Hatters boss explains why he made a triple substitution at half-time during timid Watford loss

Hatters boss Matt Bloomfield has explained just why he made a triple substitution during Sunday afternoon’s derby day defeat at Watford.

With Luton trailing 2-0 at the break courtesy of a Tom Dele-Bashiru penalty that came after a defensive mix-up between Mads Andersen and Thomas Kaminski, plus Edo Kayembe’s close range finish, Bloomfield opted for major surgery on his starting XI ahead of the restart. Off came Andersen, who had also been cautioned for body-checking Tom Ince as well, with Marvelous Nakamba and new signing Lasse Nordas both making way too, Christ Makosso on for his first taste of English football, alongside Shandon Baptiste and Jacob Brown.

The trio helped Town enjoy a better start to the second period, going close through Izzy Jones’ volley that flew wide before Baptiste was forced to go off with yet another injury after 20 minutes, on-loan Nottingham Forest winger Josh Bowler introduced. Although the move ultimately couldn’t lead to a comeback in what was a goalless second period, asked on his reasons for making such a call, Bloomfield said: “It felt like we needed to get to half time to make changes.

"It probably wasn't the right thing to make so many changes in the first half. We wanted to get through to half time and then make the changes to come out with a little bit of impetus second half, try to get that first goal that gets you back in the game. That felt like the gameplan at the point. There’s nothing to coach once you’re 2-0 down and things look slightly fragile. It’s tough, the crowd are up, you can't get on there and coach. It’s all about the resilience to get through and give yourself an opportunity to go again.

“We made changes to give ourselves a foothold in the game. Marv’s got a bit of a tight calf so we’ll see how he is with regards to next weekend, but I felt like we needed to take action. Mads was on a booking, so he needed to come off and Lasse did really well on Wednesday evening but it wasn’t quite his day today. It felt like we needed Browny’s pace in behind, as he’s flying at the moment. He gave us an outlet at the top of the pitch in the second half, I thought he did very well Browny. We were disappointed to lose Shandon to injury, we put on another attacker in Josh Bowler to try and get that creativity again, but ultimately it wasn’t our day

"To a degree I felt like the boys who came on had an impact. Young Christ did ever so well, a tough situation from him to come on, but I thought we needed to change the momentum of the game, the flow of the game and the three substitutions did that. I felt like we started the second half quite well, had possession, had some territory. We passed the ball well, created chances in the final third, but didn’t have that final touch. I think you saw today what has been hurting us recently is both boxes of the pitch. We didn't quite have that final touch at one end and we’ve given away too many soft goals.”