Onyedinma is optimistic Luton can end 10-game winless run against Bournemouth

Town attacker Fred Onyedinma is confident his side can pick up what would be a massive three points in their battle to stay up this season when they entertain in-form AFC Bournemouth at Kenilworth Road today.

The last time the two sides met, just over three weeks ago, the Hatters blew a 3-0 half time lead to lose 4-3 at the Vitality Stadium, as Rob Edwards’ visitors were blown away by the Cherries second half comeback. Having found the net three times in the opening 45 minutes, Town weren’t without their chances during that crazy second period either, Tahith Chong having a goal ruled out for a narrow offside, with Ross Barkley missing from a matter of yards too.

That has given Onyedinma and his team-mates some real optimism going into this afternoon’s fixture, as they look to end a run of 10 matches without a win, since beating Brighton 4-0 back in January. He said: “I was watching that, we were three-nil up, so it was quite disappointing, but as you can see, the good thing is we scored three goals. Hopefully at home with the fans behind us, I feel like it could be a very good game.

“The boys will always have confidence, even when we were in the Championship, no-one before would have thought we’d get promoted. Then we beat the odds going step by step by step, so the togetherness of the squad is always good. Regardless of any team the manager puts out there, you know we’re going to give it our all, so I feel like the boys are always together and you’ll see it to the end.”

The 27-year-old could have only dreamt about being on the pitch that evening on the south coast, as he wasn’t even part of the Town squad then, facing an end to the season without any football after a loan move away failed to materialise in January due to injury. However, a remarkable turnaround in his fortunes saw Onyedinma take the final place in Luton’s 25-man squad just over week ago, with Tom Lockyer ruled out for the rest of the campaign, going on to make his Premier League debut at Spurs last Saturday and then earn his first ever top flight start in the midweek 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.

Having now played played around 90 minutes of football in England’s top division, he will have to adapt quickly to a level he has never experienced before last weekend, but on how he has found it based on his two trips to north London, the former Millwall winger said: “It’s good, it’s what you expect it to be. You get punished if you make any sort of mistake, but physically, for me I’m quite a physical player, you can see the intensity as well, that’s what you notice, the intensity and the transitions as well.

“I was trying to do what I can. It’s not going to be easy as they’re (Arsenal) going to have the majority of the ball, but any time I see space, I’m going to attack it, so I’ll try to do that. It was bittersweet as it was good to make my debut, but it’s not the greatest result. I still appreciated and enjoyed every moment of it though.”

Luton still managed to make their wonderful travelling supporters proud at the Emirates as after conceding a second on the stroke of half time, there were fears that the Gunners would go through the gears from there, with goal difference a possible factor in the destination of the Premier League title this term. However, it was Luton who were the stronger of the two sides in that second 45 minute though, going close to a consolation through Luke Berry and Ross Barkley.

Onyedinma added: “I feel like in the second half, we came on more, we had a bit of the ball and you could see we got ourselves into positions. We maybe didn’t have the end product, but coming here as well, second half we showed that we’re a good side. What I’ll credit the boys is we don’t come to games, thinking we’re just going to settle. We try to win the game and when you try, things like that can happen. It’s very disappointing, but credit to the boys I feel like we worked hard, sometimes you need a bit of luck, but hopefully we can get the win on Saturday.”