Luton boss thought his players struggled to cope with the expectancy of getting points against Brentford

Town chief Rob Edwards felt there had been too much pressure placed on his side both internally and externally going into last weekend’s 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Brentford at Kenilworth Road.

Having navigated their way through a four game period that saw Luton visit three of the top six teams in Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester City, hopes were high that if Town were still in the fight to stay up afterwards, they could really take advantage of their final five fixtures that looked, on paper anyway, far kinder, hosting the Bees, Everton and Fulham, with trips to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham.

With that being the case, those aspirations were quickly and rather brutally dashed though at the first attempt, Thomas Frank’s side handing out a walloping on home soil, as they condemned Town to their worst home defeat of the season. The most baffling thing for those in attendance was that it came when Luton had their strongest XI out for a good number of weeks, Gabe Osho, Teden Mengi and Sambi Lokonga all back, but they couldn’t prevent the Hatters looking a shadow of the team who had pushed all of the big sides so close on home soil, only losing by more than one goal in front of their own fans just once previously.

Speaking at his press conference yesterday, Edwards felt that too much had been put on the outcome of the match by everyone, rather than how to actually achieve it, as he said: “I think after coming out of Tottenham away, Arsenal away, Bournemouth in between Man City away, it was almost like from you guys the media and from us too much in there, everyone’s talking about last five games, last five games, now we’ve got to get the points.

"I think it was a combination of a few things, when it started going against us last week it was probably the first time we’ve struggled to cope. It was almost like we all felt, we’re supposed to be getting something from this and Brentford are pretty good. We didn’t cope very well mentally and it affected our performance. So the big message this week, we’ve gone through a few of the bits we got wrong, but it’s back to our performance levels. We can’t control the win, I think too much has been made of right, we’ve got to win, we’ve got to win. The win will be a product of our performance and playing to our principles, so we’ve gone back to that.

"I think we always train that way, but that’s been the message from me as well. We can’t control anything else externally, other teams, but we can control our performance levels, what we do and that will give us the best chance of then getting the points. That’s been the big message this week. I’ve got to focus on performances and that’s what we’ve got to do in-house. That was good for me in a way last week just to realign our focus, this is what’s important to us, this is how we’re going to do it, not just doing it.”

Having seen his players at close quarters at the Brache since, Edwards is confident they have already put the manner of the performance behind them as they have another massive contest this afternoon, a win at Molineux taking them out of the bottom three once more. He continued: “We’ve all taken that responsibility, there’s been a good reaction from the group.

“It's been some reminders of this is what we do, these are our principles, this is what we need to do to perform well. If we don't play well, we’re not going to win. I don't think we’ve had an occasion this year where we’ve won and we're not played well. We’ve had a lot of occasions where we’ve played well and lost, so we know we need a performance to get points in games, that's where we’re going to start, our performance levels and that’s been our biggest focus.

"Speaking to some of the senior players, they say the right things, but then they’ve gone and delivered it in training as well. It was one game and it’s been one game in 34. We’ve lost a lot of games this year but we’ve lost them playing very well and being close. It’s the first time we’ve been knocked down in a game and weren't able to get up, weren’t able to finish strongly.

"Mentally it affected us, we were just a little bit rocked by it. It affected our passing, it affected our running, our duels, and that’s been the first time that’s happened this season. We put that to bed, we start concentrating on what we can affect, the lads have trained very well this week and there's been a brilliant reaction. You can never question that with our players, it was just frustrating it happened at this stage of the season, but it happened, we’ve got to deal with it.

“We expect a good reaction. I can’t guarantee a win, but we can focus on how hard we run, how hard we compete, and how much we commit to trying to play our way and hopefully if we do those things well it gives us an opportunity.”

Although most will have written off the Hatters’ survival hopes, or getting anything this afternoon, having seen them win just once in their last 13 fixtures, shipping 10 goals in two matches as well, Edwards is confident the belief remains within Kenilworth Road, adding: “Maybe from outside, but inside we expect a lot, we’ve got high standards.

"I want to see a reaction, I want to see a really good performance. We’re not very often the favourites in any of the games, not much expectation from outside, but I’ve got a high expectation level in our performance and for what I‘m looking for and I’m pretty sure we’ll see that. That doesn’t guarantee us the win, I’m sure Wolves will want to put on a performance after they’ve been on a difficult run as well. It’s been challenging for them as well, so both teams will be wanting to try and get the result.”