Luton manager Rob Edwards is fully accepting of the criticism that has come his way in recent weeks as he admitted trying to turn around the Hatters’ poor start to the Championship is without doubt his biggest challenge yet.
The Town chief set his stall out to win an immediate promotion back to the Premier League during the summer, but unlike the other relegated duo in Sheffield United and Burnley, who have lost just one game between them, Town already defeated four times, look anything but capable of doing so at the moment.
Having had a large amount of success in his managerial career to date, Edwards leading Forest Green Rovers to the League Two title and then masterminding the Hatters’ promotion to the Premier League, at one point looking like they could stay there, a run of just three wins from 27 matches saw some audible signs of disappointment during Tuesday night’s 2-2 daw with Oxford United in which the Hatters frittered away a two-goal lead and might have ended up actually losing.
Town have got to rectify matters and quickly, as after eight games, they sit 20th in the table, with just eight points to their name and travel to the unbeaten Blades tomorrow who under Chris Wilder are third in the table with five wins to their name so far. With Luton then facing Watford, Sunderland, Coventry City, West Bromwich Albion, asked if it now represented his biggest challenge to date, Edwards said: “Yes probably.
“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 just how he deals with such criticism, as having had his name sung with real gusto at all 19 Premier League grounds last term, even after the Hatters had suffered another heavy defeat on the road, it hasn’t been the case as much in recent weeks, Luton fans growing increasingly frustrated with what they are witnessing, 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.”
It is not just Edwards who has been affected by the poor results, but the players as well, as asked how they took Tuesday night’s outcome, he added: “The other day was really flat, from the position that we were in, 2-0 up, we obviously need 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.”
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