Edwards describes Town's away run as 'horrible' after Luton are beaten yet again

Luton manager Rob Edwards labelled his side’s woeful run of form away from Kenilworth Road as ‘horrible’ after they went down to their ninth successive defeat on the road when beaten 2-1 by Swansea City on Sunday.

The Hatters had given themselves a great chance of ending the sequence when taking a fifth minute lead through Carlton Morris’s sixth goal of the season, Town’s skipper taking advantage of an awful clearance by home keeper Laurence Vigouroux to volley into an empty net. However, as against Coventry City and Norwich City, Luton were unable to preserve their advantage, a dominant Swans restoring parity before the break when Goncalo Franco was on target after the visitors couldn’t clear their lines from a corner.

After the interval, Town did finally come into the game a bit more, but that threat then evaporated once Joe Johnson was sent off for his second booking with 22 minutes to go. Edwards’ side, with Mark McGuinness showcasing just why the Hatters forked out such a fee for him with a terrific individual defensive display, did try and cling on for a first point since mid-September when winning 1-0 at Millwall, before conceding in the first minute of stoppage time, Myles Peart-Harris allowed to speed in and nod past Thomas Kaminski.

It means that Luton’s record this season now stands at 10 defeats from 12 matches, claiming just four points out of possible 36, while it ends a calendar year that Edwards will most definitely want to forget, Town’s league record on their travels standing at 17 losses from 22 fixtures, taking just seven points from the 66 on offer. Speaking about the sequence, he said: “Look at the run, it’s horrible away from home.

"The run, the results, there’s no hiding from that, but the performances haven’t been bad, not all of them and especially not lately. The group are committed, they gave absolutely everything. It was a good performance. Swansea are really, really good and complicated in how they play, but especially in the second half we were the better team. The red card’s completely changed it. That’s it, we’ve lost the game, but performance-wise there was a lot of good things to take, I know people won’t care and won’t want to hear that.”

Luton’s goal when it came was clearly something the visitors had worked on, Morris perfectly positioned to make the most of Vigouroux’s attempted pass out from the back. It almost worked once more after the break though, Marvelous Nakamba winning the ball back inside the Swans’ area, although this time he chose the wrong option as the opportunity was frittered away, a frustrated Edwards hurling his water bottle in the dug-out.

The boss added: “We’ve scored a few, Norwich, Oxford, that one today from our pressing and our pressing is always really good. We’re one of the teams that has to defend the most long balls because of how aggressive we press and how hard we press, so it was a really good reward for that and a great way to start the game. We got a big moment where Marv won the ball back in their penalty area and Carlton was free. At that moment we just made the wrong decision and didn’t take that chance. It was a good opportunity that.”