Hatters chief bounces back with renewed optimism after re-watching crushing Aston Villa loss

Luton boss Rob Edwards revealed that re-watching Saturday’s gut-wrenching 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa has given him renewed optimism that his side have what it takes to stay in the Premier League.

The Hatters looked like they were going to claim another crucial point in their bid to remain in the top flight after fighting back from 2-0 down at half time to draw level thanks to goals from Tahith Chong and Carlton Morris. In the end it was to prove in vain, Lucas Digne heading home the winner in the closing stages to ensure the points went back to the Midlands, as afterwards, Edwards cut a quite understandably forlorn figure, admitting it was the ‘angriest’ he had felt following a game this term.

However, looking back at what had unfolded in front of him gave him cause for a greater belief, saying: “I just felt we performed so well and I was disappointed for everyone, me, the lads, the supporters. There was a great feel that second half, we played as well as we have all season. We’ve had lots of good performances, but to create the chances we did against Villa and to score the goals we did, it’s hard, they don’t concede many, they don’t give many chances away at all. They’re so well organised and I was just very frustrated in that moment, but the sun came up the next day and you just have to pick yourself up and go again and we have done that, the lads have responded well this week.

“You have no other choice as if I don’t do it, who’s going to get me going? I’ve got a brilliant group of staff that always get around me as well, but I look back at the game and that can give me belief and confidence and a real pride in what we’re doing. As if we were out of the game and we were gone, we weren’t playing well and Villa were battering us, it was one-sided, it wasn’t that, it just wasn’t. It wasn’t that in the first half even though we weren’t getting everything right. We were still in the game and trying to do the right things, second half I just thought it was incredible.

"The intensity, the performance levels, the quality, the way we were able to get behind them, create chances, get balls in the box, set-pieces, we looked like the team I want us to be, so that gets me going again. If we can improve in those little areas now, continue to keep working on that then we’re going the right way and we’re still in this mix, still in the fight. The great thing for us is there’s a belief, everywhere. I think the supporters can still see it, the lads are still with it and I don’t feel like we’re huffing and puffing and don’t feel like we shouldn’t be here. I feel like the lads are showing that they’re really, really good players. They’re in a lot of the games, they're mixing it with everyone and getting better and that gives me a lot of belief going into the last 12 games.”

The cruel winner came when Luton failed to get out to block Moussa Diaby’s cross, the £51.9m signing picking out Digne at the back post, who took advantage of Issa Kabore switching off to head past Thomas Kaminski from close range. It soured what had been an excellent second 45 minutes for the Manchester City loanee, who was a huge reason as to why Town found themselves all square, with an action-packed display of running on the right flank.

Edwards has gone through the error with the Burkina Faso international this week though, as he continued: “Human beings, we all make mistakes, that was just the final part of maybe three or four things that we could have done better in the build-up to the goal. We want to try and stop the cross in the first place and then in the final moment we need to defend it better, but he’s not the only one culpable at all. It’s something that we’ve gone through, revisited this week, of course, as we’re not doing our job if we don’t look back at that, review and try and learn from it and work on it. But I showed him about 15 things that he did brilliantly in the game as well as that little bit because he was outstanding in the game.”

Digne’s cruel winner made it 16 goals that the Hatters have conceded in their last five top flight matches, at an average of just over three per game. Prior to that, Town had been in fairly miserly form, breached on just six occasions in five meetings, keeping their only two clean sheets of the season as well when beating Newcastle and Brighton. It means Luton have now picked the ball out of their net 54 times from 26 matches, only Burnley (60) and Sheffield United (72) having done so on more occasions. With 12 matches to go, Edwards is fully aware that needs to be better, saying: “We look a threat at one end of the pitch, I think we’ve scored level 13th for most goals, but we’re bottom three for conceding, so it’s clear where we need to try brushing up and improving.

“It’s an area that we’ve been really focusing on and talking about. Clean sheets are really difficult to come by in the Premier League, but that’s what we’ve got to aim for and we’re working really hard to try and keep improving. We’ve made huge strides and we look a good team in many aspects at the moment. You’re never the finished article, so there’s always ways we can make ourselves better, but we have got to try and concede less goals.”

Town have also made a frustrating habit of conceding late on in games, with Burnley, Liverpool and Arsenal all claiming victories in Bedfordshire this term when time has been running out. Edwards added: “There’s elements of bad luck, but some of it we’ve got to look at ourselves and make sure we’re better in those key moments. You have to take responsibility, we put ourselves in such a good position like we did against Arsenal or Liverpool when we conceded late and I suppose the best teams are the best teams because they keep going, they find a way to win.

"We are where we are as we’ve just let ourselves down in certain moments. I’ve got to take that responsibility, we all do collectively, we’re working hard on it to make sure we stay concentrated and focused, all of the time, 100 minutes plus. There’s areas we can work with individuals to try and eradicate little errors, but we’re human beings and when you put so much effort in, play really well and deserve to get something from the game, we need to make sure we do. It’s not difficult to pick the lads up from those disappointments because we performed really, really well, pushed Aston Villa all the way, and we can take a lot of the good things from it, but we know we need to improve in certain areas.”