Woodrow labelled a 'brilliant footballer' by Hatters chief after his goal and starring role in Wigan victory

Town chief Rob Edwards was happy to see Cauley Woodrow bag his second goal for the club during last night’s FA Cup third round replay victory over Wigan Athletic, going on to label the forward as a ‘brilliant footballer.’

The 28-year-old has been involved in seven of Edwards’ first eight games in charge, only missing the opening trip to Middlesbrough with injury, and was handed his second start at the DW Stadium last night, having also begun the first game that ended in a 1-1 draw 10 days ago.

Impressing in the first half as he ghosted past two markers and scooped over via a deflection, Woodrow, who started in his preferred forward role alongside Elijah Adebayo, also put a header over and then delivered a wonderful cross only to see no-one had gambled.

It was after the break that he came to the fore though, as following the hosts moving in front inside 60 seconds, he drew Luton level just five minutes later, meeting Allan Campbell’s cross to force keeper Ben Amos in to a save, latching on to the loose ball to volley goalwards, referee Matthew Donhoue signalling it had gone in before Jack Whatmough could clear.

Dropping slightly deeper when Harry Cornick was introduced, Woodrow went on to chip the perfect pass through for Town’s substitute to have an effort cleared off the line by James McLean, while also seeing his own fierce drive deflected away.

On the summer signing from Barnsley, Edwards said: “It was a really good finish.

“Cauley’s a brilliant footballer, he’s really intelligent, we can play him as a nine, a 10, someone who actually plays a little bit in midfield as well as an attacking midfielder but I don’t want to do that too much.

“When you’ve got to go for it and get two forwards on the pitch, try to play Clicker (Jordan Clark) higher, he was doing a really good job for us, so he’s a really good footballer Cauley.”

The fact that Woodrow’s goal was an equaliser did slightly disappoint Edwards, as although he didn’t argue with the quality of Theo Aasgaard’s stunning volley into the top corner from 18 yard, he did question his own side’s defending, adding: “It was disappointing.

"We got hold of it, we gave the ball away and then got first contact on the long throw and then he smashed it on the volley from 18 yards.

"We should have been dealing with that second phase on the edge of the box, so it’s something that we’ve got to make sure we switch on to.

"We practice them a lot and a disappointing start to the half to say the least, but we recovered pretty quickly into the game.”