Luton Town boss says what's 'bugging' him ahead of Sheffield Wednesday clash

Luton Town manager Rob Edwards believes his side are starting to show signs of the attitude that saw them promoted into the Premier League as they prepare to host Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

Just 12 months ago, the Hatters were mixing it with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City in English football’s top tier after securing what some would consider to be a surprise promotion during the previous season. Despite picking up some eye-catching wins over Newcastle United, Everton and Brighton, Edwards’ side were relegated back into the Champions and their return to the second tier has been a difficult one.

A 4-1 home defeat against Burnley set the tone for the first month of the season as Luton collected just one point from away days at Portsmouth and Preston North End, as well as a home game against Queens Park Rangers. However, there was some light relief for the Hatters on Saturday when an early goal from Teden Mengi helped see off Millwall at The Den to belatedly rack up their first win of the season. The three points took Edwards’ side out of the Championship relegation zone - and the Hatters boss admitted there was a ‘big relief’ after securing a win before urged his side to take the moment into this weekend’s home clash with Wednesday.

He told Luton Today: “It is important, I’ve tried to remain fairly level and look at overall, but of course we needs results and we need points to keep buy-in and belief. We needed it, so it is a big relief, but there’s a bit that’s bugging me, I want to be able to do it better than that.

“We had to battle. It's funny, the worst we played with the ball and everything, but we found a way to win. Winning is obviously important, we know that and I'll never be disrespectful, but the game just became a fight, a scrap, and we had to deal with it really well. That was very, very pleasing that we showed that side of ourselves which we had in abundance when we did get promoted a couple of years ago.

"We are evolving and we are trying to change the team but that has to remain, so that was really good. We've shown a couple of times with clean sheets this season and we didn’t give big chances away in the last couple of games. Thomas had to make a couple of saves today, so there’s an element of frustration as I felt we could have got control of the game.”