Luton boss Edwards describes Oxford clash as 'not enjoyable at all'

Luton boss Rob Edwards described last night’s 2-2 draw against Oxford United at Kenilworth Road as ‘not enjoyable at all’.

The Hatters, who have made a largely indifferent start to life back in the Championship following relegation out of the Premier League last term, had a great chance to gain some much-needed confidence ahead of Saturday’s trip to Sheffield United when going 2-0 up against the U’s on home soil thanks to first half goals from Jordan Clark and Tom Krauß.

However, the newly-promoted visitors were never out of the game, a fact they demonstrated by cutting open Town seemingly at will, scoring either side of half time through Tyler Goodrham and Ruben Rodrigues to deservedly draw level. Once they had the equaliser, then with substitute Kyle Edwards causing havoc on the right hand side, it was they who looked the most likely to go on and win it.

With the Kenilworth Road crowd witnessing the U’s take complete control for a period of time, the home supporters began getting increasingly frustrated as their side couldn’t appear to do anything to halt the tide, with wave and wave of attack coming their way. It looked like it was going to get worse when midfielder Liam Walsh was sent off for a rash tackle just 36 seconds after coming on, but somehow, the dismissal worked in Town’s favour, as the 10 men went on to finish the contest stronger, going close to snatching a winner themselves.

However, it still led to some boos at the full time whistle and a muted reaction when Edwards went round the pitch to show his appreciation following the full time whistle, as speaking afterwards, he said: “That is something that we have to take, so I accept whatever anyone will throw at us at the moment as we’re 2-0 up and we’ve let that slip. Everyone will be saying you should win the game from there, at home, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against, at 2-0 up we want to win the game and expect to.

"But give them credit, they played well and especially for that 20, 25 minutes, they were the better team. But it was a difficult night, not enjoyable at all, the atmosphere was tough. We took something from the game, the position we were in at 2-2, the feeling of the place, it almost looked then like we were going to lose the game, so we’ll take heart from that last period there.”

The fact that Town did get a point though was largely down to the efforts of goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski. The Belgian had already made a terrific stop from Idris El Mizouni’s deflected drive in the first half, but when United levelled, he came into his own. Out to deny Mark Harris after he had nutmegged Teden Mengi to go clean through, the Belgian made a wonderful stop with his legs from Goodrham’s follow-up to prevent the midfielder from doubling his personal tally.

Edwards added: “It was massive, huge, a big, big, big performance from Thomas again. We don’t want him to be having to make those saves, but when he has to, he steps up with some fantastic saves there. Again, he’s doing his job very, very well for us.”