Hashioka on the bench as Town make three changes for FA Cup with Edwards declaring Premier League is the 'priority'

Luton boss Rob Edwards has made three changes for this evening’s FA Cup fifth round tie with Manchester City at Kenilworth Road.

The Hatters have brought in goalkeeper Tim Krul to replace Thomas Kaminski as expected, with Reece Burke and Jordan Clark replacing Gabe Osho and Sambi Lokonga from the team who lost 4-1 at Liverpool on Wednesday night. On the bench is Japanese international Daiki Hashioka for the first time since he joined in January, who has been joined by youngsters Joe Johnson, Zack Nelson and Axel Piesold.

The visitors have included all of their big hitters, with Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish all starting. Although a place in the quarter-finals is at stake, with the Hatters having a massive Premier League game against top four contenders Aston Villa on Saturday, the first of their final 13 matches of the season, which will decide whether they stay in the top flight or not, asked whether progressing in the cup is second to a cup run, Edwards said: “I think it’s (FA Cup) probably always played second fiddle to whatever you’re competition you’re in, so I don’t think it’s changed in that respect, it just has, I think everyone would accept that.

“I think everyone would love to win the league title, or get promoted, or stay in the league, but I recognise that silverware is very special and we’re at a football club where we haven’t had loads of it in the past. I know it would be amazing to go very far into competition, but we always have to recognise the situation of the squad at the moment, is what it is, we’ve got 13 huge league games to go as well, don't get me wrong, we’re going to go all out to try and win the game,

"It’s an amazing competition, historic, one that I think everyone values and everyone would love to go as deep into the competition as possible. We’ve got probably as difficult a game as you could get at the moment, so we know it’s going to be a challenge to progress but we’re looking forward to that challenge.”

On the clear and obvious test that City, who go into the game as holders and fighting for the Premier League title once more this term, will bring, after watching them close hand recently, Edwards added: “They know how good Kevin De Bruyne is and how good Phil Foden is receiving the ball between the lines, how good (Jeremy) Doku’s one v ones are, how ruthless Haaland is and the movement he likes to make. So they’re aware of it, there’s obviously more detail behind that we can go into and we have done.

“They’re brilliant, it was really unique and good to watch the game against Bournemouth the other day as there’s similarities to what Bournemouth do and what we do, so it was fascinating to see how they went about it City. There were some really interesting performances and really good things going on in the game.

"They did create some very, very good chances that they didn’t take, Bournemouth came on strong, they kept going right until the end and did well, especially in the latter stages of the game, when City hadn’t necessarily put it to bed. We went to watch the Brentford game live and Brentford were different to what Bournemouth did on the night. City had loads and loads of control, had to be wary of the counter attack, it just took a little bit of time to find that all important goal.

"They’ve won a couple of games 1-0, but they’ve kept clean sheets, not conceded too many chances at all, they've dominated large spells of the game which is what City do and they could have scored more than just the two goals they had. I know because Arsenal are scoring more goals at the moment, then people might be talking about the goals that they’ve got, but City are unbelievable.

“They’ve got goals from everywhere and the game at Kenilworth Road was tight in scoreline, we gave it absolutely everything and we went 1-0 up, but they were very, very good that day. I think they’re the best team to come to Kenilworth Road this season, it was a hard game that for us and I’d like to think we’ve improved and we’re better since then and I think we are.

"So we’re really looking forward to seeing how we’ve fared this time, but just because they’ve only scored a couple of goals in their last few games, it doesn’t mean they haven’t got a five or six in their locker in the next game, so we’ve got to make sure that we’re absolutely at it.”

Hatters: Tim Krul, Chiedozie Ogbene, Teden Mengi, Reece Burke, Amari'i Bell, Alfie Doughty, Ross Barkley, Jordan Clark, Tahith Chong, Cauley Woodrow, Carlton Morris (C). Subs: James Shea, Zack Nelson, Luke Berry, Andros Townsend, Axel Piesold, Joe Johnson, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Daiki Hashioka.

City: Stefan Ortega, Kyle Walker (C), John Stones, Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Manuel Akanji, Matheus Nunes. Subs: Ederson, Ruben Dias, Jeremy Doku, Rodri, Julian Alvarez, Sergio Gomez, Phil Foden, Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis. Referee: Anthony Taylor.

Booked: Doughty, Woodro