Luton manager Rob Edwards has urged fans to get Kenilworth Road “bouncing” treat Nottingham Forest to the hostile home atmospheres that Watford and Sunderland experienced last season.
Town know a victory against the Reds will see them leapfrog their relegation rivals and move them out of the Premier League bottom three.
It’s arguably the biggest regular season game at Kenilworth Road since the 2-0 victory over arch-rivals Watford last term in their first clash with fans in attendance for 16 years.
Fans made their home ground a hostile place that day and it helped with Town’s intensity, which the Hornets could not live with.
That atmosphere was matched by the Championship play-off semi-final second leg against the Black Cats, when Town needed a win after losing 2-1 in the first game.
A 2-0 victory to the backdrop of a vociferous noise saw them to book their place at Wembley where they won promotion to the top flight.
Now the injury-hit Hatters are aiming to avoid an immediate return to the Championship, and though Everton and Forest both face charges for breaching the division’s financial rules, which could see points docked, Edwards has made no secret of not wanting to rely on that scenario.
Edwards said of the Hatters fans: “They’re going to be huge for us in this game. I think everyone recognises the importance of this game, so get in nice and early, get in when the lads are warming up and making that atmosphere, making their presence known straight away.
“Early on when the lads are out there warming up, create the atmosphere. It needs to be like last year, like the Watford game, like the Sunderland game in the semi-final.
“It needs to be bouncing and even if we’re not performing it needs to be bouncing to try and drag a performance out of the boys as well, because we are human beings, we’re not going to be perfect, there will be mistakes, there’ll be some difficult times in the game as well, when we’re going to need them more than ever.”
And after going 3-0 up at Bournemouth on Wednesday only to lose 4-3 in the second half, Edwards has called on supporters to steel themselves for a bumpy ride.
“What they’ve been brilliant at this year is even when we’ve fallen behind in games, they’ve stuck with us and the lads have really responded as well,” Edwards said of the Kenilworth Road faithful.
“So, over those difficult periods, they really fight for us, and they all know and it’s important, this will always be the case I’m here, but the team will always fight to the very, very end and we’re going to need each other. The lads are going to need the supporters and hopefully that will bring the best out of the players.”
The fans that travelled to Bournemouth in midweek all stayed behind to clap their team despite the gut-wrenching defeat and Edwards said of that moment: “They were trying to pick me up I think. We’ve got special, special supporters, they’re amazing and they’ve been through a lot.
“There’s been some difficult times this season, none of us like losing, I’m certainly not expecting the fans to like it either, but I think we’ve got such an understanding group of supporters, who of course are competitive and desperate for us to win and do well, but I think they’re very intelligent as well.
“They can see the players are giving everything, they’d have been frustrated and angry as we were the other night, because from that position that we were in, we should be taking something from the game but we didn’t.
“The fact that they were with us at the end shows just how special they are and we’re really going to need them more than ever, then it’s down to us to perform to keep the levels that high, but they’re a special group of fans.”
Ahead of the Forest clash, the Hatters have announced that, like the Sunderland game, they’ll be offering fans buy one get one free on drinks from 1.30pm to 2.30pm.
