Luton expect to be without 12 first team players for midweek Blackpool trip
Clark the only possible returnee at Bloomfield Road
Luton boss Matt Bloomfield will once more be without 12 first team players when Town head to struggling Blackpool for this evening’s League One contest.
The Hatters had the same number of absentees when beating Doncaster Rovers 1-0 at the weekend, with Nigel Lonwijk, Hakeem Odoffin, Jordan Clark, Shandon Baptiste, Liam Walsh, Izzy Jones, Elijah Adebayo, Jacob Brown, Jerry Yates, Ali Al-Hamadi, Joe Johnson and Reuell Walters all missing.
None of them are expected to have recovered in time to face the Tangerines tonight, with Clark the only possibility, although both he and Yates are more likely to be back at Stevenage on Saturday, as speaking in his post-match press conference on Saturday, Bloomfield said: “I hope to have Jordan back at some point this week. There’s no real muscle damage to his calf injury, the scan came back very good, he might be available for Tuesday, if not, hopefully next Saturday, but we’re literally just taking it day by day.
“There’s no-one else available and I don't think we suffered anything today so hopefully we’ll have the same group available on Tuesday night and hopefully we can have Clicker at some point as well. We’ve got 12 unavailable today, we know we’re going to have Jerry available for next Saturday as long he comes through his concussion protocol, but it's not an ideal time to have so many unavailable when you’ve got such a busy week. It’s the challenge ahead and we'll make sure they recover properly and we’ll attack every moment we can.”
Although Blackpool have struggled this term, losing six of their nine league games, at Bloomfield Road they have been a tough opponent, losing just once in front of their own fans, that coming against Stevenage on the opening day of the campaign, going on to beat promotion-chasing Huddersfield Town 3-2, also drawing with Bolton Wanderers.
Steve Bruce’s side then hammered Barrow 5-0 in the EFL Trophy recently and defeated Barnsley 1-0 in their last outing, but five straight defeats on the road means they go into the contest third bottom with just seven points to their name. On the opposition in front of them, Bloomfield continued: “Away games on a Tuesday evening under the lights are never easy, with the atmosphere that comes with evening games.
"Blackpool have got some really good players, so it’s going to be a tough test for us. We have to make sure the boys recover as quickly as possible and put a plan in place to go there and try to put on a performance. We have to keep that energy and hunger about us and the intensity. If we can do that then hopefully we can improve again.”
Having ended a run of back-to-back losses themselves when seeing off Doncaster on Saturday, Town head out on the road twice as after travelling to Blackpool, they then have a much shorter trip to second-placed Stevenage at the weekend. Having hopefully put their woeful efforts at Lincoln behind them, Bloomfield added: “Things are never usually as bad or as good as you think, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. It was really important for us to turn the tide and turn the feeling I think. We have to go after more this week, we’ve got two tough away games and we have to be ready for the fight and scrap again on Tuesday evening.”