Luton boss warns Town they can't afford to start slowly at in-form Stevenage

Hatters boss Matt Bloomfield has told his side in no uncertain terms that they can’t afford to start as poorly as they have done in their last two away games when heading to a Stevenage side who are bang in-form on home soil this afternoon.

In Luton’s last two matches on the road, they have found themselves trailing inside the opening 20 minutes on both occasions, Lincoln’s Ben House given the freedom of the LNER Stadium to waltz through Town’s defence and beat Josh Keeley, with CJ Hamilton then driving through the Luton keeper after nine minutes on Tuesday night as Blackpool moved ahead at Bloomfield Road.

Although Town did fight back in midweek to grab a point, when going up against a Boro outfit who have won four out of four at the Lamex Stadium, conceding just once in that time, to sit second in the table ahead of kick-off, Bloomfield knows they have to be on it from the very first whistle, saying: “The last two away games we’ve come out slow so we’ve got to correct that and we need to make sure we’re solid and don’t give any leg up to our opposition as if you do that it’s a tough afternoon.

“We’ve got to come out strong, we’ve got to be robust in the way we set ourselves up, we’ve got to be at it from the first whistle, all the football cliches that are so true. We’ve got to make sure we come out fighting and scrapping and strong within our shape, within our structure and build a performance away from home.

"It’s not always possible just to come out and take the game to your opposition away from home, especially when they’re in such good form, so we’ve got to make sure that we build a performance, make sure we’re strong, and organised and I believe we can do that. We’ve got to treat it like it’s a game of football against a very good team who are very strong at home and we’ve just got to play the game in front of us. We want to be up and at it and we know we’ve got to start the game better than we did on Tuesday evening and I expect our boys to start better."

Although not many would have backed Boro to be challenging this term, after a 14th place finish last term, Alex Revell’s side have started superbly, only beaten once all year, that a 1-0 loss at Huddersfield Town, winning seven out of their nine third tier matches thus far. Having brought in the likes of Jordan Houghton from Plymouth Argyle and Reading's Chem Campbell, ex-Aston Villa youngster goalkeeper Filip Marschall also joining the midfield duo over the summer, then Bloomfield hasn’t been surprised by their excellent start.

He continued: “They work incredibly hard. Revs (Alex Revell) has had real good consistency amongst their group, coupled with very good recruitment over the summer, so I’m not surprised how they’ve started at all. When I saw a few of their signings in the summer, I thought they’d picked some good ones to add to the group and complement the group.

"So good consistency, good continuity, add good recruitment into it and I’m not surprised they’ve started strong. They’re a very, very honest group, they all know their jobs. Revs has got them working incredibly hard and we’re in for a tough game, but we’re coming off the back of two good results, two intermittent performances at times possibly, but we’ve got to go after a 95, 96 minute performance and if we do that we believe we can have a good day.”

Bloomfield is no stranger to his opposite number Revell either, the pair having spent time at Wycombe Wanderers as players, Revell joining in 2010, scoring six goals in 15 matches when on loan from Southend United before heading to Leyton Orient. The 42-year-old is now in his second stint in the dug-out at the Lamex Stadium, as having been initially appointed in February 2020, he was then sacked in November 2021.

The former Brighton & Hove Albion and Cardiff City forward rejoined three months later as coach of the youth academy before being promoted to first team coach by Steve Evans, and then appointed interim manager in April 2024 after Evans left for Rotherham, getting the job permanently a month later.

Despite some Boro fans wanting a change last term, Boro’s board remained behind Revell, who was nominated for August’s League One Manager of the Month award, as Bloomfield said: “Revs is someone I think incredibly highly of. We shared a dressing room at Wycombe together for a little while and I wanted it to be longer at the time, but he then went on and moved to Leyton Orient. He had a tough first spell as manager at Stevenage, went away as a coach for a bit, came back, and has done an incredible job.

“He’s had real good consistency amongst his group, really organised, understands the way his team want to play and the team understands what he wants. He’s someone I like a lot, I think a lot of him as a person, an incredibly hard worker. They've stuck with their guy, he's come through the other side and they’re reaping their rewards for it.”

Although Luton’s start to the season hasn’t been as good as their Hertfordshire opponents, with three defeats from four recently, Bloomfield feels there is growing optimism now after getting four points from two matches by beating Doncaster and then drawing at Blackpool. He said: “I think we’ve shown some really good moments during the season but we’ve also shown some poor moments, so we have to keep going after the good stuff and bringing up the bits we’ve not been so good at.

"We have to gain some consistency because we’ve been putting on a really good performance and then maybe dropped off a little bit and fought our way back, so we need to go after that consistency. We’ve now changed formation, got lads getting up to speed fitness wise, people coming back from injuries, adapting to positions, a couple still maybe not playing in their most natural positions because of the balance of the squad between a three and a four (at the back), that’s obvious.

"We’re making do in certain moments, but people are growing, learning their roles. We’ve had two tough games this week against Doncaster and Blackpool and come out with four points, so there’s definitely signs of improvement. We just need to go after that consistency and making sure everyone’s on the same page. We’re starting to see some good moments and there’s plenty we’ve gone after this week to try and improve from Tuesday.

“The basics of the game don’t change, players make games of football not formations. We can't get too caught up in a four’s right and a three’s wrong, the fundamentals of football will not change and never will change. So we have to make sure we do those properly and we’re doing that to a degree at the moment, but we have to do that for 95, 96 minutes to start picking up the points that I know we’re capable of doing.”