Mengi's return a positive for Bloomfield as Luton boss explains Morris's late withdrawal

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield felt that the return of centre half Teden Mengi was one positive to take out of the Hatters’ potentially season-defining 1-0 defeat against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

The 22-year-old had been out of action since the 4-2 loss at Norwich City in late November after suffering a serious knee injury during training that required surgery, sidelining the former Manchester United youngster for just over four months. Having recovered in a bid to play a part in Town’s run-in, Mengi was on the bench for the 1-1 draw at Stoke City in midweek, the England U21 international also named among the substitutes once more when Rovers headed to Kenilworth Road at the weekend.

Having fallen behind to Yuki Ohashi’s goal early in the second half, Mengi was immediately brought on as part of a triple change made by Bloomfield, joining Reece Burke and Josh Bowler in replacing Izzy Jones, Christ Makosso and Tahith Chong as Town searched for way back into the game. They were handed a boost a few minutes later too, Blackburn reduced to 10 men when Kristi Montgomery was sent off, but never looked like taking advantage, Thelo Aasgaard striking the bar with a terrific effort, as did Milli Alli with a deflected cross-shot.

For Mengi himself, his rustiness at being out for so long was apparent, putting two clearances straight out of play, although after Mark McGuinness headed wide from close range, he might have snatched a point with the very last kick of the conest when Jordan Clark’s free kick dropped at his feet, only to put his shot too close to keeper Balázs Tóth.

Discussing the defender’s return to first team action, Bloomfield said: “I think it’s got to be a positive. Teden’s a big player for the football club, he did great last year and unfortunately has missed a lot of football this season. It just felt with Izzy’s illness, Christ has played a lot of football, we needed some fresh energy down that right hand side with Joshy Bowler coming on for Chong as well so it was good to have Teden back available.”

Having got his changes spot on at Stoke in midweek, this time it has to be said they were questionable, as having made the triple swap, Bloomfield persisted with the same formation despite it struggling to work in the previous 55 minutes, Burke asked to play in an unnatural wingback role, when it was crying out for a switch in system to try and generate more of an attacking threat.

The boss rolled the dice on two more occasions in the closing stages, January signing Lasse Nordas replacing Liam Walsh on 72 minutes, while youngster Zack Nelson came on for Carlton Morris with four minutes left, the hosts taking off their biggest aerial threat when desperately needing a goal. The youngster didn’t even get to touch the ball during his near 15 minutes on the field with stoppage time included, as asked if there had been an injury to the Hatters’ skipper, Bloomfield added: “Carlton does so much work for us, so much unselfish work, it just looked like we needed a little bit of fresh energy.

“Zack has been training really, really well and I wanted to give him an opportunity to go and maybe get some combinations around the edge of the box and go and get himself a goal. Carlton’s been absolutely fantastic for us, but it just felt like he’d run his race. He looked tired and we just wanted to freshen up, an extra little bit of energy from the bench.”