Luton Town FC vs Blackburn Rovers (12th Apr 2025)

13/04/2025 LUTON TOWN 0-1 BLACKBURN ROVERS

Town go down to 10-man Rovers

Hatters fail to find a way through to slip to disappointing home defeat

The Hatters’ Championship survival hopes suffered a huge blow after Yuki Oshahi’s second-half goal earned Blackburn victory at Kenilworth Road.

In a game of few chances, the crucial moment came seven minutes after half-time when the Japanese striker tucked a shot past former Rovers keeper Thomas Kaminski.

The visitors were reduced to 10 men when full debutant Kristi Montgomery was sent off for a second bookable offence just five minutes later.

With a man advantage, the Town tried to restore parity but their best chance came with 14 minutes left when Thelo Aasgaard’s rasping shot from 18 yards crashed agonisingly off the underside of the crossbar.

Despite 10 minutes added at the end of the 90 the Hatters could not force an equaliser and the full-time whistle signalled a crushing defeat to leave the Town three points from safety with four games to play.

After the last-gasp point won at Stoke on Tuesday night, hopes were high against a Rovers side who had not won in their past eight games – losing to Cardiff, Stoke, Portsmouth and Derby.

With Tuesday night’s goal hero in the Potteries, Millenic Alli, making his first home start, the forward almost snuck a goal inside the first minute only to be off target in the six-yard box.

The Town had to wait until the 24th minute for their next chance when Aasgaard’s low first-time shot was blocked by the Blackburn defence.

As the Hatters pushed for the opener, Mark McGuinness sent a bullet header over the crossbar following Jordan Clark’s free-kick just before half-time.

After the break opportunities continued to be hard to come by for the Town and, seven minutes into the second period, their task got tougher when Rovers took the lead. The Hatters appealed for offside as Ohashi latched onto Ryan Hedges’ slide-rule pass but the striker ran through and slotted past Kaminski.

Matt Bloomfield immediately threw the dice, making a triple change with Teden Mengi, Reece Burke and John Bowler introduced.

The Town, however, received a lifeline with 32 minutes left on the clock when Montgomery was red-carded for a second bookable offence when hauling back Alli.

With a man extra for over half-an-hour, the Hatters pushed in a bid for leveller – but try as they might an equaliser proved elusive.

On 76 minutes, they came mighty close to finding one when Aasgaard slalomed beautifully past several Rovers players before crashing a shot off the underside of the crossbar.

It was an effort that deserved better but as time began to tick down, the visitors dropped deeper and the Town could not find a way through a sea of bodies.

Off target efforts flew frustratingly wide as nine minutes were added. McGuinness’ header dropped wide in the 94th minute before Alli saw a deflected effort come back off the face of the crossbar in the 99th minute.

Play continued for two more minutes but Mengi’s low shot was the final chance of the afternoon, and the Town were left to reflect on a disappointing afternoon.

With four games to go the gap to 21st place is three points. In 21st place are Derby. Where we go to on Good Friday. We’ll see you then.

Keep the faith.

Town: Kaminski; Jones (sub Burke) 56), Alli, McGuinness, Makosso (sub Mengi 56), Bell; Walsh (sub Nordås 73), Clark, Aasgaard, Chong (sub Bowler 56); Morris (sub Nelson 85)

Subs not used: Krul, Naismith, Nakamba, Fanne.

Attendance: 11,552, including 970 in the away end.

Turgid Hatters see their survival hopes suffer a massive blow with Rovers loss

Championship: Luton Town 0 Blackburn Rovers 1

Luton served up one of their worst performances of Matt Bloomfield's reign at just the wrong time as they suffered what could be one of the final nails in their Championship coffin when beaten 1-0 by a horrifically out of form Blackburn Rovers this afternoon.

With the Hatters on a five game unbeaten run themselves and the visitors, who had never triumphed during a league game at Kenilworth Road in their history, also having failed to win in their eight, this was the match where the Hatters were meant to seriously ignite their hopes of staying up with a comfortable victory.

