Edwards wants Town to use the expectancy on Everton at Goodison Park to their advantage

Hatters boss Rob Edwards hopes his side can use the expectancy that will be on hosts Everton in their favour when the Hatters head to Goodison Park this afternoon.

After staying up on the final game last season, Sean Dyche’s side had struggled badly at the start of the season, taking just one point from their opening five league games.

However, a fine 3-1 victory at Brentford last weekend, followed by knocking Aston Villa out of the Carabao Cup with a 2-1 win at Villa Park has certainly boosted spirits on Merseyside.

It will lead to most Toffees supporters believing another three points is in the bag when taking on a Luton side who have lost four out of five matches to date, something that Edwards wants his players to try and take advantage of.

He said: “Certainly there’s going to be more pressure on them.

“The expectancy on them at Goodison Park, their fans will think, ‘right, turn up today, this is three points for us on the back of a couple of wins, go on then lads,’ so I think that does put a little bit of pressure on to them.

"They’ll be expecting that fast start, so if we make sure we can deal with that and grow into the game then you never know if that can go into our favour or not.

“Certainly the expectancy and the pressure will be on them.

"It’s one for us to go and really, really enjoy, it's a great stadium, a great ground and we’re really looking forward to it.

"But we go there with an expectancy on us as well that we’re going to go and perform and improve on last week.”

Asked whether he thought they were heading to Goodison Park at a bad time due to the form Everton have found, Edwards added: “No, I’m not going into it thinking we’re catching them at the wrong time.

"They’ve been performing well since the first game and now they’re getting a few rewards. They have in the last couple of games.

“I don’t look at it that way. I just see it as an opportunity for us.

"We’ve got to be ready for their strengths, ready for that Goodison crowd.

“But, also, we’ve got to try to play our way, and play to our strengths and, there’s not loads of them, but try to play to their weaknesses.”