Hatters chief felt there was 'plenty to like' about Luton despite Oxford defeat

Although left annoyed and frustrated by the manner of his side’s 3-2 defeat at Oxford United on Tuesday night, Town chief Matt Bloomfield felt there was still ‘plenty to like’ about the Hatters’ efforts at the Kassam Stadium.

He was right too, as at half time things were looking fairly swimmingly for the visitors, taking the lead through Tom Krauß’s terrific strike, an unerringly accurate and sweetly-hit right-footed drive beyond the full length dive of U’s keeper Jamie Cumming. Yes, Town defended poorly when the overlapping Cameron Brannagan was played in by Siriki Dembele, Tom Holmes failing get across Michal Helik in time as the home centre half volleyed home, but Luton responded well and swiftly, soon back ahead through Mark McGuinness’s header from a wonderfully teasing Jordan Clark free kick.

From there, the Hatters played some of their best stuff of the season, as despite having had just a handful of training sessions under Bloomfield, showcased just what he is trying to implement, creating some wonderful moves, particularly on the right hand side, one snappy interchange especially catching the eye, releasing Elijah Adebayo, who unfortunately dallied for too long, allowing his drive to be blocked.

The opening 15 minutes after the break weren’t too bad either, the visitors looking fairly solid, before Luton worryingly slumped back into their old ways of conceding two goals in quick succession, Ciaron Brown allowed to prod home from a corner despite having men around him, before Greg Leigh was then alarmingly afforded the freedom of Oxfordshire to place his downward header beyond Thomas Kaminski.

It meant that Bloomfield is still waiting for the new manager bounce he was targeting when replacing Rob Edwards last week, the Hatters firmly entrenched in the bottom three after a 12th straight loss away from Kenilworth Road. Despite that, there were still positives for the boss to take, as he said: “There was plenty to like about us. We showed a real attacking intent which we wanted to do.

"I don’t think it matters whether you’re at home or away, you have to try and come out and score goals and win football matches, which is what we showed in the first half. If we can’t win it in the first attack, you have to make sure you’re in a position where you can recycle it yourself, or make sure you pick up the second balls and go and attack again and we did that.

"Maybe we ran out of a little bit of legs in the first half and we didn’t quite have that attacking intent about us. Maybe there were other elements in terms of the result and the away form maybe, possibly, you look for reasons and whys. But the way we attacked in the first half, I was really, really pleased.”

Discussing the fact that Luton could have led by more at the interval, a low on confidence Adebayo not pulling the trigger quickly enough, Bloomfield continued: “If that goes 3-1, we spoke about that at half time, about coming out and trying to get the third. We didn’t just want to sit back and wait. There was a lovely passage of play down our right hand side, but again it comes down to the fine margins. Go in at 3-1 and it would have been fantastic. 2-1, the game is there for all to play, but again it comes down to those moments and we’ve got to defend our goal better.”

The frustrating aspect for the boss is that when Town were hit by conceding the equaliser and then the third goal, their patient build-up play from the first period evaporated, as they were reduced to just going long, a tactic that was easily and gratefully repelled by the U’s back-line. He added: “It didn’t (carry on), but it’s the psychology of football when you concede goals. We have to be strong and resilient and keep playing. Keep playing on the front foot and try to attack, but that’s all the elements that go into an away performance and if one or two of those are missing, then like we saw, we don’t win a game.”