Edwards insists the 'fight' remains as Town boss searches for an end to away day misery

Luton boss Rob Edwards insisted the fight was definitely still there from his players despite stretching their worrying away form to five straight defeats when going down to an alarmingly tame 3-0 loss at Leeds United last night.

The Hatters were second best from pretty much the word go at Elland Road on Wednesday evening as the 35,000 in attendance settled in to watch Daniel Farke’s side retake their place at the summit during what must have been one of their most one-sided victories of the campaign. With 940 touches of the ball to the Hatters’ 413, United moved ahead after just 10 minutes when Sam Byram netted a brilliant scissor kick volley after Town couldn’t clear their lines.

A second arrived on the stroke of half time, Luton undone in desperately poor fashion from a corner, Joel Piroe hammering in from close range, before Dan James sealed the win late on by delicately lobbing Thomas Kaminski after escaping the attentions of Amari’i Bell. Between the goals, the Hatters found themselves with under 25 percent of the ball for the majority of the contest, often reduced to chasing shadows.

Only on-loan midfielder Tom Krauß got stuck in, seven tackles to his name, with the rest of his team-mates making just 10 between them, as there weren’t really any challenges flying in borne out of frustration, bar Jordan Clark scything down skipper Pascal Struijk for a yellow card midway through the second period.

Despite that, Edwards felt his side were still showing they were up for the battle, as he said: “The fight is there, but there were some poor decision making and some big mistakes that we're getting punished for and that has been the case for a long time. They’re (the players) flat, one or two are angry which is understandable, that’s human nature, but what we need to see is performances, especially when we go away from home.”

Having swapped ends with a two-goal deficit, the second period was largely a training exercise for the hosts, as it took Shandon Baptiste’s introduction with around 15 minutes remaining to give Luton any kind of attacking threat, wonderfully finding Elijah Adebayo for an effort that was well saved by Illan Meslier. The former Brentford man also tested the Frenchman from distance along with Clark in the closing stages, but it was all in the vain hope of a late consolation rather than any thoughts of a comeback.

On his side’s approach to the second period, Edwards continued: “There’s still a chance at two-nil and then we had to make sure we stayed in it and we did for a long period. If we’d have come charging out too soon, we’re, especially away from home, not at home, away from home, finding that balance of being aggressive and not opening up spaces behind is something that we're really searching for and which is difficult at the moment.

“We didn’t want to go ultra aggressive and gung-ho straight away in the second half and open up too much. We're in the game and the third goal is the final nail in the coffin and its game over then, it’s avoidable. We went with clarity, exactly what we needed to do. You could see we had to adjust a couple of minor things, strikers playing closer together and when it goes to the outside then its midfielders are able to go and get the pressure, the right timing of who goes when. It was difficult then for them to get through us and behind us which was the plan at the beginning but we didn’t carry it out.”

With Town losing a fifth successive fixture outside of Bedfordshire, it’s the first time they have done so in the second tier since the 2019-20 campaign, although they have some way to go to match Graeme Jones’ team who were beaten in 11 straight matches back then. They do have a chance to rectify it at the weekend when visiting Norwich City, although the Canaries were boosted by hitting six past Plymouth Argyle at Carrow Road on Tuesday night, only beaten once in front of their own fans this term.

Edwards added: “We’re searching for it (away form) and we want that consistency. That was the message to you guys yesterday and it is at the moment and it will be again at the weekend in another very difficult game. We’ve got to recover well and show some fight about us. That's what we talked about in the dressing room there. We have to see that as we’ve got a chance to do something about it."