However, no-one seemed to tell the players that was the case, as they turned in a display that was lacking in any real intensity, desire or belief, as their inability to score on home soil came back to bite them yet again, with 18 shots, but only three on target, visiting keeper Balazs Toth barely having to work for an easy clean sheet.

Town even had the luxury of playing the final 38 minutes against 10 men when Kristi Montgomery was sent off after picking up two quickfire yellow cards, but the numerical advantage didn't ever appear obvious in that time, Rovers holding on to the three points with a growing ease. Having made one change to the side who drew 1-1 with Stoke on Tuesday night, point-saving hero Milli Alli in for Alfie Doughty, whose season is officially over after his hamstring injury, it was Rovers who had the first real attempt, Yuki Ohashi with a neat step-over to bamboozle Amari'i Bell, but fire over.

Having impressed against Middlesbrough and Leeds in their last two home matches, the hope was that Town could replicate that kind of display when it mattered the most, but they just didn't, failing to create anything of note, until Thelo Aasgaard's low drive cannoned away off a visiting defender midway through. The frustrating nature of the contest continued, Alli unable to get going on the left hand side, with Tahith Chong struggling as well, as Luton's insistence to go long just isn't his game at all, meaning it was a fairly dismal spectacle for the home fans.

Town did finally threaten on 42 minutes, Jordan Clark whipping in a free kick that was met by Mark McGuinness who got too much on his header as it flew over. Alli then summed up his efforts in the opening period as found by Bell, with space to run into, he opted to shoot ambitiously from 30 yards, dragging tamely wide. After the break, Town then got off to the worst possible start as Ohashi was sent clean through by Ryan Hedges with 52 minutes gone, dinking over the advancing Thomas Kaminski, the home players and fans screaming for an offside flag that never came.

Town instantly made a triple substitution, Teden Mengi on for his first action since November 30, while Reece Burke and Josh Bowler replaced Christ Makosso, Izzy Jones and Chong. They were then given a significant helping hand on 58 minutes as a ball forward saw Montgomery, who had already been booked, tangled with Alli on the left and when the attacker went to ground, referee David Webb brandished a second caution which saw the teenager sent off on his full debut.

Clark put the resulting free kick over on the angle, as the already booked Lewis Travis then started a period of timewasting, feigning injury when Clark simply under-armed the ball back at him to take a throw, going down as if he had been shot, only for referee Webb let him off. The Hatters still couldn't open up the visitors' defence though, Bowler curling waywardly when some space opened up, something that was going to become a theme in the closing stages.

When they did get it right though, they unfortunately denied a leveller by the woodwork on 76 minutes, Aasgaard setting off on a superb run, drifting past three Rovers players as if they weren't there, unleashing a wonderful blast that beat Toth all ends up, but smashed against the underside of the bar and unfortunately bounced the wrong side of the line for the Hatters.

After his heroics from last week, Alli tried again to repeat the feat when played in on the angle, but alas on this occasion it was a terrible effort, slicing woefully into the Kenny End. Burke cut into in on his left foot, but having curled in a beauty against the same opposition a few years back, could only put this one straight at Balazs Toth, in what was at least finally a shot on target.

Alli then got it all wrong again, skewing wide, as did Aasgaard when he was found by a short corner routine. With nine minutes added, cheered more in faint hope than any kind of realistic expectation from the home support, the fourth of them saw Clark's corner glanced wide by McGuinness. Rovers might have added to their tally, when Tyrhys Dolan broke away on the right and went for goal rather than the corner flag, Kaminski repelling ungainly.

Town went on to dominate possession, but, as has been their main issues all season, were out of ideas when it came to the final third, Alli letting fly yet again, seeing his cross-shot take a nick which left Toth rooted to the spot, only to hit the face of the bar and bounce away. With 100 minutes showing, one final throw of the dice saw Luton push all 10 players into the box, as the ball dropped at the feet of Mengi, who had looked incredibly out of sorts once coming on, sidefooting tamely at the Rovers stopper.

