Edwards urges Luton's players not to give visitors Oxford the game they want

Luton boss Rob Edwards has demanded his players don’t fall into the trap of giving opponents Oxford United the game they want when they turn up at Kenilworth Road this evening.

The U’s have made a good start to life in the Championship after winning the League One play-offs last term with three wins and a draw from their opening seven games to sit 11th in the table. Des Buckingham’s side have not won away from home yet though, losing all three of their matches against Coventry City, Blackburn Rovers and Bristol City, a run which is in stark contrast to their unbeaten sequence at the Kassam Stadium.

Having conceded just eight goals in their seven matches, Edwards knows United, who held Burnley to a stalemate at the weekend, will present a difficult proposition for his under-performing side, saying: “They have (started well), big credit to them, Des has done an amazing job there and they’ve started well. I went to watch them on the weekend, they were really good, a very good team, a team, I stress that as well, playing with a lot of confidence. They played against a really strong team in Burnley as well, so a good performance.

"They’ll be playing with a lot of confidence and they’ll be coming here with no pressure and we know what that feels like from last season, so that can help them as well. We need to make sure we do the things that we can do very well, we need to do them bang on. We need to play with the right intensity, we need to make sure we don’t give them the game they want and that could be a bit more of a slower game, as they can wait and without the pressure of having to open up too much.

"That’s not to say they won’t press or commit bodies, they’ll certainly commit bodies forward when they have to. They can do it from a bit more of an organised and compact shape as well, so we’ve got to make sure we don’t give them the game they want.”

Edwards knows that it might need patience both on the pitch and in the stands as Town go in search of just a second victory of the season on home soil, having been beaten 3-1 at Plymouth Argyle on Friday night, as the boss continued: “They just kept a clean sheet against Burnley and we all know that’s difficult.

"This certainly is not just a turn up and come on then boys, entertain us and go and win the game and score loads of goals, that’s not how football works. We’ve got to go and earn it, we’ve got to work incredibly hard and make sure we’re better than what we were on Friday at both ends of the pitch. But if we do those things, then there’s no doubt we can win the game.”

With Town going into the game on the back of another bitterly disappointing reverse at Home Park, Edwards has demanded his players learn the lessons they failed to heed in Devon, particularly from a defensive point of view, to ensure they are less easy to score against this evening. He also wants that to be coupled with a more clinical display in the final third too, adding: “The first two goals were good finishes and you hold your hands up and say good from them, but of course avoidable from our point of view.

"So it’s trying to affect what we can and that’s making sure we get out and block the cross, making sure we squeeze the box if anyone cuts back and starts going away from goal, make sure we’re not giving them the space to go into their feet. But there’s so much that is good about how the lads are working without the ball.

"They’re pressing so aggressively, winning the ball back a lot, but then when we do win it back, can we be a bit more clinical? Can we make a better decision? The technique of our pass, be to their correct foot, not behind them for instance. I’m not trying to paint a wonderful picture here, there were things that we got wrong of course, people look at the scoreline and think wow, it was horrendous.

"The game could have actually gone the other way, there’s no doubt about it, but it didn’t, as there were things that we didn’t get right at both ends of the pitch, which I said after the game is not a good recipe to get results. We got into dangerous areas a lot and didn’t make the most of them and then on the flip side of that, we got punished. There’s a few things we’ve had to address, but punished at one end and not ruthless enough at the other, that is very often what games come down to.

"So if I’m trying to be positive, I’d be concerned if we weren’t creating chances or getting into dangerous areas, we did do that and we have done that consistently throughout the season so far, but we know we’ve got to make more of those situations, no doubt about it. Try to continue to do it as we’ve got to keep getting in those areas to score, as if we don’t we’ve got no chance. And find that ruthless killer edge from a defensive point of view as well.

"So much of our out of possession stuff is really good, so effective, I want us to continue to be really aggressive, the way we press, the way we play. It doesn’t mean we won’t make tweaks or change certain bits if we don’t think areas of the out of possession aren’t working, but we win it back so often. There’s always one or two chances that we tend to give away, and that’s an area that we’ve got to try and nullify of course.”