Edwards reveals he held an honest meeting with his Hatters squad in the aftermath of Cherries defeat

Luton boss Rob Edwards revealed he held an honest meeting with his players following the 4-3 defeat at AFC Bournemouth on Wednesday night in a bid to put the result behind them and get their minds firmly on to this afternoon’s monumental clash against Nottingham Forest.

The Hatters blew a 3-0 interval lead at the Vitality Stadium in midweek, as they conceded four goals in the second half to end up leaving the south coast empty handed. When referee Sam Allison blew his full time whistle, it was met by sheer disbelief from a number of the Hatters players, who were clearly stunned by what had gone during that second 45 minutes of football.

That mood then carried on to the hotel where Town were staying the night, but it was something Edwards wanted to be lifted as soon as possible, knowing they only had a few days to prepare for what is a massive home with their relegation rivals. He said: “We stayed over that night, had a good meeting with the players once we got back to the hotel as you could see they were down. It was important to me that we tried to shift the focus on to, right, learn from what we got wrong, we don’t sweep it under the carpet, we’ve got to deal with it and learn from it.

"It was led by me but we want the players to give their feedback and their opinions on stuff as well, so it’s always pretty open like that. I think it’s more powerful when the players are the ones giving answers or taking responsibility, so we’ve always got that. I made it clear on the night when we got back to the hotel and we were having our food, it was really quiet and we've got to go again in a few days time, so we have to pick ourselves up.

"I said last time we were here, it literally was a life and death situation (with Tom Lockyer’s cardiac arrest), it was wasn’t it? We lost a football match the other night and it was in different circumstances. When you’re 3-0 up, it doesn’t happen very often at all does it, but it did, so we did feel down, but that is all that happened, we lost a game of football.

"So right, I’m not going to accept some of the things that happened, we’ve got to learn from that, got to be honest, but also, you’re allowed to talk now lads and allowed to live a little as well as we’ve got to pick ourselves up quickly because we have to go again, there's no other way. Learn from those things that we got wrong, look at the stuff we did well as well, there was plenty of that, try and keep doing that stuff and the players have responded well over the last few days, so in that respect I’m looking to see a good response.

"It’s important for me that the players want to run for us, for each other, for me, so there'll be some honesty, which there was in the next days, a good meeting the next day, and then it’s not forgotten about, it’s learn from that and take it forward. It was a bad half of football which can happen at this level where the opposition really turned it up, got that early goal, got that momentum that they needed and we didn’t really respond to it well enough.”

Edwards was determined not to sugar-coat anything for his players though in the areas in which he feels need to be improved, with Luton looking to end a winless run of seven games in the Premier League, taking just two points in that time. He continued: “My job is to be honest and you’ve got to try and help people improve. If I sit there and go, ‘well done lads, what a game that was, we pushed them didn’t we, four-three, class!’ I’m not doing my job.

"I care about the lads, we always support them, but we have to be honest if there’s things we need to do better and that’s me as well, I’m always learning, I’m not saying that I’m perfect. There’s stuff I would have got wrong on the day so we’ve reflected as a group of staff as well and thought could we have changed things earlier? Could we have done something different? But then you’re second guessing and you think if we go low and block things up, you’re inviting more and more pressure against excellent players, and we could be conceding more chances, which they did against Sheffield United for instance.

"So all these things are going round in our heads, what we could have done better but honesty is really important. I think players appreciate that as well. It can be done in a constructive way and there’s different ways of doing it, but we always try to give the rationale with what we’re doing with that honesty if it’s constructive feedback as well.”

Having been defeated in such a gut-wrenching manner, Edwards insists it was good that they are back in action straight away just a few days later, adding: “I think so. If we were going into the break of the back of that, it would have hurt for a much longer spell, so this is a chance to right a few wrongs. It’s not difficult, they’re bouncing in straight away, this group, they’re great like that. We lost a game of football, we lost it in a strange way, but I’d like to think we dealt with it pretty quickly.”