Hatters boss able to enjoy his holiday after admitting being 'grumpy' when going away after taking Watford job

Following winning promotion to the Premier League with Luton last season, boss Rob Edwards was able to quite rightly enjoy his family holiday this year after admitting he had been ‘grumpy’ when going away last term having just taken the job at Town’s fierce rivals Watford.

The 40-year-old was unveiled as the Hatters’ new manager in November once Nathan Jones had departed for Southampton and went on to have a quite magnificent impact on the team, as winning 14 from his 25 matches saw Town reach the play-offs, where they defeated Sunderland in the semi-final and then Coventry on penalties in the final at Wembley.

Despite having to manage all that comes with reaching the top flight, Edwards was able to get away and soak it all in, unlike 12 months previously when having won the League Two title with Forest Green, he then took over at Vicarage Road just four days after the campaign had ended.

As we all know, that stint came to a premature finish, sacked after just 11 matches in charge, as on how he spent his time away this summer, speaking to the club’s official website, he said: “There’s lot of commination every day, phone-calls, meetings, Gary (Sweet, CEO) is managing so many things at the moment as well.

"There's a lot going on, the stadium and there's recruitment, there's lots of stuff happening, so we need to be kept abreast of everything, but what everyone was able to do, was get a little bit of down time, the football staff, family time, which is important.

“I felt the year before I didn’t really get it.

"I went from Forest Green into Watford very, very quickly, there was no real time for a breather.

“I was probably a bit grumpy when I went on holiday with the family because there was just so much going on.

"This time I allowed myself to enjoy it, have a really good week away, still take the phone-calls and have the meetings, but I feel like I’m re-energised and refreshed and ready to go.”

Edwards was definitely able to also let his hair down in the aftermath of Luton reaching the top flight for the first time in over 30 years, no more so than when he was serenading the Luton fans with his version of Bon Jovi’s 'Always’ during their open-top bus celebration and party at St George’s Square.

He continued: “In football you achieve stuff and you don't look back, you keep looking at what's next and what’s next.

"It's probably been a bit of that going on, but there's been a bit of, ‘wow, what an achievement.’

"What the players did, the group of staff did was special.

"We’ve allowed ourselves to enjoy it, had a couple of days of parties, celebrating in the town which was really, really special, then it was okay, we’ve got to get back to work now as well.”

Asked if he had been able to watch Luton’s success over Coventry back since a day at Wembley no Luton fan will ever forget, Edwards added: “I watched it back the following day!

"We got home and we all stuck it on again, had a couple of beers watching it back, it was great!”