Edwards hails the 'amazing' reactions from his substitutes during Owls victory

Luton boss Rob Edwards hailed the ‘amazing’ impact of Town’s substitutes after this afternoon’s late 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

It had looked like the Hatters were going to face yet another disappointment on home soil, as they trailed 1-0 to Barry Bannan’s clinical volley early in the second period, with the home supporters getting increasingly frustrated with what had been a tough watch, the Hatters creating nothing of note and never once looking like they were capable of a comeback.

That all changed when Carlton Morris, Tom Krauß and Zack Nelson came on with an hour gone though, as Morris drew the visitors level on 77 minutes, coolly converting his first goal of the campaign from the penalty spot after Owls defender Di’Shon Bernard had been sent off for handling Mark McGuinness’s header on the line. Going for broke, Edwards then introduced Victor Moses and Joe Taylor with seven minutes left, Moses a constant threat on the right, while Taylor occupied the Wednesday defence alongside Morris in the latter stages.

It led to a winner with two minutes of normal time remaining, Alfie Doughty’s cross palmed away by James Beadle and when Jordan Clark’s effort hit the airborne McGuinness, Morris was on hand to tuck home his second of the afternoon to seal a much-needed three points. Speaking afterwards, Edwards preferred to concentrate on the closing stages of the contest than what had gone before, saying: “I'd rather focus now on the fact that we won the game, turned it around, had a will to win.

"You're going to turn me into someone really negative if I start focusing (on the first hour). I know there's areas we can be better in, sometimes I like to give credit to the opposition as well. They were very well organised, Danny’s (Rohl) a very good coach, they press well at the right times, they get good numbers on the last line, so it was hard to get behind.

"It was difficult for us, there's no doubt about that, I know that, it was a far from perfect performance. The last two haven't been, but we’ve won and we really needed that at this stage, just to build some momentum and belief and confidence again because it’s been a tough period.”

Asked for a bit more detail on why he thought Luton had been so below par up until the introduction of Morris and co, with loan addition Krauß in particular outstanding, he added: “It was a typical game, at any level of football, really tough. I thought the best section of the game was the last 15 minutes of the first half, where I thought we got the pressing and intensity right.

“We were pushing, had set-pieces and we had a couple of good moves that we almost got in with, but it was difficult to get behind them and yes it was tough, really tough. We didn't start with the intensity that we wanted and if we don't have that then it probably gives them a lift, our crowd are then thinking, ‘come on,’ and the first 20 minutes was difficult.

“We didn’t have the intensity and press that I really wanted, one chance Thomas (Kaminski) made a really good save, we didn’t quite close and get the covering distances right. Once we got those sorted, we were okay, we were in the game, but nothing more than that. We shot ourselves in the foot with the goal that we conceded and then it's hard, something's gone against us again and we need to try and wrestle back some momentum again.

"There’s no doubt then we were pushing, we were trying, forced a way somehow, the header was going in from Macca before he stuck his arm out, so that’s a goal, we're back in the game and then with the red card too. I thought the impact that the subs made was great and that's what we want. We've got a squad for a reason. It's difficult to leave certain people out, but then when you get reactions like that, it's amazing.”