Defiant Edwards insists he won't be 'stepping away' from Luton job
Hatters chief determined to turn things around at Kenilworth Road
A defiant Hatters boss Rob Edwards has vowed that he will not be ‘stepping away’ from his job despite coming under increased pressure during the 1-0 defeat against Norwich City this afternoon.
The Luton chief’s continuing uneasy relationship with supporters took another turn for the worse once Marcelino Nunez broke the deadlock with 17 minutes remaining at Kenilworth Road, boos instantly ringing out from those in attendance. With the late timing of his substitutions also sarcastically applauded, the quadruple change eventually made in the 84th minute, and some even joining in with the Canaries’ away faithful chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’, the atmosphere became somewhat toxic after the full time whistle, Edwards jeered from all stands during his lap of appreciation.
Having stated following the 5-1 loss at Middlesbrough in early November that he didn’t want to be a divisive figure at the club, asked afterwards if the reaction received made him question his position, Edwards said: “I don't consider my future, I’m in the position where I'm not stepping away from this, I'm not walking away at all.
“It makes me want to work really hard and turn this around. As well as I want to do well for this football club I've got a family to provide for, I want to work, I want to work hard to achieve something. We're in a difficult patch, we are, but let’s work through it. It's difficult of course it is, it's not nice. I'm a human being so you go round and we've always had such a good rapport with the supporters.
"I understand their frustrations because of where we are and we're losing games, I understand, I know what football’s about. It's difficult. I’ll always go round and say thank you. It's difficult to then go and say thank you when you're getting hammered as well so it's tough but all we can do is keep working hard.”
It wasn’t just Edwards who incurred the wrath of Luton’s clearly aggrieved supporters after the game, with a number of fans reserving some fairly vocal criticism for the club’s board, including chief executive Gary Sweet and chairman David Wilkinson, calling for the pair to make a change in the dug-out. Asked whether he had any chats with his CEO, the boss continued: “I haven’t yet, but we’ll see. I will speak to Gary, he’ll be in the office in a little bit.
“As far as I know (he’s still in charge), unless you know anything different. I can’t really comment on anything else. I obviously don’t make those kinds of decisions. For a long, long time, we’ve been great for each other, for the football club and obviously achieved some amazing successes here. It’s difficult right now, but all the conversations I’ve had with Gary and the board are about turning this around, supporting us in January, and turning this around.
"They won’t want the stadium like that at the end of the game, but we all understand why, because we lost. I’m realistic. I know the situation. I don’t fear that (the sack). I just keep my head down, keep working hard and whatever will be, will be.”
Although Luton had shaded the second part of the first half and were in the ascendancy after the break, Tahith Chong firing against the underside of the bar, Elijah Adebayo heading over and Carlton Morris not getting his shot away. Despite that, the crowd turned the second that Nunez was allowed far too much time and space to send his low shot beyond Thomas Kaminski and into the bottom corner.
Questioned if it was tough to hear such an instant response despite his team looking the more likely to triumph at that stage, Edwards added: “It’s always disappointing, but I understand it. They can see that we were pushing and they stayed with the lads all throughout the game and that's the most important thing, but when we're getting the results we are, I wasn't too surprised with the reaction at the end. Some of them are with us and applauding as I'm going around, but there's a lot of anger there as well. Football’s a results business and at the moment we’re not getting them.”