Luton chief not paying too much attention to Boro drubbing ahead of return clash

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield doesn’t believe too much attention should be placed on the Hatters’ hammering at the hands of Middlesbrough earlier in the season when they face Michael Carrick’s play-off chasing side in the return fixture at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

After a fairly even opening at the Riverside Stadium in early November, Luton then found themselves trailing after Delano Burgzorg netted on the half hour, Emmanuel Latte Lath adding a second before half time. Town then went on to concede twice more in the opening nine minutes of the second period, as although Jordan Clark pulled one back, Finn Azaz added his second of the afternoon late on to secure what was a chastening 5-1 defeat, a loss that many thought would be the final one of Rob Edwards’ reign in charge.

It wasn’t to be, as the manager kept on going for the next few months until eventually leaving following the 2-1 loss to QPR during January, Bloomfield swiftly appointed as his successor. With it being the first time the two teams have gone up against each other since then, asked if he thought his players were looking to prove it was a one-off, the Hatters manager said: “Yes, but I think it’s important that we don’t look back to the past too much, it’s about focusing on what we’re doing right now and there’s definitely shoots of optimism of where the team’s heading.

"It’s a tough game, of course it is, against a team that’s looking to get promoted out of the division, because Michael Carrick is a very good manager. They’ve invested in their team, they’ve got a very good group, but we don’t need to concentrate on that too much. We understand what happened that afternoon, but we have to focus on the here and now and make sure we imprint ourselves and impose ourselves.”

Since then, Boro have lost Latte Lath, who bagged twice on that day, joining Major League Soccer side Atlanta United, with Liverpool loanee Ben Doak, who caused so many problems is also injured with a thigh problem. Dael Fry, Rav van den Berg, George Edmundson and Luke Ayling are also not expected to feature, but they do have Tommy Conway in form, the forward netting 11 goals, while star midfielder Azaz is in double figures as well.

It looked like Carrick himself might be about to leave the club as well when they lost five in a row to harm their play-off hopes, but three wins from four has propelled them back to eighth place and well within reach of the top six. They have struggled on the road though, with five losses from six, as Bloomfield continued: “They are a really good footballing team, pass the ball, got some really good attacking players, some really good individuals but within a team unit.

“The two midfield players are very good, pace on the top line, so we know that they’re going to be a tough test for us absolutely. We have to be aware of that, tactically aware of what we need to do, but as ever we need to impose ourselves on the game. They’ve got injuries in their camp as we have had to contend with for a little while now, so it’s about what team turns up tomorrow and imposes themselves on the game the most and we want to do it in front of our fans.”

Town go into the game on the back of a 2-1 success at Cardiff on Tuesday as they are unbeaten in two matches at home, drawing with Plymouth and beating Portsmouth. With an international break next weekend, Bloomfield wants to send the home fans home happy once more as he looks to earn a result that could see the Hatters climbing out of the bottom three, adding: “We’ve been playing well at home recently, Sheffield United, Plymouth and Portsmouth, we’ve been playing pretty well, getting the crowd in the game.

"They’ve been absolutely excellent for us, really backing their players and roaring them on, so hopefully we can give them opportunities and some chances to cheer. We want to get some goals and we want to send them away happy. We believe in ourselves, we believe in what we’re doing, we believe in the group we’ve got and we have to attack these games.”