Luton boss answers why he didn't bring on Naismith earlier during Baggies loss

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield will go back and analyse whether he made mistakes during the Hatters’ relegation from the Championship after he opted to leave Kal Naismith on the bench for the majority of the final day 5-3 defeat at West Bromwich Albion yesterday.

Going into the game knowing a win would be enough to ensure they stayed in the division, it was expected that the on-loan Bristol City defender would return in some guise such is his clear influence and leadership on the rest of the side, something that, without Tom Lockyer available, team-mate Jordan Clark had specifically mentioned in the build-up.

It was only a few weeks ago in the 1-0 victory at Derby County that the manager had discussed his need to put Naismith in the side wherever possible, as he had played in the holding midfield role at Pride Park, before then missing out against his parent club due to the terms of his move. He was then a substitute for the victory over Coventry City, coming on a half time, but for most rocking up at the Hawthorns, it was a surprise to see just one change made by Bloomfield to last weekend’s thrilling triumph, that being Clark in for Lamine Fanne.

It meant Naismith was left on the bench once more, Amari’i Bell staying in his left wingback role and Teden Mengi on the left of a back three, despite looking uncomfortable in that position just seven days previously. With Town falling behind 1-0 down on seven minutes, both Mengi and Bell failing to cover themselves in glory with their defending for Tom Fellows’ opener. Milli Alli restored parity moments later.

However, the visitors’ back-line fell apart again, particularly on their left hand side, where Bell was timidly outjumped by Daryl Dike for the Baggies’ second, as the pair couldn’t deal with Fellows again, allowing him to go clean through and beat Kaminski. With Luton 3-1 down at the break, they still had a chance of getting back into the contest, but rather than turn to the 33-year-old Naismith and sort out the left side of his defence, Bloomfield brought on Reece Burke for Christ Makosso and Tahith Chong for Carlton Morris, leaving the rest as it was.

Any realistic hopes the Hatters had of making a remarkable comeback were scuppered when Callum Styles scored a brace around the hour mark, as once more Town’s defending, particularly on that troublesome left flank, left a lot to be desired. Fanne and Lasse Nordas were then introduced for Liam Walsh and Izzy Jones, as it took until the 84th minute for Naismith to get the nod, replacing Mengi, who was jeered off by the travelling Luton supporters, with his future at the club for next season surely coming into question.

When he did come on, the Scotsman immediately showed the Hatters what they were missing, particularly when throwing himself into one tackle to win the ball back, displaying the kind of fight and aggression that had been severely lacking from the visitors up until that point. It was too little too late unfortunately, as Hull’s point at Portsmouth meant Luton suffered their second successive relegation, and will now spend the 2025-26 campaign playing in the third tier of English football.

When asked if he had mistakes with his selection for the contest in the West Midlands, a downbeat Bloomfield said: “I’ll go back and analyse it. I think it will probably be naive to make any rash statements right now. It’s particularly painful to take the result and the performance, but as I always do, I look in the mirror first.”

Meanwhile, pushed as to why Naismith hadn’t come on earlier after not being named in the starting XI, especially with the way the game was going, the boss added: “We were trying other things. Of course with hindsight you can go back and analyse it, we absolutely will. We wanted to get Lasse on, get a forward on the pitch and to bring on a defender, but then Kal comes on and has a good influence, so we’ll look at everything we did.”