Hatters boss believes Luton can take belief from Premier League victory at Everton into FA Cup tie

Luton boss Rob Edwards insists the Hatters can take real belief from their 2-1 victory at Goodison Park earlier this season when heading back to Everton for their FA Cup fourth round tie this afternoon.

Town had made the trip to Merseyside on September 30 still without a top flight victory to their name, taking one point from their five previous encounters, also going out of the Carabao Cup at League One Exeter City in the week leading up to the match as well. However, a terrific opening half an hour saw Tom Lockyer block Ashley Young’s clearance into the net and then Carlton Morris produced an unerring finish from Alfie Doughty’s free kick to put the Hatters 2-0 ahead and stun the Toffees faithful.

Sean Dyche’s side pulled one back through Dominic Calvert-Lewin before the interval, but the second period saw Luton defend impressively, Morris having another goal ruled out for offside, as they held on for a maiden three points of the season, leading to scenes of real celebration at the final whistle. Ahead of their second visit there this term, Edwards said: “It can give you belief as you know you’ve done it before, but again it’s a different occasion now. Everton have won a lot of football matches since we last played and performed really well in a lot of games so we know how difficult this game is, we’re under no illusions.

"Going back to Sheffield United the other week, we know we’ve done it before and you turn up there and maybe there’s a little bit of something there, that we’ve done it before, we can do it again. I know I always say it but we’re always confident, rightly or wrongly, going into every game. There’s a belief there, the lads have trained really well all week and we’ll go there and give it absolutely everything. We know we can go on the road now and win games against tough opposition, it gives us good belief, but time has passed since then.

"We gave our fans, it was a wet day, but a really, really enjoyable one as well, so hopefully we can make it the same again and I know we’ll hear them. It’s going to be a different game, different occasion, we’ll take that as it is, but it can give us confidence. We’re in good form, in a good period at the moment, so we want to continue that.”

With the match one of five all Premier League ties that the fourth round draw threw up, Spurs already out having lost to Manchester City yesterday evening, then it means a passage to the latter stages could open up for whoever goes through today. Edwards continued: “It’s a big if as we’re aware how difficult the task is. If we can (progress), then great, we really do want to win the game. We’d love to go deep into the competition as it’s exciting isn’t it? The fans would love that, we would love it, we’ll give it absolutely everything to do that while respecting the opposition we’re coming up against.

"We’re well prepared for every game, we have a good understanding of what we are and who we are as a team now. We’ll go and try to be the best us, dealing with everything that Everton have got to throw at us as well which will be difficult.”

Town’s players had the perfect chance to get away from the stresses and strains of their Premier League survival battle as following the 2-1 win over Bolton in the last round the squad jetted out to Dubai for a warm weather training camp. On just how it went, Edwards added: “It was good, we enjoyed it, refreshed us a little bit, we got some good training in. We’ll see what it does for the group, hopefully we can come back and hit the ground running. Just being able to chill out, it was nice, it’s difficult for me to do that, even when you’re around the pool, you’re still thinking about what’s next, but it was good for the lads to be able to switch off and spend some time together.

"We’re back now, focused on it, but it was a really good few days. I don’t know if there’s advantage from it, it was a bit of team bonding, we had three days off, had some nice meals together, had some relaxing as it was a winter break, and then a few days of training as well. A nice double session in there, lovely temperature, lovely pitch, lovely facilities, so that was great as well. Just to get five or six days there, the advantages are just a little bit more bonding and some more training. We thought it was a really good balance and time will tell if it was a good thing or not, we’ll see going into the game.”