Edwards left aggrieved as Luton are beaten in yet another 'tight' contest

Hatters boss Rob Edwards was left to rue the fact his side came out on the wrong end of what he felt was another ‘tight’ encounter as they were beaten 1-0 by Norwich City at Kenilworth Road yesterday.

After two defeats over the Christmas period, losing 1-0 at Bristol City and 2-1 to Swansea City, Town completed an unwelcome treble by going down to a New Year’s Day reverse in front of their own fans. Town did have the better of things, particularly in the second period, as Tahith Chong scorched a drive against the underside of the bar, while Elijah Adebayo, who had been denied by Canaries keeper Angus Gunn in the first half, headed a Zack Nelson corner over the top.

Carlton Morris also didn’t get his shot away before Shane Duffy dived in to block, with Nelson also having calls for a penalty turned down when referee Jarred Gillet adjudged he was brought down just inches outside the box. The missed opportunities came back to bite Luton, Marcelino Nunez drifting away from Tom Krauß and when Amari’i Bell didn’t venture out to block in time, sent his low shot into the bottom corner with 17 minutes left. Speaking afterwards, Edwards said: “We’ve got to find a way, it’s all right saying small margins and fine margins, football is, but when you get those chances you’ve got to be ruthless and you’ve got to take them.

“I think we played pretty well, we didn’t deserve to lose the game, but we did and we’ve had that over the last few games. Really tight games, probably didn’t deserve to lose, but we have and I think we’ve still only got ourselves to blame. The one moment that they had that, they scored from. Either press and back up the press so he can’t turn and shoot, or don’t and talk to Tom Krauß who doesn’t get picked off. When he does turn we’ve got to make sure that we get a block in and block the shot.

"We didn’t deal with that situation well, a scruffy one goes in the back of the net, in the bottom corner and it felt like they hadn’t really been in our half for a long, long time. When we’re in that final third we’ve got to find a way of getting the ball over the line. It’s all right hitting the woodwork, all right claiming penalties, having a lot of set-pieces, having nearly moments, we didn’t make it count.

"It’s a difficult pitch. When they’re pressing us as well, if we can go into the front two and cause them problems then use that. When they get narrow we can land on stuff and then we can get it wide and get crosses in the box. I thought we mixed the game up pretty well, it was either get down the sides, or can we use the front two. The players gave everything, really tried, but in those tight games, which a lot of games are, especially in the Championship, you’ve got to find a way to come out on top.”

Once they had gone behind, Edwards waited until six minute to go before throwing on four subs, Joe Taylor, Cauley Woodrow, Victor Moses and Jacob Brown all entering the fay to what was sarcastic applause from the home supporters. It almost ensured Town got a point, Woodrow taking aim with an angled drive that flicked off the post in the last minute of stoppage time, but the lack of an equaliser meant Luton drew a blank on home soil for the first time this term.

The boss added: “We hit the post at the end, we felt even when we were 1-0 down we were still the better team. They made some changes and went to a back five. We can counter that and we changed the shape when we went 1-0 down. We didn’t change the personnel at that point, as soon as they made some subs, we wanted to try and overload their last line, get more forward threat on and it nearly worked.

“We want to try and get that first goal. We wanted a little bit more in the final third as some of the decision making wasn’t great and just a few times we allowed them to switch it quickly and they got one v ones then and good players in one v one situations when they get those switches wide. We kind of nullified that in the second half, we were better in the final third as well. We had a lot more threat, so all the stuff we spoke about at half time was good, just not that final little bit.”