Town chief confesses feeling sad after Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Oxford.
Luton manager Rob Edwards has fully accepted the criticism he has received in recent weeks, admitting that turning around the Hatters’ terrible start to the Championship is without a doubt his most difficult job yet.
The Town manager set out to win an immediate promotion back to the Premier League in the summer, but unlike the other relegated duo of Sheffield United and Burnley, who have lost just one game between them, Town, who have already been defeated four times, appear to be incapable of doing so at the moment.
Edwards has had a lot of success in his managerial career, leading Forest Green Rovers to the League Two title and then masterminding the Hatters’ promotion to the Premier League, where they looked like they could stay, but a run of just three wins from 27 matches saw some audible signs of disappointment during Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Oxford United, in which the Hatters squandered a two-goal lead and could have lost.
Town must improve soon, as they rank 20th in the table after eight games, with only eight points, and face the unbeaten Blades tomorrow, who are third in the table under Chris Wilder and have five wins. When asked if Luton’s next games against Watford, Sunderland, Coventry City, and West Bromwich Albion represented his hardest challenge to yet, Edwards replied, “Yes, certainly.
“It’s been a really challenging year never mind the last few months. Trying to pit our wits last year against the best, managing a relegation and then at the moment now, when there is a lot more expectancy and rightly so, and I accept that, we’ve got to find better performances and results off the back of it as well. So a big, big challenge and believe me, I’m hurting with it as much as anybody, I suffer as much as anybody with it.
“I’m a fan of the club as much as an employee and I don’t want us to suffer at all, so it hurts, but we’re working really hard to try and make improvements. People care, we’ve had loads of praise and we’re going to get criticism because the fans care, they expect more, we expect more and it hurts, it’s not nice. It’s probably the lowest I’ve felt, it’s not nice, but I promise people that we’re working really hard and we care as well to try and make sure we get the good performances back. Obviously people care about winning, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
On how he deals with such criticism, as having had his name sung with real gusto at all 19 Premier League grounds last season, even after the Hatters had suffered another heavy defeat on the road, Edwards continued: “It’s hard, you just get on with it, try and work hard.
“You review stuff, try and make the improvements, try and do the job to the best of your ability, try and look at areas that we’re not doing well in and work with people whether it’s out on the grass or in here to try and make some changes or adjustments. I try and look after myself which is difficult. You don’t sleep, you don’t eat very well as you take it personally and because again, we care, but I accept it completely because we should be doing better. We have a lot more in us than what we’ve shown, certainly in terms of results.
“The other day I was hurting as much as there was that 25 minute period where it wasn’t like us, it wasn’t a team that I want to see and watch. We lost control of the game for a period of time, but again I’ve got to give credit to the lads, they wrestled it back and then limited them to nothing after the sending off. So there were areas there that we can still hang on to, but it was difficult. We’ve just got to work hard and work through it. In the end, I can only say so much in your own head and your own thoughts, so we’ve just get on with it.”
The poor results have had an impact not only on Edwards, but also on the players. When asked how they reacted to Tuesday night’s outcome, he said, “The other day was really flat; from the position that we were in, 2-0 up, we obviously needed to win the game; credit again to Oxford, but we made too many errors and didn’t deserve to win the game.”
“But we didn’t see a team who had gone under and at one stage I was worried for us, but we made some adjustments and the lads worked things out to get something from the game, so we didn’t lose. When reviewing it, the performance for 25 minutes wasn’t good enough, wasn’t good enough, not what I want and not what we expect.
“Actually before that though, there was probably 30-35 minutes of really good stuff in the first half and we finished the game well, so it wasn’t the end of the world when you review it back in the cold light of day. Yes, we had a really poor 25 minute spell in the middle of the game where we conceded a couple of goals and too many big chances and we’ve tried to address the errors that we made.”
