Hatters boss reacts to a 'difficult afternoon' as Luton are defeated by in-form Villains

Town boss Rob Edwards conceded it was a ‘difficult afternoon’ for his side after they went down to a 3-1 defeat against high-flying Aston Villa.

The Hatters were under the cosh for large parts of the game, as was always to be expected, with Unai Emery’s side honing in on 12 straight league wins on home soil.

They reached the dozen too, John McGinn firing home from a well-worked free kick routine in the first half, with the instrumental Moussa Diaby then adding a second moments into the second period.

When Tom Lockyer turned Diaby’s cross-shot through his own net on 63 minutes, it looked like Villa would go on and rack up yet another hefty victory, having netted four against West Ham last week, also putting six past Brighton too.

However, to their credit, Luton finished the game stronger, gaining a consolation thanks to Emiliano Martinez’s unfortunate own goal with seven remaining, Ezri Konsa’s back header hitting the bar and rebounding in off the World Cup-winning goalkeeper.

Speaking afterwards, Edwards said: “Let’s be honest, today was a difficult afternoon for us.

“There is a gulf between the teams at the moment, Aston Villa are an exceptional team in a great moment, really confident, brilliant manager, and very good players.

“At 3-0 down with about 30 minutes to go, I was thinking, this is difficult, so I’m really pleased with how the players stayed in it, stayed committed, found a way, however, to get the next goal.

“That was important, that was important to me, important that our fans can see our players never ever give in and are sticking at it, so a difficult afternoon, but proud of how the players stuck to the task.

“We have finished strongly, we have stuck at it, used that example last week, getting back into the game against Forest.

“Today was just too big a task, we gave ourselves too big a mountain to climb unfortunately, but what I want to make sure that we stress is today wasn’t going to define us.

“We know that, we’re in a different battle to Aston Villa at the moment, there’s a difference in teams, but we’ve got to learn from it.

“I want it to make us better, make me better and there was, I believe, a good plan there today.

“We knew we would give away certain areas of the pitch, but it was just too easy for them to exploit in that last line, with one pass and that was frustrating.

“I thought we’d got away from that, Brighton, the first game of the season we learned and adjusted as that happened a little bit and it happened today and that was frustrating for me.

“But as long as we learn from it and it doesn't happen again, maybe for another 10 games and we’ve got to revisit it, then I can take it.

"I’m just frustrated with how we conceded the goals as they were all avoidable.”