Edwards reveals he put the pressure on his Luton players to get a result at Bramall Lane

Luton boss Rob Edwards admitted he put the pressure on his players by challenging them to make sure they got something from the game against one of their fellow promotion rivals Sheffield United on Saturday.

Ahead of the contest, Town’s three defeats since Edwards took charge at Kenilworth Road had all come against teams at the top end of the table, Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion and Burnley.

With the Blades sitting second in the Championship and Luton 10 points behind in fifth, the Hatters chief issued his demands to the squad to pick up a result before they took to the field at Bramall Lane.

It worked too, Carlton Morris scoring the only goal of the game on 53 minutes to seal a terrific three points and cut the gap on the Blades to seven points with 10 games left.

Edwards said: “I challenged the lads before the game, whether I should have, I don't know, but I said, look, Middlesbrough, West Brom and Burnley, since we’ve come here, those are the three games that we’ve lost.

"They’re all teams that are in and around it at the top and every one of those we were close.

"Down to 10 men in the first game against Middlesbrough, 2-0 up against West Brom, played really well against Burnley, but didn’t get anything from it.

“The challenge today was we’re getting something from this game, so I put it on them a little bit and they rise to every challenge these players.”

Although United were the second top scorers at home in the league, they were never able to create anything clear-cut against the Hatters, who remained joint best defensive record on their travels.

Oli McBurnie went close with two headers late on, while Town stopper Ethan Horvath made a good stop from John Egan in the closing stages, as Edwards continued: “McBurnie’s header right at the death went wide, most of the stuff thankfully was right at Ethan.

"You have to (defend well), we made the most of our really, really good chance and you’ve got to maybe rely on a little bit of luck, defend really well and rely on your goalkeeper.

"Ethan made saves I would expect him to make, he’s doing his job there and the lads on the whole defended really, really well, big credit to them.

"You’ve got to do it when you come to places like this, but you’ve got to do it in any game in the Championship.”

Luton managed to gain the victory even without two of their most in-form players, Jordan Clark and Alfie Doughty both absent due to injury.

It saw Fred Onyedinma in for a start at left wingback, the former Millwall player putting in a real shift and involved in some threatening moments himself before forced off late on with cramp.

Edwards added: “He did great, but that’s what I keep talking about.

"We’re going to need everybody.

"Some might play one minute and some might play every minute, but how hard you train every day, keep pushing the people who play in your position.

"It's really important, because if anyone slacks off, it just breaks that chain and it'll make us weaker.

"So everyone has to be at it every single day and they have been since we’ve come in and they were again today.”