Hatters: Thomas Kaminski, Christ Makosso (Teden Mengi 56), Mark McGuinness, Amari’i Bell, Izzy Jones (Reece Burke 56), Liam Walsh (Lasse Nordas 73), Jordan Clark, Thelo Aasgaard, Milli Alli, Tahith Chong (Josh Bowler 56), Carlton Morris (Zack Nelson 85).

Subs not used: Tim Krul, Kal Naismith, Marvelous Nakamba, Lamine Fanne.

Rovers: Balazs Toth, Yuri Ribeiro, Dominic Hyam, Sondre Tronstad, Todd Cantwell (Dion Sanderson 61), Tyrhys Dolan, Danny Batth, Ryan Hedges (Adam Forshaw 66), Yuki Ohashi (Makhtar Gueye 78), Lewis Travis ©, Kristi Montgomery.

Subs not used: Nick Michalski, Harry Pickering, Joe Rankin-Costello, John Buckley, Igor Tyjon, Amari Cozier-Duberry.

Referee: David Webb.

Booked: Travis 26, Montgomery 47, Dolan 67, Mengi 73, Toth 86.

Sent off: Montgomery 58.

Attendance: 11,552 (970 Rovers).

Bloomfield left 'bitterly disappointed' as Luton turned in a display to forget against Blackburn

Town slump to Rovers loss at Kenilworth Road

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield admitted he was left ‘bitterly disappointed’ by the Hatters’ dismal showing when seeing their hopes of staying in the Championship severely dented by a 1-0 defeat against 10-man Blackburn Rovers at Kenilworth Road this afternoon.

Going into the game, the expectation was that Town, who celebrated their 140th birthday in the week, would build on their five match run by taking all three points when taking on a side who hadn’t tasted victory in their last eight fixtures. However, a woeful first half in which Mark McGuinness put Luton’s best chance over the bar, was then followed by a below-par second period, the hosts falling behind on 52 minutes when Yuki Ohashi went clean through to beat Thomas Kaminski.

Rovers then saw Kristi Montgomery dismissed just before the hour mark for his second booking in quick succession, but Town couldn’t capitalise, the Hatters’ shooting very much more miss than hit, Thelo Aasgaard blasting against the underside of the bar, with Milli Alli’s cross-shot also deflecting off the woodwork, although the duo and Josh Bowler put wild efforts into the stands.

Late on, Reece Burke and Teden Mengi, who had replaced Izzy Jones and Christ Makosso, both shot straight at Balazs Toth, but on the manner of his side’s display, just when it mattered the most, a downbeat Bloomfield said: “I’m really bitterly disappointed and frustrated. It’s not the performance or the result that we wanted. We weren’t at our usual levels at what we’ve been recently. We’ve been on a good run, but today wasn't that and we’re bitterly disappointed with that.

“I felt it quite early on in the game, I felt we weren’t just quite at the same intensity that we’ve been at recently, so we’re going to have to go and look at that and to figure out the reasons why. It’s the same group of players who have been going game after game, so maybe that’s a contributing factor and maybe we’re going to have to consider that. It’s really, bitterly disappointing as we’ve been in a good spot and that’s not the performance we wanted or needed today.”

Having made one change for the clash, Alli in for the injured Alfie Doughty, Bloomfield had revealed there was a bout of illness at the club during his pre-match press conference, but on who that was and whether that had affected his side, the boss added: “Izzy’s been ill the last few days and he was touch and go, but felt a bit better this morning. We’ve lost Alfie as one wingback and we wanted Izzy to be okay as long as he was. It meant that we couldn’t keep him on for the whole game, as he didn’t have the right energy levels, he’s not eaten for a couple of days.

"I think the formation really, really suits us as we’ve had Alfie and Izzy going down either side, Milli’s done it particularly well Tuesday evening and had his moments again today, but we’re playing a formation to suit the players and ideally you would have those players available. It’s frustrating that Izzy hasn’t had the right preparation for the game today, but it was the decision we made and then in the second half we felt like we needed energy down the right hand side.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYgP3CH5fM – Matt Bloomfield post match interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NChFsnl26Y – match highlights