Edwards 'pretty close' to knowing what Luton XI he will pick to face Sunderland

​Hatters boss Rob Edwards admitted he is ‘pretty close’ to knowing just what side he will select to run out at the Stadium of Light for Luton in their Championship play-off semi-final first leg on Saturday

​The Town chief made eight changes to his team for Monday’s goalless draw against Hull City, resting Carlton Morris, Elijah Adebayo, Marvelous Nakamba, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Cody Drameh, Tom Lockyer, Amari’i Bell and Ethan Horvath.

With all eight no doubt coming straight back in for the trip to Wearside, and Alfie Doughty expected to start, it only leaves Edwards with two choices to make, who plays in the back three alongside Lockyer and Bell, plus who goes into midfield with Mpanzu and Nakamba.

Gabe Osho, Reece Burke, Sonny Bradley and Dan Potts are all fit to choose in defence, with Jordan Clark, Luke Berry and Allan Campbell also available in the middle of the park.

Asked if he knew what XI he would pick, Edwards said: “I’m pretty close to knowing whereabouts we need to be.

"There might have been one or two positions depending on the opposition and who we’re going to face.

"There’s one or two that might suit away at Sunderland more so than Millwall for instance, so now we know who we’ve got, we can prepare and we’ll get that team right."

Luton won’t face any surprises when they head to the Black Cats, having drawn 1-1 with Tony Mowbray’s side back in March.

That day the visitors had been leading through Doughty’s goal, only to then concede the softest penalty, Amad Diallo throwing himself to the floor under minimal contact from Amari’i Bell.

Edwards believes that game will benefit both teams, as he continued: "I think so, we’ll have both taken a look at each other then, so we’ll definitely be able to look back at that game, as well as some more of their recent ones.

"They’re good going forward, they are risk free, they’ll go for it and look to attack.

"We’re going to have to make sure we defend well and then try and take the most of any chances that we can.

"We knew it was going to be difficult, a big, big stadium, big football club.

"Tony’s done really well, lots of good individual players.

"We want to make sure that we’re well in the tie coming back here on Tuesday.”

With Luton having assured their place in the top six last month, and having to play their last few matches with little significance placed on them, Edwards is looking forward to getting back to the serious nature of trying to reach the Premier League once more.

He added: “It's really good, really exciting, it's been a bit of a long time coming for us.

"We’ve known for a few weeks that we were going to be in the play-offs, we didn’t know who we were going to face.

"Now we know, we’ve been able to have a good week’s preparation and we’re really looking forward to the game.

“Some of our lads have experienced the play-offs before, it’s hard, I don’t want to talk about the final yet as we’ve still got such a big job to do and we know how difficult a task it’s going to be, Sunderland over two legs.

"It’s good to have some experience of it, I’ve been a part of it before and it was an amazing experience to be part of a success.

"It’s almost the best way to do it, through the play-offs, when you win, but obviously there’s three other teams that are going to be desperate to do it as well.

"You do need people for a big occasion, you need character and you need to be able to be resilient in these games.”