Hatters chief still confident Luton can achieve 'something really, really special'

Luton boss Rob Edwards is remaining confident his side can achieve ‘something really, really special’ this year and retain their Premier League status come May.

The Hatters went down to a third straight defeat this afternoon, losing 2-1 to title-chasing Manchester City, as despite taking the lead through Elijah Adebayo’s fourth goal of the season, conceded twice in the second period, Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish on target to seal the victory.

It meant that Town remained in the relegation zone, as they are now four points adrift of Everton, the Toffees beating Chelsea 2-0, while they are five points away from Nottingham Forest, who drew 1-1 at Wolves yesterday, and seven behind Crystal Palace, the Eagles defeated 2-1 by Liverpool.

Although almost half the season is gone, Town still have four games to play before the turn of the year, travelling to AFC Bournemouth and Sheffield United, while hosting Newcastle United and Chelsea, which could give the table a completely different slant when 2024 begins.

Despite a gap opening up to those above them, Edwards still had the belief that he could still lead Luton to safety, saying: “My job is to concentrate on performances, unfortunately we can't control the wins, the draws, the losses, if I could I'd be a very wealthy man I'd be selling that. The thing that keeps me up at night, my main concern is the performance of the team and if we continue to perform the way we have this week then we can achieve something really, really special this year.

“We know how tough this is going to be, we know the fight that we’re in, but I like the way the team’s going. I love the spirit of the team, I love how hard they’re working for the football club, for each other, but I love the quality that they’re showing as well.

"I think maybe we’re starting to change the narrative about Luton Town Football Club, but that being said, ultimately I know we need to pick up the points.”

Town had a great opportunity to do that this afternoon as with an hour of the fixture gone, they were 1-0 to the good against Pep Guardiola’s side. However, as against Arsenal in the 4-3 midweek defeat, they couldn’t hold on, as once Silva equalised, within three minutes Grealish had made it 2-1, capitalising on some poor defending that saw Amari’i Bell give the ball away and then Teden Mengi fail to clear at the back post.

Edwards continued: “Goals are things that change games, we limited them to fairly little big chances today and that’s a credit to the players, First goal the finish is brilliant, I’m not even sure that’s a big chance really, really well taken by an excellent footballer. For them to get that second one so quickly, it probably just knocked the stuffing out of us, knocked the wind out of us for a little bit.

"But I thought we regained our composure, grew into the game again and we were the team that were really pressing towards the end. Which again after such a hard week physically and mentally, the players deserve a lot of credit for that.”

Luton could take plenty of plaudits once more from the manner in which they performed against the Champions League winners and Premier League champions, as they have now only lost by a single goal to four of the top six sides this term.

It still led to a bitterly disappointed group of players afterwards, Edwards adding: “In the cold light of day, the lads will be able to reflect and be proud of themselves, take confidence and belief from it. But like we were in midweek against Arsenal, we’re flat and we’re down because we challenged them.

"We go into every game believing we can get something from the game, we really do and we have to, if we don’t then we’re going to be struggling. The players picked themselves up after the Arsenal game, recovered well, trained well, take on the messages.

"We then have a different proposition in Manchester City and they're able to implement another gameplan. I’m so proud of the lads and they will take a lot of confidence and belief from that, but they’re hurting right now.”