Luton boss felt going behind against Blackpool might have helped after a first half he wasn't 'happy' with

Hatters chief Rob Edwards felt conceding first against Blackpool yesterday helped spark his side into life after a first half he admitted he hadn’t been happy with.

Ahead of kick-off, the boss admitted he had been concerned about going up against a side that Town were expected to beat, and it proved that way in the opening stages, with both players and supporters’ not quite bringing their A game, leading to a flat Kenilworth Road, the atmosphere a world away from Luton’s last home encounter, that a 2-0 win over fierce rivals Watford.

They were punished for their slow start on 28 minutes too, Andy Lyons heading a free kick past Ethan Horvath to give the Tangerines the lead.

However, the goal only served to have the desired effect on the hosts, quickly bringing them to life, Town levelling on the stroke of half time, through Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s delicate finish.

After the contest, Edwards conceded that going behind might have helped his players, as he said: “Maybe, maybe, I’ve got to be honest, it was a difficult first half.

“I wasn’t happy with it as we kind of anticipated what Blackpool might do and we probably didn’t speed our tempo up enough, but it’s really difficult when a team allows you to have the ball as well.

"Fans aren’t going to want us to just lump it and kick it out all the time, but we’ve got to try and find a good balance of keeping our directness, mixing up the diagonals, playing to our strengths and then just playing around and through.

"I just thought we could have recognised better moments to speed the game up, the quality could have been a bit better and our reactions on the turnover when we lost it could have been a bit better.

"It wasn’t quite like us, but I think that improved as the game went on, and maybe it just woke everyone up a bit and we thought we’ve got to start here.

"I do think we started, but we just needed a little bit more of a spark didn’t we, but we found that at the end.”

The Town chief had been eager to get his players in at the break and when asked if he had some stern words before sending them out for the second period, he continued: “A little bit from a tactical point.

"We allowed Richie (Kyle) and Trolls (Paul Trollope) to go a little bit more on the tactics and me to go a little bit more on the feel and what we needed to do.

"The lads responded really, really well as they always do.”

Respond they did, Luton going on to take the lead through Carlton Morris’s close-range finish on 72 minutes, Mpanzu quickly adding a third with a terrific strike into the roof of the net.

It was also the first time Town had scored three at home since Edwards took over in November, as he added: “I said to the lads, it’s nice to score a few goals as a lot of the games have been tight and today was as well in many ways.

"But it’s a nice feeling to get a little bit of a buffer, as we’ve had it twice recently.

"I know at Watford it was very late, but it was nice to be getting a few more goals as it’s good for confidence.

“We’ve been deserving of it in a number of games, and it hasn’t quite gone our way, but it’s good to be scoring a few.”