New Luton Town manager Matt Bloomfield got off to a steady start to kick off his tenure in charge of The Hatters, after joining the club last week from League One Wycombe.
Struggling Luton managed to play out a 0-0 draw against a midtable Preston North End side at Kenilworth Road on Saturday, securing their first clean sheet in 12 matches and ending a run of five consecutive defeats in all competitions.
What was perhaps most impressive for Hatters fans may have been the fact that they limited the visitors to just two shots all afternoon, and none on target – a massive improvement on the final few games under previous manager Rob Edwards.
Speaking to Luton Today, Bloomfield seemed very happy with his side’s defensive display:
“I don’t want to be downbeat, a point is a step in the right direction and coming off the results that there have been and the goals against that there have been, I think we have to say that is a positive coming out of it with a clean sheet. It is probably quite rare (to not face any shots on target) I would suggest but of course it’s about winning. The only stat that matters is the goals column and we wanted to win the game but a point on our column and a good foundation to start, so there’s some positives to come from it as well.”
Luton have now dropped into the relegation places in The Championship but only on goal difference, and will be hoping that with 20 games to play, Bloomfield can be the man to steady the ship and put a winning run together:
“I think it would be naive for us to expect it would have been perfect from day one. There’s three days on the grass and in terms of discipline out of possession and the resilience of the group to stop any kind of goalscoring opportunities, we have to be pleased with that. To win games of football you have to have your goals against column low, so that needed to be addressed. It needs more work on it absolutely, and five defeats in a row, we needed to turn the tide a little bit.”
“In terms of the freshness with which the boys have had this week and the way they’ve implemented our work, the work that they’ve done has been very pleasing and it’s going to be an ongoing process to get to the final product. We understand that, we want to score goals, we want to get forward as much as we possibly can, absolutely, but like I say, in terms of a foundation, I think it’s a good start.”
Writers View
You can tell that Matt Bloomfield has the upmost belief that his side can stay in the division and wants to build on Saturday’s clean sheet with more positive results to shift the mood around at the club.
And Luton definitely have the squad to stay up following last year’s Premier League relegation, but it is all about how they perform on the pitch.
