good performances but not got the results and then just to get them all the first win, get that off our back a little bit as the staff, even the physios, all the sports science people, everyone at the club are working so, so hard. With the injuries, everyone’s coming in and out of the team so its been tough. They spend so many hours working and watching games, you don’t realise how much work they put in, so I’m really pleased for them.

"The manager’s always been positive. He’s given us a rollicking when we’ve needed a rollicking which is good as sometimes we need that, but he’s always been so positive and having that belief in us and gong out there week in week out, knowing we’ need to compete and need to keep pushing like we always do. It’s just working on the things day in day out, so it was nice to get the three points and it pay off a little bit.”