Luton Town 0-1 Blackburn Rovers: Hatters edge closer to drop as Yuki Ohashi snatches win

Blackburn piled the pressure on relegation-threatened Luton as they picked up a first league win at Kenilworth Road with a 1-0 success.

Yuki Ohashi's goal seven minutes after half-time was enough for the visitors to end their eight-match unbeaten run and ensure manager Valerien Ismael picked up his first win since taking over at Ewood Park.

The Hatters were unable to take advantage of Kristi Montgomery's 58th-minute red card as the end of their five-match unbeaten run and Derby's 2-2 draw at Portsmouth left them three points from safety with four games to go.

The visitors looked to make a strong start in Bedfordshire, as Ohashi tricked his way into a shooting position only to fire well over.

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Thelo Aasgaard's low drive was blocked in a poor first half and just before the break Luton had their best opportunity when Jordan Clark's free-kick saw Mark McGuinness head over from close range.

Blackburn were soon ahead after the interval.

Ohashi was played through the middle by Ryan Hedges and he kept his nerve to dink the ball over the advancing Thomas Kaminski.

The visitors were dealt a blow six minutes later as they were reduced to 10 men when Montgomery, on his full debut, was shown his second yellow in the space of 10 minutes for a foul on Millenic Alli.

Jordan Clark put the resulting free-kick over the top of Balazs Toth's goal.

Despite ringing the changes, Luton never really looked like equalising until Aasgaard drifted past three players and hammered against the underside of the bar.

Luton poured forward in the closing stages looking for a leveller.

Alli fired horribly over and Reece Burke curled too close to Toth, before both Alli and Aasgaard sliced wide from range.

During stoppage time, McGuinness got up to meet Clark's inswinging corner only to glance wide of the target.

Rovers might have sealed an even greater win when Tyrhys Dolan broke well on the right side but with Makhtar Gueye in a good position he went for goal and Kaminski saved.

Alli almost snatched a point when his hopeful cross-shot took a nick and somehow ended up hitting the crossbar with Toth rooted to the spot.

In the 100th minute, Luton had one last chance from a free-kick as they loaded the box and the ball dropped at the feet of Teden Mengi, but the former Manchester United defender's low shot was straight at the keeper.

The managers

Luton's Matt Bloomfield:

"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."

Blackburn's Valerien Ismael:

"First half we wanted to be really strong. We knew that we had to face the challenge here with a team fighting for surviving.

"They put a lot of balls into the box and we had to defend. We showed a lot of togetherness, a lot of support, in the transitions we didn't play well, but the main focus was to stay strong.

"When you look at the last weeks we concede always in the first half which didn't give us the chance to compete, so this was the first step we wanted to do in the game.

"After the red card it was another game, so another gameplan and it was about surviving in the game.

"The boys showed a lot of passion to defend, they wanted to win the game, a big desire.

"We were lucky for sure, you need that luck at some point, with two crossbars, but it doesn't change the performance of the boys.

"Today, to come away in Luton, to have a clean sheet, down to 10 men, to win 1-0, I think it's a massive reward for us as it's not been easy when you're not winning games."

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