Ex-Blackburn and Celtic forward believes Town chief should win Manager of the Year if Luton avoid relegation

If Luton are able to stay in the Premier League this season then former Blackburn, Norwich and Celtic striker Chris Sutton believes that Town boss Rob Edwards should be rewarded with the Manager of the Year accolade.

When the Hatters won promotion to the top flight back in May, the Bedfordshire club were most pundits’ instant favourites to go straight back down to the Championship, a number tipping them to finish bottom of the pile in the process. Admittedly they struggled to get to grips with the higher level early on, recording just one win in their opening 12 games, only managing to score 10 goals in that time too. However, since a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace on November 25, Luton have not only improved their number of wins dramatically, earning four of them, while they have become a far greater threat in front of goal.

Scoring four at St James’ Park on Saturday followed up another four against Brighton & Hove Albion the previous Tuesday, as Town have now found the net 22 times in 10 fixtures since beating the Eagles, moving up to 32 for the season, the joint second highest scorers in the bottom half of the table. Changing Luton’s potency in front of goal is one of the reasons why Sutton made his claim about Edwards, as speaking to BBC Radio Five Live's Monday Night Club, he said: “I thought they could only play counter attack in the Premier League to survive, stay in games and try to nick a goal, but the way that he has developed the team the longer the season has gone on, is remarkable.

"It's remarkable first of all how they got up but then to progress their playing style as he has done in season, when they must be the lowest spenders by a stretch, Burnley have spent the best part of one hundred million, Sheffield United have spent heavily, that's remarkable. His recruitment has been smart, to get a tune out of Ross Barkley again who’s playing with a smile on his face, big, big deal, but I never saw them as being free scoring, Luton and that’s what they are at this moment in time. To think where they came from, one of the lowest budgets in the Championship to here, if they stay up, he’s manager of the season, there’s no question of that.”