Edwards felt Japanese international did well despite some 'tough moments' at the Vitality Stadium

Although conceding he endured some ‘tough moments’ against AFC Bournemouth in midweek, Luton boss Rob Edwards thought recent signing Daiki Hashioka still gave a promising display during the Hatters’ 4-3 defeat on the south coast.

The 24-year-old was making his full Premier League debut for the Hatters having had two substitute outings in the matches with Aston Villa and Crystal Palace since signing in January, also playing in the latter stages of the FA Cup defeat to Manchester City as well. With Gabe Osho, Amari’i Bell, Mads Andersen, Tom Lockyer and Dan Potts all missing for a variety of reasons in midweek, it meant that with Luton down to the absolute bare bones defensively, Hashioka was deployed once more in the left-sided centre half role that he had impressed in during his two previous top flight cameos.

It worked out okay in the first half, Town’s back-line able to keep the likes of Dominic Solanke and co relatively quiet, the Hatters counter-attacking with glorious efficiency to race into a 3-0 interval lead themselves. That was all to change after the interval though as any hopes that the Cherries would have resigned themselves to defeat were quickly extinguished after just five minutes, Solanke twisting and turning Hashioka inside the area, easily outmuscling his opponent, to loft his shot past Thomas Kaminski and pull one back.

It wasn’t long before the score was 3-2, while Hashioka was then left all alone in trying to contend the direct running of Antoine Semenyo just two minutes later, the Ghana international easily cut inside the defender to fire into the bottom corner and draw the hosts level with just 20 minutes having passed. Edwards quickly acted, taking off his recent addition, who was now clearly being targeted by the home players, for Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, swapping to a back four for the final 25 minutes.

Town had then started to look more assured, until they were breached once more with seven minutes left to suffer a 4-3 defeat that hadn’t looked remotely possible at the break. Asked for an assessment of the Japanese international handled an occasion he had probably never experienced before, Edwards said: “I thought he did really well. There were a couple of tough moments in the big spaces when they got it out to Semenyo really quickly and that pace and power and quality that he had, there were a couple of moments where it was difficult.

"But as a team, those are areas that we’ve got to try and improve in as well, because we don’t want to ever leave anyone isolated like that. I know we want to try and be aggressive and try and press, but it’s about making sure we do one and half jobs and do it well. So I thought overall he did well, it was just a couple of hard moments against a very, very good player.”

Edwards did admit the task was made even more difficult for Hashioka, whose last start had come for Belgian top flight side Sint-Truiden during their Jupiler Pro League 1-1 draw with Standard Liege on December 27, where he was playing in right midfield, as he has having to adapt to a new role in the glaring spotlight of the Premier League, where there is very little hiding place. He continued: “We’re asking him to play in a different position to what he’s played before. He’s new to this league, he’s new to this club, he’s made a great start to his life at Luton and he’s going to be a really good acquisition for us.”

Looking to Forest, Luton still have no other options defensively, with Osho still absent, meaning they might have to stick with Hashioka, or go to a back four from the start on his occasion. Asked whether he might think about using Mpanzu as a temporary centre half, a position he had in fact started his career at West Ham playing, Edwards added: “I don’t think we need to look at him as a centre back, but he’s someone that we can look at for the game. I don’t think we’re in need of putting another square peg in a round hole if you like, but we’ll have a look at Forest and their strengths and we’ll look at where we think we can hurt them as well. We’ll have to try and get the right people in the right positions as well to deal with their threats as well as they’ve got some similar threats to Bournemouth with their speed and their quality, especially on that top line.”