Edwards admits he doesn't 'care' about claims Luton only beat an understrength Boro side

Luton boss Rob Edwards admitted he didn’t ‘care’ if there were any detractors about his side’s 2-1 win over what was a much-changed Middlesbrough team on Monday night.

Following the third placed hosts claiming all three points against their fourth placed opponents thanks to goals from Tom Lockyer and Carlton Morris from the penalty spot, a number of Boro supporters on social media declared the result was only achieved due to the amount of changes that manager Michael Carrick made, declaring they would easily win any possible play-off final at Wembley next month.

Although striker Chuba Akpom, with 28 goals this term, didn’t make an appearance from the bench, with Hayden Hackney also an unused substitute, while Paddy McNair missing out as well, the visitors still had Cameron Archer, Matt Crooks, Jonny Howson and the highly-rated Isaiah Jones out there on the Kenilworth Road surface.

Luton decided to make their changes during the game, withdrawing Carlton Morris, Elijah Adebayo, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Alfie Doughty and Allan Campbell in the second period, as they finished the match with 17-year-old Joe Johnson on for his first team debut.

Speaking about any comments made regarding the result, Edwards said: “I don’t know what was said as I don’t see any of that sort of stuff.

"I said that in my press afterwards, I realised that they made some changes and they’ve got some injuries, but you can only beat what’s in front of you and we’ve got a few people out as well.

"I don’t know what was said, I don’t really care to be honest, we’ll try and look after our own stuff, that’s it.

“Against a really good team like Middlesbrough when they’ve got very good individual players, they’re well coached so they’re a good team.

"They can ask certain questions of you with the ball, so you’ve got to be really good without it, and I thought large aspects of it we were.

"Like I said after the game, we can be a lot better than that with and without the ball, so we’ve reviewed it and we’ve gone through a few things with the players as well.

"We can still do a bit more over the next couple of days, as we’ll need to get better than that, but it’s good to win a game of football when you’re not at your best.”

With Campbell going off early on in the second period, Jordan Clark taking his place, the midfielder releasing Morris to go through and win a penalty that saw him make it 2-1, Edwards continued: “I think Al’s been really consistent, he’s played and been in now for a good run of games, he gives absolutely everything all the time.

"He was probably someone that we weren’t necessarily planning on taking off, but he had a whack and we wanted to get Clicker the minutes as well, but he’s fine, Al’s in a good place.”

The goal that Luton conceded saw a long pass from Crooks beat centre half Sonny Bradley, before keeper Ethan Horvath missed his kick when trying to clear ahead of Cameron Archer, the forward able to eventually just walk the ball into the net.

It was the first time Town had been breached from open play since the offside goal that was allowed to stand for Millwall in their 2-2 draw back on February 28, as when asked if the USA international was left frustrated with his efforts, Edwards added: “I think we all are from front to back.

"Every goal you concede can be stopped and I want to apologise to everyone because we conceded a goal from open play.

“We’ve all got to have a look at ourselves, it was really disappointing.

"It was going to happen at some stage.

“There were bits we could’ve changed from the top of the page.

"We may have been able to lock it down quicker, to recovery runs, to starting positions and all sorts of stuff.

“I don’t think there’s that much that Ethan could’ve done at that stage.

"We could’ve been better and stop it getting to that point.”