Hatters boss concedes second half against Swansea was a 'tough watch'

Luton boss Rob Edwards conceded the second half of Luton’s 1-1 draw with Swansea City on Saturday was a ‘tough watch’ for all involved.

The hosts had changed ends with a 1-0 advantage given to them courtesy of Elijah Adebayo’s fourth goal of the season, the Town striker taking advantage of mistakes from Ben Cabango and Lawrence Vigouroux to sidefoot home from a tight angle with 17 minutes on the clock. Despite that, the impressive Swans had already been denied a goal themselves twice by Thomas Kaminski, the Belgian saving brilliantly from Liam Cullen’s drive that deflected off team-mate Zan Vipotnik, also parrying Josh Tymon’s fierce blast.

After the break, Luton almost doubled their lead early on, Adebayo’s shot from Daiki Hashioka’s pass drawing a brilliant stop from Vigouroux, although that was to prove the Hatters’ second and final shot on target. From there on, City were dominant, Goncalo Franco having one shot shovelled away by Kaminski, before Town’s number one produced his best of the afternoon, flying to his left to fingertip the midfielder’s curling attempt behind.

Although he was finally beaten by Matt Grimes, the Swans skipper left completely unmarked from a short corner routine to rifle into the roof of the net, Kaminski made another crucial stop late on, standing up well to prevent visiting substitute Florian Bianchini winning it. On the second half showing, Edwards said: “Of course it was (frustrating), we’re all seeing the same game. I’ve probably got a bit more empathy for the lads as I know what they’re going through at the moment. They’re really trying, you can see that as if they weren’t we’d have gone under and lost the game, but they’re trying.

"It’s hard to find that spark that we need across the board. I thought there were a couple of individuals who stood out and did well, you’ve mentioned Thomas’s saves, I thought Macca (Mark McGuinness) did really well in that back-line, some important headers. Clicker (Jordan Clark) showed one or two good moments, Tom Krauß kept running and kept going, but we lacked some confidence with the ball and turned things over too much. Even though the pitch was really difficult, it was a tough watch second half, it was for everyone.”

With Town having just eight shots in total during the contest, the two on target both of them coming from Adebayo, Swansea had a massive 20 attempts, with 10 of them heading between the posts. It means that in Luton’s last five matches, they have managed 39 efforts, with a mere 14 at goal, their opponents doubling those stats, with 80 attempts, 35 of those either testing Kaminski or finding the net.

It’s something that Edwards is clearly concerned about, as he continued: “Of course it is, especially at home in the second half we want to be able to put teams under pressure and create more opportunities but that’s not the case at the moment. We’ve got to have a look at that. We all accept responsibility there that we need to try and be better in the final third when we get the ball there, so no doubt it yes, definitely.”

Discussing the display from Town’s stopper who was without doubt the star performer, as he had to be to get a point on home soil, Edwards added: “I thought the one save looked brilliant. A couple of the routine saves I expect him to make but that one was exceptional. We take a point, a really difficult day for many reasons, in the stands and on the pitch, so take the point and move forward, recover, debrief, train and get ready for Stoke on Tuesday. There’s no alternative, we recover, pick up the pieces and see where we’re at with the group and then go and play the game. That’s it, we can't do anything about it.”