Hatters chief felt Town had been 'sloppy at times' during first half of Royals draw

Luton boss Rob Edwards felt his side had been a ‘little bit sloppy’ during the first half of their 1-1 draw against Reading at the Madejski Stadium on Wednesday evening.

After an opening few minutes in which Andy Carroll missed a glorious chance for the Royals, the Hatters went on to absolutely dominate possession in the opening 45 minutes, with as much as 64 percent of the ball before the teams swapped ends.

However, they couldn’t get the goal their superiority deserved, Alfie Doughty striking the post from a free kick, Cauley Woodrow denied by keeper Joe Lumley twice, with another shot desperately blocked, while Allan Campbell fired straight at the home stopper too.

It meant they swapped ends with the scores still goalless, and on what was mentioned during the break, Edwards said: “The lads actually felt it themselves, the final little bit was lacking.

“We’d been a little bit sloppy at times at key moments, we had to be aware of them on transition and there were a few little things to adjust, but not much.

“A lot of the performance we were happy with, so it was just about tidying up in certain areas to be honest.”

After the interval, the Hatters fell behind early on to Carroll’s header, the striker then sent off moments later when picking up a second booking for handball.

Luton maintained their superiority against the 10 men, eventually hitting back to rescue a richly deserved point in the closing stages through Carlton Morris’s 19th of the season, which was also enough to secure a place in the Championship play-offs for a second successive campaign.

Edwards added: “We probably didn’t start the second half as well as we would have liked to.

"Sometimes you don’t want that break, you don’t want half time to come.

"They score from a set-piece and they’ve got something to hang on to as well.

"It was always going to be difficult to get back into and I’ve said it a couple of times, the lads keep going, they keep fighting.

"We don’t go behind often, but when we do, invariably we’ve found a way to get something from the game.”