Edwards left disappointed as he felt it could have been Luton's day against Premier League champions

Luton boss Rob Edwards was left frustrated by Town’s 2-1 defeat against Premier League champions Manchester City this afternoon after admitting feeling that it could have been his side’s day.

The Hatters and their fans looked to have got over their manner of their cruel 4-3 defeat to Arsenal in midweek as they started positively against Pep Guardiola’s side, a wonderful noise echoing round Kenilworth Road, the hosts keeping out their high-class opponents in the first period, Thomas Kaminski making a terrific save from Phil Foden.

Luton then managed to take the lead on the stroke of half time, Elijah Adebayo scoring a fine towering header at the back post from Andros Townsend’s pinpoint cross, meaning they were just 45 minutes away from a shock victory.

They managed to negotiate a third of them, but Bernardo Silva’s excellent finish into the bottom corner restored parity on 62 minutes, as Jack Grealish took advantage of a mistake by Teden Mengi to put the visitors in front moments afterwards.

Luton pushed for an equaliser in the closing stages, but weren’t able to break through a solid City defence, as summing up his feelings, Edwards said: “Proud of them but I am disappointed as well today. I felt like it was there for us today, I had a really good feeling going into the game.

"Complete respect for Manchester City and what they are and who they are, credit to them for winning the game, but I just felt it, and the time of the goal just before half time, felt this could be our day. We’re disappointed with the goals we conceded, but we look at that and we’ve got to keep working on that and improving.

"I thought we were so brave, without the ball being as aggressive as we were against a top team like that. There were a lot of problems for them to solve, which they’re capable of doing, but then with the ball again, really brave and showed a lot of quality as well.

“The goal was a really good example of that, we tried to take the ball when we could, as we knew we couldn’t just give the ball back to Manchester City otherwise you die a slow death. Everything about my team today, I really, really liked.”

Luton’s chances were boosted ahead of kick-off with City without both Erling Haaland and Jeremyu Doku, the pair both ruled out with injuries.

Whether that altered his gameplan, Edwards added: “I think he’s clearly one of the best strikers in the world isn’t he, so it probably makes them a little bit of a different team, a different challenge. But again, world class players that are coming on his place, so they were still pretty good weren’t they?”