Luton have been handed a “great opportunity” to go on an FA Cup run with a fourth-round tie against Grimsby the prize for beating Wigan tonight, but boss Rob Edwards won’t allow himself to think beyond the Latics.
Town survived a late disallowed goal as they drew 1-1 at Kenilworth Road in the third-round clash, which set up a replay at the DW Stadium.
The two teams have since learned that a home clash with League Two Grimsby awaits the victor which would place the Championship outfits as favourites to reach the fifth-round.
Edwards said: “(It’s a) great opportunity, but like I said this last week, we can’t think further ahead than this right now, so the focus will be purely on Wigan.
“We’re well aware of the prize if we do win, but no game is a walk in the park and I don’t think anyone should get ahead of themselves at all, it’s going to be a real challenge (in Wigan), but one we’re certainly looking forward to.
“The players are in a confident mood as well, there’s lots of good things the other day (against West Brom) and lots of pleasing things for me.
“The big one that I know we always get from our lads, they gave absolutely everything, they ran themselves into the ground, and the stats actually backed that up as well.
“It was a tough game physically for the lads, they gave everything, we’ve got to go and make sure we do that again or you don’t get anything from the game.”
Wigan arrived in Luton last week on the back of four straight league defeats under new boss Kolo Toure, shipping four goals in each of the previous three.
But after the 1-1 cup draw, they matched that with the same scoreline against Cardiff at the weekend, and they’ve added defensive reinforcements in Steven Caulker and Ryan Nyambe, though both will be cup-tied tonight.
Edwards said: “Against us and Cardiff, they went to a back five and changed from a back four. Then two 1-1 draws so they’ve tightened their teams up from what they did previously.
“We’re expecting similarities to the last game when we played against them. It will be difficult to break that down but that’s when we’ve got to be at our best, speed the game up at the right time, try to move numbers forward and be ruthless at that end of the pitch.”
At least in the opposition’s box – and even 12 yards outside it – Luton have two strikers that are back on the goal trail in Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo, while Harry Cornick scored against Wigan last week and Cauley Woodrow found the net over Christmas.
“It’s great to have the strikers in confident mood,” said Edwards, adding: “Whoever we select, we know they’re a real threat for us, which is always very good. It gives you a lot of confidence.
“You don’t want to be going into a game thinking we’ve got to keep a clean sheet today because of that.”
While Morris’ long-range stunner would grace any goal of the month competition, if not the season, Adebayo’s header was more of a move that came from the training ground, as Edwards had previously spoken of creating and taking more chances like that.
He said: “There was more work that went into that, the free-kick. I would say, Carlton’s goal was more individual quality, which was great. You need all of that.
“It’s great to score set-piece goals. They’re almost like a free hit. We’ve scored a few from set-pieces now, one against QPR and the one the other day for Eli was great, but there’s a lot more work that goes into it than cross it and head it in. But it’s very pleasing.
“That’s not down to me by the way. That’s the staff behind me. That’s be Richie (Kyle, assistant manager), Dunnie (Simon Dunn, analyst), Trolls (Paul Trollope, assistant boss) and all the lads that put a lot of time and effort into those set-piece goals, so it’s a big credit to them.”
Tonight’s cup clash is the first of a double-header against Wigan in Greater Manchester, with a league visit following on Saturday.
Edwards said: “I’ll concentrate on this one first and foremost. Again there’ll be a couple of changes, but not many. There’ll be a little bit of freshness added.
“One or two that may be forced, but then it’s about – the bottom line is that we want to win the game. We want to go with the team that I feel is going to win the game.”
The manager will have Reece Burke available, while Luke Berry and Henri Lansbury are back in training, though the contest could come too soon for them.
