Japanese international starts as Bloomfield makes four changes in his first Luton Town XI

New Luton manager Matt Bloomfield has made four changes to the Town side that were knocked out of the FA Cup at Nottingham Forest for his first game in charge of the Hatters against Preston North End at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

Japanese international Daiki Hashioka returns to the starting line-up for the first time in over a month, with on-loan midfielder Tom Krauß is also back as well. The pair join Jacob Brown and Jordan Clark in the side, as recent addition Lamine Fanne misses out with injury, while Elijah Adebayo, Reuell Walters and Liam Walsh drop to the bench.

Speaking about the contest, a recalled Clark said: “We know we’ve picked up a lot more points at home apart from the Norwich game. With the new man in charge it will give the crowd a big lift. It’s Preston, they’re in and around us in the bottom half so we’ve just got to look forward to it and look forward to winning a game of football.

"We’ve just been lacking that killer instinct, maybe that little bit of confidence which has probably been lacking in every away game and when you get in that little rut of not winning games and you’re not scoring goals it’s tough. Now it’s going to be a fresh start, we’ve just got to roll our sleeves up and everybody’s just got to embrace the challenge head on. We’ve got to look forward to it and start picking up some points in the Championship."

It looks like the midfielder is back in his usual position this weekend too, having come on as left wingback in the 2-0 loss at the City Ground seven days ago, as he added: “That’s one of the things I always said, wherever they need me to play I’ll play there. With Nathan Jones in charge I think he played me in every single position apart from goalkeeper so it’s nothing new to me. Maybe I’m getting a bit old for the wingback role but especially when (Anthony) Elanga came on I wasn’t too sure about that one. I’ll fill in anywhere they need me to play and just give it my all.”

Hatters: Thomas Kaminski, Daiki Hashioka, Tom Holmes, Mark McGuinness, Amari’i Bell, Isaiah Jones, Marvelous Nakamba, Tom Krauß, Jordan Clark, Isaiah Jones, Jacob Brown, Carlton Morris ©. Subs: Tim Krul, Mads Andersen, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Cauley Woodrow, Reuell Walters, Victor Moses, Elijah Adebayo, Liam Walsh, Zack Nelson.

Lilywhites: Freddie Woodman, Liam Lindsay, Will Keane, Ali McCann ©, Jordan Storey, Andrew Hughes, Ryan Ledson, Lewis Gibson, Sam Greenwood, Milutin Osmajic, Kaine Kesler Hayden. Subs: David Cornell, Jayden Meghoma, Jack Whatmough, Emil Riis Jakobsen, Mads Frokjaer-Jensen, Robbie Brady, Ched Evans, Stefan Thordarson, Duane Holmes. Referee: Tim Robinson.