Luton chief not shying away from checking out the Championship table during promotion run-in

Luton boss Rob Edwards is not shying away from keeping up to date with all the movements in the Championship table as the season enters its final stretch.

A quick glance at the standings will tell him that with 11 games to go, the Hatters are well placed, sitting in fifth, although some 10 points behind tomorrow’s opponents Sheffield United, who are favourites to go up automatically with runaway leaders Burnley.

More importantly, they are three points ahead of Millwall in seventh, who they travel to next month, with a further gap of six to the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Watford, who appointed Chris Wilder this week, the former top flight duo both expecting to be challenging for a top six berth.

Ahead of a week that hopefully starts at Bramall Lane tomorrow, if the game isn’t postponed due to the freezing weather conditions, with Luton then hosting Bristol City and heading to Sunderland, the division could have a very different look to it in just over seven days’ time.

Edwards will be keeping abreast of the movers and shakers though, saying: “I look at it, I’ve not shied away from that.

"I've said that after the games, I think everyone will be aware of it.

"Everyone will do things differently, but people that say they're not looking will be lying.

"Everyone will be aware of it, how much you refer to it, talk about it, lean on it, use it for motivation or not is down to you and your own group.

"But the lads are all aware.

"The boys have shown that, last year, they've been able to make the play-offs and this year is very, very tight and competitive again.

"I’ll maintain what I've been saying consistently throughout - with five games to go we want to be in there, in the mix.

"We've got a lot of difficult games to come but every game now it's going to be tough because a lot of teams are fighting for something, whether that's promotion or relegation.

"And the teams that you come up against in mid-table might be quite dangerous because they'll be playing for contracts or playing a little bit more free.

"So there's no easy game at this time. of the season.”

One step that Edwards hasn’t taken is to try and work out exactly how many points are needed to finish above the dotted line this term.

Last year Luton were sixth on 75 as the season before, 77 was needed by Bournemouth, with Swansea only requiring 70 in the 2019-20 campaign.

With the Hatters currently on 57 from 35 matches, Edwards added: “I haven’t worked it out as I’m no good at maths, but I get told what type of things will normally achieve it.

"Every season’s different and it’s not just points that is the biggest thing.

“You can have certain targets, clean sheets, certain amount of goals, goals against, whatever it can be, there’s lots of ways of looking at it.

"Ultimately, we can only control, I keep saying it, but we can only control what we can and try to get as many points as possible.

"That’s what we’ll do, work very hard in training every day and then just take it each game as it comes and that’s all we can do.

"We can be aware of what normally gets you in, but you can aim for 73 and it might need 77, so we’ve just got to roll with it and try to get as many points as we can.”