Edwards believes Luton's 'shock' defeat to Sheffield United shows just how far the Hatters have come

Luton boss Rob Edwards insists it’s a measure of how far his side have come this season that their 3-1 Premier League defeat at home to Sheffield United on Saturday was considered a ‘shock’ result in some quarters.

Going into the contest between two sides plying their trade in the second tier last term, the visitors were on the back of a seven game winless streak, hammered 5-0 by Aston Villa in front of their own fans the previous week, sitting some 10 points adrift of the Hatters as they appeared rooted to the bottom of the table and destined for relegation. With Luton having won three from six, only been beaten once in that time, while putting four past both Brighton and Newcastle, the expectancy from those outside of Kenilworth Road was that Town would ease to the three points and put another nail in the Blades’ coffin.

However, it didn’t turn out that way, Chris Wilder’s side turning in an away day masterclass to take the victory and breathe life into their own efforts to remain in the top flight. Losing to a side who ended 11 points above them in the Championship last term when finishing second to Burnley, who had been in the Premier League just three seasons before, while spending £18m, almost all of Luton’s entire summer budget, on one player in striker Cameron Archer, was seen as an upset by a number of pundits.

One of them included former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher, who, writing for the Telegraph, said: “Such is their form, last weekend’s defeat to Sheffield United at Kenilworth Road was a shock, Luton unable to turn 73 per cent of possession into victory. Given they finished below their relegation rival in last year’s Championship, the fact the loss was unexpected underlines how much Luton have changed perceptions in a short period.”

When asked if he agreed that kind of reaction shows just how far the Hatters have come already, Edwards himself continued: “I think so, they finished above us last year, but from the 25 game period that we came in, we pretty much matched them for points. We have beaten them a couple of times as well, so we know we can mix it with them but maybe it shows how far we’ve come.

"It’s done now, we know we’re moving the right way and we know there's going to be some downs still and there will be still over the next 14, 15 games, but the important thing is to recognise the things we are doing well as well. We are improving, while brushing up on those other things, those other areas, so it shows how the lads have really grown and maybe how people’s view is slightly different now which is nice.

"But we know ourselves, it doesn't matter who you're playing against, it's really hard to win in this league, it is. You can get punished by anyone by making a couple of mistakes and if you're not ruthless at the top end ourselves it's always going to be a tough day and it proved to be the case last week.”

Although the defeat at the weekend saw Luton waste a brilliant opportunity to move further away from the bottom three, Edwards didn’t think there will be any kind of hangover from that performance when welcoming one of, if not the biggest club in world football to Kenilworth Road tomorrow, as Manchester United are in town.

He said: “It was a disappointing result, I thought the performance in general was good, we just lacked in the final third. We had a massive chance on 70 minutes to get back to 2-2 and I think if we score that we go on to win the game and everyone will be thinking what a great performance. But it’s fine moments, 90 seconds later it was 3-1 as we made a mistake and got punished and that was that.

"I don't think the performance was poor, we tried our best, we dominated the game, it’s hard to score against 11 people behind the ball when they’re slowing it down and it's their prerogative to do it. Credit to them and we just came unstuck in a couple of moments. It's pretty easy to pick the group up to play Manchester United, that’s not been a difficult challenge this week.

"In terms of the message you haven't got to really wind anyone up for this one, I don't think you have to for any Premier League game, I think everyone realises the importance of every game in this league.”

With Erik ten Hag’s side having vastly different ambitions to the Blades this term, looking to break back into the Champions League spots, having cut the gap to six points to Aston Villa after beating Unai Emery’s side last weekend, Edwards knows it will be a very different encounter in front of the Sky cameras on Sunday.

He added: “We might not come up against that again, that was the plan from the beginning, fair play and it worked. If we got the first goal it would have been different, it’s important we learn from that, focus on the next one, but I still see us in really, really good form. All right we lost the game, but deal with it and move on. We’re going to lose more, it’s just a fact, if we don’t, we’ve done something right.

"We’ve got to be able to deal with those downs and we’ve done that well this season. We knew there were going to be these moments and we’ve shown a lot of character to come back and perform well pretty consistently, so I’m confident the lads will do that this week.”