No criticism from Hatters boss as Luton set unwanted club record at Kenilworth Road

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield wasn’t laying any criticism at the feet of striker Elijah Adebayo or any of the Hatters’ other attackers after Town set a new unwanted club record and closed in on setting another when drawing a blank at Kenilworth Road on Saturday.

The 1-0 defeat against Sheffield United meant the Hatters have now gone four games without finding the net at Kenilworth Road, following on from matches against Norwich City, Preston North End and Millwall. Having not scored since the last-gasp winner against Derby County on December 20, then that itself is a new record, beating the three fixtures that Town have done 11 times previously in their history, the last of those coming in the 2015-16 campaign, where they actually managed it twice.

However, based on minutes, Luton are still not yet at their worst sequence, as back in that League One season, they went 378 minutes without being able to celebrate a goal in front of their own fans, Danny Green scoring in the 66th minute during the 4-3 loss to Northampton, followed by blanks against a Wycombe side containing Bloomfield, Cambridge United, in then manager Nathan Jones’ first game in charge and Notts County. It was finally ended when Alan Sheehan thundered home a superb volley against Yeovil Town, who had taken the lead through now Luton midfielder Liam Walsh.

That is 18 minutes more than the 360 accumulated by Town in their current dry patch, although it should never have reached this stage, Town having some excellent opportunities to end their dire run against the Blades on Saturday, particularly through Adebayo, who leapt well to meet Liam Walsh’s inviting cross early on, only to direct his header disappointingly wide of the target.

The forward, who hasn’t scored in his last 12 appearances, since the 2-1 win over Stoke on December 10, has now missed 25 big chances this term, on target just five times from 63 shots, then had another wonderful chances before the break, left unmarked to meet Thelo Aasgaard’s wonderfully pinpoint delivery, only to volley over from six yards out. In what was a dominant first half territorially, Aasgaard also hit the bar himself with a brilliant curling attempt, the follow up from Izzy Jones saved by United stopper Michael Cooper, with Liam Walsh blazing over, as the visitors got through to the interval unscathed.

After the break, the opportunities weren’t quite as prominent, although Carlton Morris had a header flicked away by the Blades keeper, with another comfortably claimed. It allowed United to come into the game more and after Ben Brereton Diaz missed two great opportunities of his own, scored what tuned out to be the winner, Anel Ahmedhodzic played onside to show Luton just how it should be done, slotting past Thomas Kaminski from close range.

Speaking afterwards, Bloomfield said: “In any game you need to score when you’re on top, but especially against the best teams in the division. If you have a 45 minutes like we had then you’ve got to make it count and unfortunately for us we didn’t. There’s no criticism of anyone for missing chances, we’re humans right, and I would much rather people put themselves at risk, to keep going in and being willing to get in there. So there’s absolutely no criticism, keep being willing to get on the end of things and things have to turn in our favour.

As Luton continually fluffed their lines, then it always appeared United would nick it, and that was proved through Ahmedhodzic. The strike came with Town’s players and supporters screaming for an offside flag that never came, centre half Mark McGuinness playing the Blades defender onside. Bloomfield accepted the call on that front, but felt the visitors should have been down to 10 men by then, midfielder Vinicius Souza not a second booking by referee Lewis Smith after tripping Morris just outside the box, as he continued: “It is what it is.

"It looked like it might have been offside, but then it looked like it was just on. There were some other decisions I truly believe could have gone in our favour, which was disappointing. There were a lot of yellow cards on the day and then one that would have made a big difference to the game that wasn’t given when we’re attacking, but it is what it is. We have to focus on ourselves and make sure we produce the performances that we need.

“If we’re going to be fair, it’s going to be tough to dominate a top team like that for two halves. It was always going to level off at some point and we wanted to go and do it again, but maybe it was going to be hard to do. We still had opportunities, maybe not quite so many, a little bit of intensity was maybe lost in our performance, but we’re playing against a real good team who made changes at half time and throughout the second half to stem the tide. They’re a top team for a reason and they’ve found a way to win the game.”