Town chief thought West Ham youngster grabbed his opportunity against City

Luton chief Matt Bloomfield is relishing the prospect of seeing the attacking qualities of on-loan West Ham United youngster Gideon Kodua figure for the Hatters on a more regular basis after lauding his efforts during the Carabao Cup clash at Coventry City on Tuesday night.

The 20-year-old has been borrowed from the Premier League side for the entire campaign, with Luton having an option to buy at the end of the season, joining up with Bloomfield for the third time in his brief career already, signing twice when the 41-year-old was in charge of Wycombe Wanderers. Having not got on in either of the first two League One matches, Kodua was then given his first opportunity to impress in midweek when Luton headed to CBS Arena for their first round tie and despite the visitors going out 1-0, for anyone watching on, and the manager himself, he did exactly that.

Playing in the right wingback role, the former Hammers U18s FA Youth Cup winning captain showed an exuberant directness from the word go, looking to get forward whenever he could as he turned and just ran at the opposition, which led to some real bright moments on the Hatters’ right hand side, as he was extremely lively throughout a first half that Town had the better of things.

Eventually tiring in the early stages of the second period due to his lack of first team football, he was replaced with 64 minutes gone, but with Reuell Walters expected to be out for just under a month with a groin issue, and Luton not having another designated right wingback due to Izzy Jones’ stress fracture in his back, then although Nigel Lonwijk or Milli Alli could well fill in at Bradford City on Saturday once more, asked if Kodua is close to featuring now, with a mighty 24 games coming up before the turn of the year, Bloomfield said: “This is why we have to have a squad that is ready to compete.

"We know that, especially before Christmas with all the extra cup games, it’s such a busy period of time that everyone’s got to be ready to contribute and I think that’s important to have cover and competition in every position. With Reu’s unfortunate injury, we’re really disappointed for Reu as he had a very good pre-season, but it presents opportunities for other players.

"Gids is a young player, we got him on loan, we’ve got an option to buy if we wish to I believe, and that’s a great opportunity for us as a football club if he becomes the player that we believe he can do. Gids is a boy that obviously I believe in, we believe in because we've signed him before, the club believes in him as well. Yousuf’s (Sajjad, player recruitment manager) watched him since he was a young player at West Ham so there is a club element on him as well, and I thought he grabbed his opportunity again.

“He’s not quite at match fitness and match sharpness because again he missed the first few weeks of pre-season and then he wasn't playing games because the move here was being negotiated and trying to sort it, so again he’s behind, but I thought he showed some real attacking intent. We know that Gids is a boy who can take us up the pitch and one of the reasons why we wanted him here.”

The fact that, like a number of those in action on Tuesday night, Kodua is still in the infancy of his career, is something that Bloomfield thinks Town can benefit from greatly too, adding: “He’s a real resilient, solid character, someone who’s desperate to do well in the game. He’s a dribbler, he’s a creator, he’s someone if we can get him in the final third will create for us.

"We feel like we’ve not reached anywhere near his ceiling yet, so he’s another project for us, someone to develop. We believe in young players, we believe in developing and he's one that we really are pleased to bring to the football club. A really resilient character, someone who all the lads seem to get on well with whatever squad he’s with and I think he can help give us that dribbling ability in the final third of the pitch.”