Edwards labels back-to-back top flight wins as 'pretty big' for the Hatters

Luton boss Rob Edwards described getting back-to-back wins for the first time in the Premier League this season as a ‘pretty big’ achievement for his side.

The Hatters backed up their 1-0 success over Newcastle United on Saturday by beating relegation rivals Sheffield United 3-2 at Bramall Lane on Boxing Day to earn successive top flight victories for the first time since December 1991 when they defeated Coventry City and Arsenal, Town legend Mick Harford scoring both times in the 1-0 triumphs.

The results saw Luton jump from nine points to 15 as they now just trail Everton by a single point and more importantly closed the gap to a number of the teams above them, four points off Brentford in 14th and three away from Crystal Palace in 15th. Speaking afterwards, asked just what achieving the tally meant, Edwards said: “The obvious answer is more points and it brings us closer to where we want to try and be.

"But back-to-back and within four days we’ve got two thirds of the points that we already had, so it’s pretty big for us. Today let’s make no mistake about it, we all know it was a big game, an important game. They all are, but it was important and a very, very special way to do it in the end, one we will remember for a long time.”

Luton had controlled the early stages of the game, moving ahead through Alfie Doughty’s toepoke that went through the legs of keeper Wes Foderingham, the third game in a row that they have scored the first goal. Town had enough possession to make matters even more comfortable in the first period, but apart from Ross Barkley’s header that went narrowly over, didn’t really test the Blades stopper any further.

On not being able to make it 2-0, Edwards continued: “It makes your job a bit easier if you can get that two goal advantage, which I really do believe that we deserved with the way that we were playing, although there weren’t too many clear-cut chances that being said. We take the lead, knowing that they’re going to throw everything at us and maybe make some changes which they did.

"We’ve got to then be able to react off that, but getting that second goal is that next stage for us, the next step. We’re starting to get first goals, we’ve done that a few times recently which had proved a real challenge for us, but recently that’s started to happn.

"We’ve shown in games now we’ve been able to come back in any kind of adversity. We go down in a game and there’s a belief and a quality as well that we can create and score goals, so that’s really pleasing as well.”

From a position of control at the break, Luton then threw that away with some poor defending in eight second half minutes, as Oli McBurnie and Anel Ahmedhodzic took advantage of the visitors being unable to clear their lines to put the hosts 2-1 in front.

Having been so good against Newcastle recently, the ease at which they were breached was cause of frustration for Edwards, who said: “It’s hard to keep clean sheets in this league when teams are putting you under loads of pressure. I’ll look back at those and say there’s three or four things that we could have done better for both of them, no doubt about it. But what we did was we stuck our chests out and went and scored three and that makes me incredibly pleased.”

They did that despite not having a shot on target themselves after the hour mark when Andros Townsend fired at Foderingham from outside the box. It didn't matter though as sub Carlton Morris saw his cross deflected in by Jack Robinson on 77 minutes, another delivery from the forward then hitting Anis Slimane and looping over defender Max Lowe just four minutes later to ensure it was the Hatters who claimed the points.

On whether he had been involved in a game like that, Edwards added: “I don't think I have! I didn't know who scored, all I cared about was that they went in and they stood. That was due to good play, applying the pressure, putting the ball into dangerous areas, dangerous situations and forcing them into mistakes.”