Luton chief dished out a 'few reminders' to his Town side after lethargic first half display in Bolton stalemate

Luton boss Rob Edwards revealed he dished out a ‘few reminders’ to his players during the half-time interval of their FA Cup third round stalemate with Bolton Wanderers this afternoon following what he felt was a lethargic opening 45 minutes from the hosts.

The Hatters had initially made a bright start to the tie, Elijah Adebayo having an early shot charged down, but then Town struggled to assert their extra Premier League class on proceedings, as bar an Adebayo header that flew wide, two Ross Barkley shots that were easy for visiting keeper Nathan Baxter, plus Sambi Lokonga’s strike that just missed the bottom corner, they managed to create little in the way of clear-cut chances.

That changed after Edwards had his interval chat, as Luton spent the majority of the second 45 on the front foot, with a number of inviting opportunities coming their way, Carlton Morris’s header parried at point blank range by Baxter, who turned aside Andros Townsend’s bouncing effort from range as well. Barkley and Townsend also fired over, before Alfie Doughty rattled the post and saw his penalty appeals waved away late on, while some stoppage time miscommunication between Chiedozie Ogbene and Adebayo led to another comfortable stop for Baxter.

It means the two sides will go again in around 10 days time as discussing the performance, Edwards said: “We started the game, the first six or seven minutes very, very well and then we just dropped our intensity a bit in that first half. A few reminders at half time and I thought we upped it again. I thought there was a little bit of a lethargy in that first half, the message all week and what we wanted to try and do was play with the tempo and the intensity that we played in the second half against Chelsea.

"That was the idea, that was the plan, it didn’t quite pan out that way and Bolton deserve credit for that as well, as we’re still playing against 11 people who are trying to stop us doing what we’re doing as well. They had real energy and they were able to match it in that first half. I thought we’d broken it in that second half, we started on the front foot, started aggressively and the game was pretty much in their half, but we couldn’t find a way to get the ball over the line.

“The last action of game sort of summed it up as well, Cauley (Woodrow) goes up for a header, it drops down and Chieo and Eli almost leave it to each other and it’s maybe a bit of an open goal there. It wasn’t to be today, but the main thing is, I didn’t want to go out and I want us to progress, so we’re not out of the hat, not out of the draw. We’ve got to go and do it in a bit more of a difficult way and it will be a tough game at their place.”

The Luton chief had picked a side that gave Town every chance of ensuring they progressed at the first attempt, only making four changes from the 3-2 defeat to Chelsea, one of those coming in goal, Tim Krul replacing Thomas Kaminski for his third appearance of the season. Tahith Chong, Ogbene and Morris, who all finished the game against the Blues got starts, with Townsend, Jacob Brown and Issa Kabore dropping out, as Edwards continued: “I respect the competition hugely, it’s a competition I love and growing up watching it, I wanted us to progress in.

"I respect Bolton Wanderers and everything that Evo’s (Ian Evatt) done there and the job that they’re doing at the moment. I genuinely feel whatever team I picked is strong and capable of winning the game anyway, but I picked a team that I thought was good enough to win the game today.”

The game means that Town now see their Premier League trip to Burnley, which was due to take place on Monday, January 15, moved to this Friday, as they will face a trip to the Toughsheet Community Stadium next week instead. Although Trotters boss Evatt was understandably happy to get another crack at reaching the fourth round, Edwards was less enthusiastic, adding: “I’m disappointed that we’ve not managed to get the job done today, but the reality is we haven’t, we’ve got to go again, so we’ll concentrate on a different schedule now. We were going to be off tomorrow and have a bit more time to plan for Burnley, but now we’ve got Burnley on Friday night, so that’s just the reality and we’ve got to deal with it.”