Hatters boss refuses to give up on Luton's survival bid despite 12-game winless run

​Hatters boss Matt Bloomfield is refusing to give up on Luton’s chances of avoiding relegation back to League One despite stretching their winless run to a hugely worrying 12 successive games when going down to a 2-0 defeat at Watford on Sunday.

A dominant first half showing from the Hornets saw Tom Cleverley’s side net twice through Tom Dele-Bashiru’s penalty and Edo Kayembe’s close range finish, with Town failing to land even so much as a glove on the home team. Although the visitors did improve after the break, the only shot they had on target was Izzy Jones’ stoppage time volley that was saved by Egil Sivak, meaning the Hatters remained five points from safety with 12 games to go.

Having been appointed as Rob Edwards’ successor last month, Bloomfield has now failed to win any of his first eight fixtures in charge, taking just three points from a possible 24, only scoring four goals too. Despite those stats, the manager was keeping the faith regarding his side’s chances of remaining in the second tier next term, saying: “Absolutely, of course, if not what’s the point? "We have to believe in that and I do believe in that. The boys are fighting, we saw second half that they’re still fighting.

“They were still passing, still probing, still creating opportunities and we have to have the belief to take one of those opportunities to get back into the game, but we need to do that at 0-0, not at 2-0 down. We were rocked in the first half, that was obvious, two disappointing goals to give away but the boys kept probing and kept playing, and second half they didn't go under. They kept trying, they kept fighting, but unfortunately we weren’t able to get that goal that would have got us back in the game.”

The Hatters chief did concede that Kayembe’s goal midway through the first half was to prove the turning point of the afternoon, as he felt his side really struggled to get going for the remainder of the half. He did make three changes at the break which led to an improved second period, but ultimately not enough clear-cut chances to ever realistically threaten getting back into the contest.

He continued: “The first five, six minutes I actually thought we were okay. We played in Watford’s half and took the sting out of them early on. We were very disappointed to give away the penalty, a situation I felt like we had under control and that resulted in the penalty, so it's tough. We gave that away, then the second goal, again, is loose from us and it rocked us. We looked a little bit fragile for the rest of the first half, understandably so.

“We really believed we could get that goal back, hence why we made three changes to give ourselves a foothold and grow back into the game. Then if we had turned one of those opportunities into a goal, you never know what happens from there, but we didn’t and it’s a disappointing away defeat for us. We’ve spoken a lot this week about the performances in the last week and the two goals we gave away really hurt and give you a mountain to climb, as we were okay, we were fine, we were in the game.

"We have to keep working and we have to keep improving as they’ve hurt our results, there’s no doubt about that. I spoke to the boys in the changing room and between the two boxes, generally we’re doing quite a bit right at the moment, but ultimately we didn’t find a goal. We didn’t find that goal to get us back in the game, we understand that we need to improve at both ends.

"If you look at the two performances from Saturday (Sheffield United), Wednesday (Plymouth Argyle), then today, maybe not from the two goals, but second half there was a lot to like about us between the two boxes. Games are won and lost in the penalty boxes though and it’s not going our way at the minute.

"I think anyone who’s watched the last three games can see there’s some good things happening, but it needs to be action, not talk. I spoke a lot about performances this week, we need results as well, I understand that. Performances lead to results, there’s no debating that, but what also leads to results is doing things right in both boxes. It’s hurt us this week and we have to eradicate one end and start taking our chances at the other end.”

With Town drawing yet another blank under Bloomfield, their fifth in his eight winless games to date, then quizzed yet again on how he believes they can rectify their clear issues in the final third, while also preventing yet more sloppy goals ending up in their own net, he stated: “I think probably the final touch, that little bit of confidence to go and get that goal. Confidence and belief we’ve spoken about a number of times since we’ve been in the building, it's not something you can flick on and flick off, it’s about working to keep trying to improve things and that’s all we can do.

“We keep showing the boys, keep working. it's (conceding goals) been since I’ve been here and before. I think the goals against have narrowed off slightly in the time we’ve been here, we’ve been working a lot on our out of possession shape and trying to be more compact, but little moments define football matches.

"We saw it last Saturday, we saw it on Wednesday and irrespective of the game as a whole, those moments put you on the back foot and it’s a mountain to climb after that. We all take responsibility for that. I’m not here to criticise anybody, absolutely not. I’m the manager of this football team, and I’ll keep working to improve it.”

Having left a Wycombe Wanderers side who were flying in League One to take the position at Kenilworth Road, then asked if he was finding it a different proposition to the one he had believed it to be, Bloomfield added: “I think every job you take is probably different to the one that you are expecting when you walk through the door as you never truly know what’s going on until you’re in amongst it. Even the Wycombe one I’d only been out of the door four and a half months, but it was different when I got back to what I expected. There’s always a few slight nuances that you only know about when you’re in, so every job you take, you never know exactly the job in hand until you do the job.”