Matt Bloomfield’s Luton Town scored three times in the second-half to beat Bristol City 3-1 at Kenilworth RoadMatt Bloomfield and Luton Town beat Bristol City at Kenilworth Road(Image: Photo by Paul Harding/Getty Images)

Luton Town boss Matt Bloomfield believes both Liam Manning and Chris Hogg have done a “great job” in their time at Bristol City, pointing to the fact the Robins have a “chance of being in the Premier League in a couple of months” despite their 3-1 defeat at Kenilworth Road.

The Reds’ four-match unbeaten run came to an end against the Hatters on Easter Monday, with second-half goals from Thelo Aasgaard, Carlton Morris and Isaiah Jones ensuring George Tanner’s spectacular volley was little more than a consolation.

Aasgaard gave the home side the lead just minutes into the second half when he curled past Max O’Leary from the edge of the box. Although Tanner pulled City level with his second of the season just three minutes later, Morris had restored Luton’s lead before the hour mark when he turned home from close range. Although the Robins had chances of their own to score a second, Jones ensured all three points would remain in Bedfordshire when he smashed into the net with just under 20 minutes to play.

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In the end, Bloomfield’s side managed to hold fairly comfortably though they did have one or two scares late on as the Reds flung bodies forward in the hope of snatching a point. While the Hatters boss felt his side made the closing exchanges more tense than they needed to be, he was quick to credit City, Manning and his coaching staff after the full-time whistle.

“A couple of loose moments from us. I think we jumped to press a couple of times when I thought we could have just sat in our block a little bit and been a little bit harder, but Bristol [City] are a good team, right?” he said in his post-match press conference.

“They’ve got a chance of being in the Premier League in a couple of months so Liam and Hoggy are two guys I’ve known for many, many years. They’ve done a great job down in Bristol so we can’t underestimate the fact that we had a real tough game today.

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“We’re really pleased and proud to come out on the right side of the result.”

Although Manning felt his side slipped below their recent standards as a collective in their defeat on Monday, the City head coach did believe he and his players were on the end of a “shocker” of a refereeing decision late in the contest. With around 10 minutes to play, substitute Sinclair Armstrong broke beyond the Hatters’ defence and as he entered the penalty area, he was seemingly hauled to the ground by Teden Mengi before he could test Tomas Kaminski with a shot.

Despite the protests of both the City players and the Reds supporters in the away end, referee John Busby was unmoved and waved play on, much to the frustration of those in cream and red. While Bloomfield was quick to confess he hadn’t had a chance to view the incident again following the full-time whistle, he also felt his side had seen two reasonable penalty shouts turned down by the officials.

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“I think there were probably three penalty claims today of which none were given,” the Luton head coach responded when asked if his heart was in his mouth following Mengi’s late challenge. “We had one for handball in the first half, the one where Milli had his head punched off just before Thelo scores and that one at the end.

“They’re probably three incidents and I haven’t had a chance to watch them back yet.”

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