Hatters boss glad that his 'big decisions' paid off during handsome victory
Town chief opted to make three changes at Burton
Luton boss Matt Bloomfield was happy to see his ‘big decisions’ pay off as the Hatters ran out convincing 3-0 winners against Burton Albion on Saturday.
When the teamsheet came out for the League One clash at the Pirelli Stadium, the travelling supporters saw three changes made by their manager from the 1-0 home defeat against Cardiff City the previous weekend. The main one was club captain Kal Naismith, who, despite not quite reaching his best form since returning to Kenilworth Road in the summer, hadn’t missed a minute of league action, dropping to the bench, Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee Nigel Lonwijk taking his place on the left of the visitors’ back three, ending his spell in what looked an uncomfortable role as a wingback.
Bloomfield also selected on-loan West Ham youngster Gideon Kodua as right wingback, striker Jerry Yates coming in alongside Lasse Nordas upfront, as the formation worked a treat, Luton in the ascendancy from virtually the word go, the recalled Yates charging down keeper Jordan Amissah’s clearance to set the tone. It continued to pay dividends too, the Hatters able to open the scoring through Nordas’ first goal for the club and then Mill All doubling the advantage just before half time.
After the break Zack Nelson notched his first league goal for the club to seal a welcome three points for the visitors, as, with Naismith coming on for the final 12 minutes, then looking back on his choices, Bloomfield said: “I think it’s really important to have competition for places. Kal’s our captain and such a massive part of our football club and has been fantastic so far this season, but I just felt like a couple of big decisions to make. It was one that wasn’t easy to make, but I just felt like it was right for today and I’m glad the result went in our favour.”
It also saw Town able to stick with their current preferred system that includes wingbacks, Kodua, borrowed from West Ham for the campaign, adding, as he always does, balance along with a constant attacking threat on the right. Charging up and down the opposite flank, Alli was the sam, setting up a number of chances for his team-mates, while also finding the net in clinical fashion himself as well. Bloomfield continued: “Lets discuss how it’s gone right, Izzy’s (Jones) been injured and Alfie’s (Doughty) left, we’re recruiting players to try and get them up to speed.
"Gids wasn’t fully fit when he got here, Cohen’s not done a pre-season. We’ve been trying to build to a situation where we want to get to and there’s been a couple of stop-start moments for us so far in this season. It’s horses for courses, there’ll be other games where we can’t go so attacking, but we felt like we could really attack the game with two eights, two nines and attacking wingbacks and I’m glad it worked out that way.
"It was a great finish by Milli. He’s shown his real attacking intent, supported by Clicker (Jordan Clark) on the inside and Nige was able to step in from behind. I really felt like Nige and Christ on the outside against their front two would really be able to step in and give us an overload, so I thought Milli took his goal well.”
With a number of attacking players on the pitch, it enabled Town to cope with Burton’s attempts to slow the game down early on, as there were a fair few stoppages in the opening 15 minutes which led to a fairly fractured affair. Nordas’s goal soon afterwards allowed the contest to open up though, as Town’s obvious extra quality then shone through, as Bloomfield said: “There were a couple of injuries and a couple of moments the games being slowed down, but we’re going to have to expect that at times.
"We wanted to get tempo into the game, we wanted to get some pace in the game and I think Lasse’s goal helped us do that as it meant our opposition had to come out a little bit more and reveal some opportunities to counter attack, and to pin them in at times. I was really pleased with some of our play around the box, again, it looked like we created a lot more opportunities which was obviously nice.”
Despite Town’s overall dominance against a limited home side, plus a fourth clean sheet from six league games this term, there was still the odd moment of concern, keeper Josh Keeley forced into two good stops during the second half, while Burton also had a goal disallowed just before the interval for handball. Bloomfield added: “He’s made a couple of big saves, so we need to look at those. I felt we didn’t quite get attached in between the posts at times so we need to look at how and why they have come about. As always, there’s plenty to work on and we look forward to doing the work.”