Luton chief concedes reaction from Kenilworth Road faithful was 'understandable'

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield felt that the reaction from the Kenilworth Road faithful to witnessing a 1-0 defeat against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday was completely ‘understandable’.

With almost all of the 11,552 in attendance on the afternoon turning up with the belief that the Hatters would increase their five game unbeaten run by beating a side who had gone eight matches without victory, particularly due to the magnitude of the contest for the home side, Town started off in a terribly subdued manner.

They served up a first half that bar a Thelo Aasgaard shot that was blocked and Mark McGuinness’s close range header which flew over, had nothing in terms of clear-cut chances, passion or intensity, to help create one of the famous atmospheres at a stadium which is usually feared by away sides. It didn’t get much better after the break either, Yuki Ohashi escaping the attentions of Christ Makosso and Amari’i Bell to find the net with seven minutes gone, the visitors then reduced to 10 men just before the hour mark as Kristi Montgomery was sent off.

Despite the severity of the situation and with Luton desperate for a victory to boost their chances of staying up, Bloomfield’s side still couldn’t shift through the gears. Aasgaard thundered against the bar with 15 minutes left, while McGuinness put a stoppage time header wide and Teden Mengi sidefooted straight at keeper Balázs Toth, as other than that, Luton’s shooting was fairly hopeless, with 18 attempts, but a mere three on target.

With nine minutes of stoppage time still not leading to a goat, it saw the home support let the players know just how they felt after the full time whistle, as there were a number of boos during the lap of appreciation. Asked about the response, Bloomfield, whose side have now not scored in five of his eight home matches in charge, netting just three goals, said: “It’s understandable. Our supporters are frustrated and I absolutely understand that. We wanted to attack, we wanted to come out of the blocks and get our crowd in the game as they’ve been so good recently. They’ve been incredible for us, but we didn’t give them enough to cheer and really get behind."

Although it was a massive dent to the club’s survival hopes, Luton now three points clear of safety with just four games left, and seeing the likes of Portsmouth and Stoke City pull further away, Bloomfield was remaining bullish, adding: “Whenever you lose it’s really low in there, but we have to take our medicine. We have to feel the moment and we have to pick ourselves up and keep fighting. I’m 100 percent (confident we can survive), 100 percent. We are fighting, we’ve been fighting and scrapping. We had a little unbeaten run where we’ve picked up some good results and we have to dig deep and go again.”