Edwards concedes Luton are not in a 'great moment' after United draw

A shell-shocked Luton are pegged back at Kenilworth Road by Sheffield United - pic: Alex Pantling/Getty ImagesA shell-shocked Luton are pegged back at Kenilworth Road by Sheffield United - pic: Alex Pantling/Getty Images
A shell-shocked Luton are pegged back at Kenilworth Road by Sheffield United - pic: Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Town let 2-0 lead slip against Oxford

Luton boss Rob Edwards conceded his side are not in a ‘great moment’ as they frittered away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 against Oxford United at Kenilworth Road this evening.

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The Hatters appeared to be on the path to a morale-boosting third win from four games, with Jordan Clark and Tom Krauß both finding the net inside 40 minutes. However, an easy on the eye visiting team then halved the deficit just before the break, Tyler Goodrham curling home a beautiful strike, while Ruben Rodrigues sidefooted beyond Thomas Kaminski early in the second period.

Town were thankful to Kaminski for ensuring they didn’t go under and suffer what would have been a massively damaging defeat, the Belgian making a stunning double save from Mark Harris, before Liam Walsh was sent off just 36 seconds after coming on for a rash challenge, as Edwards knew it was a match they should have won from such a position, saying: “I completely agree and I’m really, really frustrated now sitting here talking to you.

"It’s our own fault, clearly we’re not in a great moment, a lack of confidence and a bit of belief and the timing of their first goal obviously didn’t help. It’s never a great time to concede, but again that’s our doing. We probably just jumped the press at the wrong time, left too many gaps between units on the opposite side, it’s a great finish, but we gave him the opportunity.

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"We’re still winning the game at half time. There's no doubt about it, they had the mid-section of the game when they got the equalising goal and they had the momentum in the game and deserved it, I can’t argue with that. They made a couple of tweaks, a bit more double width and made it harder for us to get pressure on the ball with three midfielders, so we had to try and adjust that, and when we did, we went down to 10 men, so a difficult night.”

Asked just why Town were so off it during the second period, as they looked a shadow of the team who ran the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Manchester United so close last term, Edwards added: “It’s obviously frustrating, but it can happen in football. You have to give them credit, but I hold my hands up, we’re not in great form at the moment and it just knocked the lads’ confidence.

"They got a bit of control, the crowd are edgy at the moment and demanding more, and rightly so and it affected us. But what I was pleased with was when we went down to 10 men, we looked the better team, certainly better than we did in that second half with 11. So the lads stayed with it, showed some character and belief and actually could have nicked it with a header cleared off the line and some set-pieces.

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"We didn’t go under, it’s just not a great performance in the second half due to a lack of confidence and belief, a couple of changes from them that we had to react to. We had the start of the game, they certainly had the mid-section and we finished well with 10 men.”

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