Paul Heckingbottom wants officials watching one Luton Town man as Matt Bloomfield verdict given

You're preparing to face a team with a new manager... does it make it more difficult?

“Well, the obvious answer in terms of preparation is yes, because Luton are in a bad run of form in terms of results,” said Heckingbottom to BBC Lancashire. “With that comes a lack of confidence, whatever you want to call it - and a different atmosphere at the ground. The club have made that decision to change manager and they’ve got a new manager in, so the atmosphere at the ground is going to be lifted straight away.

“In terms of preparation, I don't know what Matt's thinking. He may have his idea on their squad and it's totally different to Rob's. He may want to come and try and implement what he did at Wycombe. So there's two different approaches there straight away. Then it's better to just focus on yourself, so that's what we'll be doing before this weekend.”

Have they surprised you a little bit this season?

“They were one of my favourites to go up, definitely,” said Heckingbottom to BBC Lancashire. “I expected them to be up there. Sometimes it's strange; you can't quite put your finger on it. I think the form at the start of the season, even though the results weren't great, the way they played was actually very good. I think statistically they probably stacked up pretty well as well. But then lack of confidence, you start making changes to try and chase a result.

“All of a sudden you can get lost and it becomes harder and harder. That seems to be what's happened with Luton. But squad-wise, personnel-wise, they've got a lot of players that people were speaking really well about in the Premier League. We have to prepare for the best version of Luton... the one where the players have had their kick up the backside for getting a manager sacked. Now they've got a new one who they're trying to impress, so we have to prepare for that version.”

Do you have any thoughts on Matt Bloomfield going in there?

“Yeah, so I’d seen a bit of them (Wycombe),” said Heckingbottom. “I don't know if that's Matt's style and that's how he wants to play... the shape. I've only really seen them this season, Wycombe, so that's what I mean. He may want to play that way, but then go into Luton and think ‘This squad suits this way of playing and I’m quite comfortable playing that way as well.’ So I don't know. It is pointless trying to second guess everything. We'll just focus on us.”

Does Isaiah Jones signing from Boro give them something new?

“Yeah, yeah, and the refs need to be aware of him going down at every opportunity as well, in and around the box,” said Heckingbottom. “That's not changed from when I saw him the other day at Forest. But yeah, it shows the squad that they have got and their ability to go and get some top talent out of the Championship. He's been really effective for Middlesbrough in the past. Really direct; can be a problem in the final third. He sort of lost his place or lost a lot of game time at Boro since Michael's gone in there. I think he'll be delighted with the move and yeah, Luton have got a good player.”

It’s an away game... you obviously made your feelings known after West Brom. Are you just looking to go and compete and do all of the stuff that was missing there?

“You've got to do that in every game but yeah, the moments I've been disappointed with and the halves of football have been away from home,” said Heckingbottom. “I don't want any moments that are like that. I can accept losing but sometimes I’ve just thought: ‘No, I don't want to watch a team perform that way’ - and they've generally been away from home. So, yeah, if we want to improve in the long term, climb a leaf and make sure we're a consistent team results-wise, and can pick up points when we’re not at our best, it's something that I want to make sure I don't see too often.”