Rob Edwards wants Luton to take their fine Christmas league momentum into the FA Cup, but insists Luton can’t be complacent by paying any consideration to Wigan’s dreadful run of Championship results.
The Hatters go into tomorrow’s third-round tie at home to the Latics on a high of three consecutive league wins for at Christmas for only the second time this century.
Wigan, however, have lost their last four second-tier games under winless new boss Kolo Toure and that has left them propping up the division.
But Edwards believes the two clubs’ contrasting Championship form will mean nothing tomorrow evening, saying: “They’ve had a bit of a tough period but, for them, it might be a case of being able to use the cup as a reset and give them a different spark.
“Watching them in their recent games, some of the results they’ve had, the games have been tight. They’ve not been hammered, even though some of those scorelines have suggested, maybe, that case.
“We’re expecting a really tough game. We’ve got to make it a really difficult game for them and, as always, we expect our supporters to be right behind the lads and make it a fantastic place for us to play, and an intimidating atmosphere for them.
“We’ve got to make sure we do everything right to keep our momentum going and don’t give them a sniff or a chance to build any confidence in the game.
“We’re expecting a real tough challenge. Forget the results of what’s gone before. That doesn’t really interest me at all. We’re expecting a really difficult game.”
Luton have already tasted defeat to Wigan at Kenilworth Road this season, with the Latics shocking them with late 2-1 comeback victory in September under former boss Nathan Jones.
The Welshman’s successor, Edwards, said: “We want to make sure we put on a good performance, get our supporters going and we’ll need to bounce off each other, I’m sure.
“I’ve got to stress, this is not going to be a turn-up and win. No. That doesn’t happen in football.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against. We’ve got to earn it and we’ve got to do our basics really well. We’ve got to run and fight and do everything that’s got us a little bit of success in a week. That’s it.
“We’ve not cracked it or done anything yet, just because we’ve had a good week. We’ve got to keep this going and we know how we do that by doing what we do really well.”
With the aim of building on the momentum of the festive fixtures, Edwards says there will be some changes to his side, but they won’t be wholesale.
“There will be a couple of changes but I don’t need to go mad,” said the manager, adding: “I want to try and keep a rhythm and we haven’t got loads of midweek games coming up now either.
“One or two will get an opportunity but we want to keep the rhythm. We’re in a good moment and we want to keep that going.
“We want to keep that momentum and I stressed this, because it’s the FA Cup, we don’t come off it now because it’s not the league. We want to keep the momentum going.”
Town will have Gabriel Osho back in contention after his red card against Norwich and subsequent two-match suspension over Christmas, but for the injured quartet of Jordan Clark, Henri Lansbury, Fred Onyedinma and Sonny Bradley, the FA Cup clash will come too soon.
Edwards said: “Henri’s been progressing very, very well. He’s been able to do bits and bobs with us in training, with the team, so he’s getting closer which is good news. He’s looking good.
“Sonny’s still progressing. He’s taking a little more time and is a little more longer term.
“Fred’s getting on OK. I don’t want to put a timescale on that at the moment. I’m hoping that within the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to see him in action.
“Jordan had a very slight strain in his calf so he wasn’t fit to be involved (against Huddersfield) and that was why he came out. He’ll be back pretty soon.”
