Edwards had challenged his Luton players to pick up a result at Nottingham Forest

Luton boss Rob Edwards revealed he had challenged his players to make sure they got a result from their trip to the City Ground on Saturday.

At 2-0 down with just seven minutes to go, it looked like those orders weren’t going to be carried out, before Town mounted a terrific comeback, sparked by the arrival of Ross Barkley, Andros Townsend and Elijah Adebayo from the bench.

First Chiedozie Ogbene lashed home a volley after Townsend’s free kick caused mayhem in the area and then in stoppage time, Adebayo did magnificently to control Tom Lockyer’s long ball on his chest, outmuscle a Nottingham Forest defender and then beat the onrushing Matt Turner to ensure the Hatters picked up a crucial point in their battle to stay up.

Speaking afterwards, Edwards said: “We made our changes just before the second goal went in, so we’d thrown the dice.

"I thought initially the first minute or two it made a really good impact and then they got the second goal.

"They made some changes, but then we grew, we got momentum and once we got the first goal I really thought that we could go on and get a second.

“I challenged the players before the game to get something, to get a result because the last two games in my opinion at home against Tottenham and Burnley, we deserved to get more and we didn’t.

"So it was about finding a way to get a result and I’m really, really pleased the players did that.”

With Sheffield United, Bournemouth and Burnley all losing, the result kept Luton fourth from bottom, as they are now a point clear of the drop zone with nine games of the season gone.

It’s a position that Edwards is more than happy with, as he continued: “Where did everyone expect us to be?

"I don’t think they thought top four, we’re where we probably expected to be and in the fight we probably expected to be in, so I’m comfortable with it.

"I had a lot of optimism before this game anyway and even if we’d have lost 2-0 I still would have had a lot of optimism.

"What pleases me is we’ve got something from the game.,”

Although Town went into the break on level terms at 0-0, they were thankful to a great save from Thomas Kaminski, who kept out Harry Toffolo’s close range effort and a glaring miss by Ibrahim Sangare, who somehow slammed wide from eight yards out.

However, they then fell behind just three minutes into the second half, as Chris Wood found the net, missing another wonderful chance before adding a second on 74 minutes.

He saw his hat-trick goal ruled out for offside just moments after Luton had levelled the scores, as Edwards knew there was always a chance Town would need some fortune on their side when attempting to get a result at such a formidable venue.

He added: “There were things that we weren’t getting right (in the first half) and then started the second half in a really disappointing manner.

"I don’t think the very beginning of the half was, but then to concede the goal was really frustrating for us.

"Two losses in 19 league games they’ve had here, that’s half a league season, it’s a whole league season of home games and only two losses, that was the size of the task.

"It’s a really difficult place to come, Coops (Steve Cooper) has done a brilliant job, he really has and made this place a fortress.

"So we were always going to have to weather a little bit of a storm, but some of it was of our own doing.

"There’s areas we can learn from and be better no doubt about it, but we will, we’ll keep working hard on those things.

"For us, if we’re going to get a result in a game, we’re going to need our keeper to make a save, going to need to ride our luck once or twice, going to need them to miss a chance.

“It’s going to be rare we’re going to dominate a game from start to finish and have a comfortable day at the office, I don’t think that’s going to happen in the Premier League.

"I was relatively pleased, 0-0 at half time, but we knew there was more from us and I thought from the moment we went 2-0 down, we really did show that.”