Town chief salutes yet another fast start by his Hatters side at Coventry

Town boss Rob Edwards was happy to see his side start fast once more during their 1-1 draw at Coventry City on Saturday.

Tom Lockyer’s goal timed at just 38 seconds, the Welsh international reacting quickest to turn in Alfie Doughty’s right-wing cross, meant the Hatters netted inside the opening 15 minutes for the fifth time in their last seven matches.

Town then really should have added more in an impressive first period, as they got into some fantastic positions, but were just unable to find that killer final ball.

They were pegged back on the stroke of half time by Viktor Gyokeres’ penalty, but on that opener strike and first half display, Edwards said: “A lovely little finish wasn’t it.

“It was a great start, we’re pretty good at starting fast.

“We have tended to get first goals well and that was a really, really quick one.

“The only frustration for me and even going in a 1-1, if we’d have gone in at 1-0, I’d have probably been a bit frustrated, as I felt we deserved more.

“The chances and the areas we got into, we could have got a second or more, but we didn’t.

“I really want to build on that start, and going 1-0 up early doors, but I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the players.

"I thought the overall performance, coming away again was very, very good.”

During the opening 45 minutes, the Hatters increasing ability to play through an opponents’ press since Edwards took over was there for all to see once more, as they were happy to receive the ball under pressure and work it out to either flank.

It meant that both Doughty and Amari’i Bell were real livewires, with Town’s easy on the eye football a joy to behold at times, with the Luton chief continuing: “We’re a team that we want to try and have a good mixture to our game.

“We recognised at the very beginning, there’s so many good things that we’ve done here, that’s why the lads have been successful before us.

“We want to keep that fast, attacking game, we can go direct, we can hit the diagonals, but it would be good to have a little bit of control and speed the game up at the right moments as well.

“I thought we did that really well today.

“Those two (Bell and Doughty) performed really well, but we’ve got Cody (Drameh) and Fred (Onyedinma) and others as well in those positions.

“That’s going to be a big way for us to attack.

"We’re a team that can mix it, but when we get in those areas, those one v ones, we look very, very threatening.”

With Coventry down to 10 men for the final five minutes, Josh Wilson-Esbrand sent off for a second booking after taking out Fred Onyedinma, Town brought on deadline day signing Joe Taylor for his debut.

They couldn’t quite force a winner though, as Edwards added: “They saw the game out well, we tried to make an attacking change by getting Joe in behind, as Joe’s strength is getting behind defenders.

"We thought maybe we’ll find something and as soon as he came on there was a bit of a melee on the edge of the box and he was trying to get in behind, maybe get something off Carlton (Morris) and play Cauley (Woodrow) just behind them.

"So three forwards on, but we just couldn't quite find that big chance and rightly so, the way they’re going to defend and slow it down, as they made it difficult for us then.”