No dwelling on the past for Town chief Edwards as he plots derby day victory over Hornets

Luton boss Rob Edwards doesn’t want to dwell on Town’s previous meeting with Watford this season when the two sides go head to head at Kenilworth Road on Saturday.

Back in October, and with the Hatters fans travelling down the M1 to Vicarage Road for the first time in almost 20 years, they watched their side go behind early on, before trailing 2-0 at half time.

It got worse in the second period, the Hornets scoring twice more to earn a 4-0 victory, the visitors also having Gabe Osho sent off for a rash tackle in the closing stages.

However, that day, Nathan Jones was in the Town dug-out, with Edwards himself was out of work, having been sacked by the Hornets a month earlier in favour of Slaven Bilic.

The Croatian has also since fallen foul of the trigger happy Watford board, dismissed just over a fortnight ago after a poor run of results, with former Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder now in situ.

It means that Edwards won’t be making a big thing of any previous history going into the reverse fixture in front of what will be sell-out crowd in Bedfordshire, preferring to concentrate on the present, as he said: “I don’t want to reflect on the past too much because there’s been a lot of change at both places since.

"We can’t affect what’s gone on before.

"What we can control is our effort, our commitment, our running, our fight in this game now.

"That’s all I can try to impact on this week and when the players go over that white line, that’s all they can do.

"So what’s gone is gone, that’s done, let’s look forward to this one.

“The past is in the past and this is a new game now.

"From that game, there’s two new managers in charge.

"There’s been a bit more change down the road than there has at ours, I suppose, but it’s always a big game.

"We recognise what it means to everyone and there’s been a little bit more preparation time for both teams.

"I know the international break means you’re missing some players, but a little bit of a pause in the league programme gives you time to breathe before it.”

Following the match, Town chief executive and lifelong Hatters supporter Gary Sweet apologised to supporters in his programme notes for what he deemed a ‘horror show’ on the day, going on to describe the performance as ‘inept’.

On whether there had been any chat between Edwards and his CEO ahead of this Saturday’s fixture, the current Town boss said: “It’s been good, really relaxed and really chilled.

"There’s been a few text messages with Gary, but that’s been it.

"That’s no different to normal.

"We speak very regularly anyway in the build-up to any game.

"I want to try to keep all of the guys involved in our situation and how we’re looking.

"They’re keen to know as well, because they care.

"It’s been the same, it’s been very calm, as it has been for any lead up to any game.

"But, again, I think there’s a lot of trust at the club, in us and in the players.

"We know what it means but we’ve been able to deliver so far on big occasions.

"We look forward to this one like we would any other, but in terms of what’s been going on from above it’s been just the usual.”

With a large part of the spotlight on Edwards as the first manager to be in charge of both rival clubs in the same season, when asked if he would be relieved when the game was finally over, he added: “I don’t know, it will depend on how the result goes to be honest, and how we perform.

"When you’re in a position like I’m in, there’s always pressure on every game going into it.

"When you’re a manager or a head coach, you can try to control as much as you can.

"You can work hard, be organised and plan as much as you can, but you never fully know what’s going to happen because the game is random as we know.

"We’ll be as prepared as we can and we look forward to it.

"My feelings afterwards? I’ll tell you afterwards. I don’t know right now.”