Hatters boss knows Town have to look at midfielder's discipline issues following second straight red

Luton boss Rob Edwards knows that the club will have to take a serious look at midfielder Liam Walsh’s lack of discipline after he saw his second red card of the season during this afternoon’s 2-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers.

The 27-year-old, who was only signed in August, had already been sent off just 36 seconds after coming on in the 2-2 draw with Oxford United, suspended for three games. He then suffered a hamstring injury which ruled him out of four matches, before returning to the squad this afternoon, named on the bench at Ewood Park.

Replacing Tom Krauß with 62 minutes on the clock, Walsh came on with his side already two goals behind, only to then slide in recklessly and so unnecessarily on Rovers midfielder Yuki Ohashi to see red from referee Michael Salisbury just 11 minutes later. Discussing the incident, Edwards said: “Yes, I did (think it was a red). It’s not malicious, it’s just poorly timed, it’s not high.

“He’s not a bad kid and he’s not done it on purpose to injure someone and go in in a dirty way, but a very similar tackle. It’s obviously happened twice when he’s come on, so we’ve got to look at it and he’s cut up in there now because of what’s happened. We brought him on as he’s a technical player, we thought we were in the ascendancy and he can really help us and he did.

"We kept pushing and he was involved in the game, but he’s made a mistake. You get sent off, you’re going to be really, really disappointed aren’t you, a chance to impact the game and we’ll be missing him now for quite a long time, so it puts me in a difficult position. It’s standard procedure for us to have loads of headaches though, I’m used to it by now, I’ve had a year of it.”

When the red card was brandished, Walsh tried to protest his innocence, only to be shoved off the pitch by a furious captain Carlton Morris, and with the TV cameras zooming in, you didn’t need to be a lip reader to see just what the forward had made of the former Everton youngster’s second moment of madness.

Edwards continued: “Carlton is frustrated, he’s a winner and he’s just frustrated as he wants us to get back in the game. He knows with Walshy on the pitch and with 11 men we’ve got a good chance of doing it at that stage and I think we all felt it. We were playing well, we were finding good spaces, we were getting down the sides, we were getting crosses in the box, we had the momentum. Carlton is a leader for us and he’s just disappointed like everyone.”

The hosts might have found themselves down to 10 men themselves inside the opening 60 seconds when Harry Pickering slid in late on Jacob Brown, but the official deemed it was worthy of just a caution. Asked if he thought that was a fair punishment, Edwards added: “I think sometimes at that stage of the game you might get away with a little bit more, but also I do think the ball was around there as well. This one you could see with Liam it was mistimed, the ball had gone.”