Town look good when facing Premier League opposition at Kenilworth Road
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Luton boss Matt Bloomfield was enthused by the ‘maturity’ that was on display from his side as they finished their pre-season campaign by holding Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur to a goalless draw at Kenilworth Road yesterday.
Having come into the game on the back of five straight victories since returning this summer, scoring 18 goals in the process and conceding just two, the Hatters had their sternest test so far, with visiting boss Thomas Frank naming a full strength starting XI, including £55m summer signing from West Ham United, forward Mohammed Kudus, plus the likes of Brennan Johnson, Archie Gray and Micky van de Ven.
Although Kudus went closest in the first half, his shot beating new Town addition Josh Keeley but cleared away by Christ Makosso, following that, it was Luton who looked the more likely to score, Nahki Wells denied by a smart save from Antonin Kinsky, who also denied Milli Alli, Wells then firing another good opportunity over the bar.
With a flurry of changes disrupting the closing stages, it meant that neither side were able break the deadlock, but with Luton just five days away from beginning their League One season, Bloomfield said: “It was a really different test to some of the other ones we’ve had and I knew it was going to be a real technical, tactical battle. We had to be prepared for that, we’ve not had a huge amount of time to prepare on the training ground because of the busy week but I just thought we showed a really good level of maturity.
"The communication and the voices that you hear now, with the seniors that we have, I think is fantastic. Them marshalling and moving people around, Kal (Naismith), Sav (George Saville), Nahki (Wells), straight through the spine of the team, so I think it was some really good moments from us. We knew League Two and the Premier League were the two leagues we had to target to get the games in to organise.
"I felt like Gillingham and Southend would give us that really up and at them type of physical contest that we needed, but Spurs would give us a real tactical battle that we’re going to come up against this season as well. Hopefully we’ve had enough blend, as you never know until you get into the league season. You do as best as you can to prepare as properly as possible, but I think we’ve had loads of different challenges in pre-season and we’re content with the way the group has got through it.”
The only slight negative on the day for Bloomfield was that Town weren’t able to find the net and give the majority of the 10,000 in attendance something substantial to cheer, as he added: “I thought we were slightly wasteful at the top of the pitch, at times we rushed that last part. We want to be slightly more patient if we can and keep teams penned in, but obviously we’re up against top opposition.
"We limited Tottenham to very little I felt and tactically I thought we were really solid. Distances front to back I thought were very good which is really important for the way we want to defend and we had some good moments as well. It’s a shame we couldn't get a goal and give everyone something to cheer, but it was a really good performance and I think there were some nice smiles from some supporters at the end and that’s what we want.”