Amid all the jubilation after Luton beat arch-rivals Watford 3-0, Hatters boss Rob Edwards allowed himself five minutes to enjoy Town’s best derby day for 43 years before the reality set in that Town are deep inside another wave of injuries.
Despite a season’s best performance against the Hornets, the one dampener was that four players were hooked off in 20 devastating second half minutes.
Tom Holmes, Reece Burke, Tahith Chong and Tom Krauß departed, leaving Mark McGuinness as the only recognised centre half in the middle of a right back and a wing back redeployed in the heart of defence.
Alfie Doughty and, with his first minutes of the season, Daiki Hashioka took to the task faultlessly, but after the hugs and the songs and the lap of honour and the giddy excitement, boss Edwards crashed out with not a clue who he’ll have at his disposal for the ominous visit of Championship leaders Sunderland tomorrow night.
Save for a week last month where it felt like a treatment table corner had been turned, it has been this way at Luton for eight difficult injury-crisis-riddled months.
While Kenilworth Road and the streets of Luton were a jubilant mix of relief and bragging rights retained, Edwards’ emotions were limited to “happy relief” and “five minutes on the couch”.
“I’ve just gone in and collapsed on the sofa, after I’ve spoken to the players for five, 10 minutes,” Edwards said, adding: “It’s been a stressful period and it still will be because, now, what team will I pick on Wednesday? I’m pretty drained right now.
“It’s just a real challenge at the moment because we lost a centre back at half time. We lost the centre back during the second half. We finished off with two wing backs, wingers really, at centre back.
“Young kid came on in JJ (Joe Johnson) and it’s a big game for him to come into, almost out from the cold.”
Beating bitter rivals Watford was only Luton’s fifth victory of the entirety of 2024 to date, a year which began with going unbeaten in January amid a sense that Edwards’ men were getting to grips with the Premier League.
Then came the curse of the hamstrings and having the majority of his defenders out injured, plus a few key midfielders and attackers, which must be now regarded as a hugely contributory factor in Town’s relegation from the top flight.
It turned a battle against the odds into an ultimately impossible task, and that miserable run that had leaked into the Championship campaign, which until the victory against Watford had barely given the manager room to complain about Luton’s rotten luck.
“I’ll do it when we’ve won because I don’t want to do it when we’ve lost, but this is incredibly challenging at the moment. It has been since February,” he admitted. “Again, we’re going to be dealing with it on Wednesday.”
Sunderland come to Kenilworth Road tomorrow, sitting top of the second tier tree and while the manager probably doesn’t yet know who he’ll have to select, the Watford display means he at least knows how he wants those available to play.
“Whoever goes out there, that’s the level, that’s the intensity we’ve got to play at,| said Edwards.
“The one thing we know as well is our supporters are intelligent. They know there’ll be challenges. They’ll get the message.
“I don’t then want to make excuses. Whoever goes out there has got to try and replicate that. And it’ll be difficult at times because, we might have to put a square peg in a round hole.”
With Amari’i Bell, Mads Andersen and Teden Mengi all still unlikely to be ready, while Reuell Walters has a broken foot, the main hope will be for defenders, especially as, after an impressive full debut, Tom Holmes only lasted 45 minutes.
Asked if it was concussion that kept the former Reading centre half in the dressing room, having been in a heavy collision before the break, Edwards said: “No it wasn’t, but he wasn’t able to continue. So we’ll see how he is as well. I think there were a few knocks that he took.
“He did really well. I’m disappointed that we lost him when we did. We’ll see how he is for Wednesday.”
Burke was next to exit, nursing a groin issue and Edwards revealed “He hasn’t trained for two weeks. We didn’t know if he was going be fit to play. Had an injection and trained a little bit (on Friday). I just can’t keep doing that.”
There was more hopeful news about German midfielder Krauß. Edwards said: “He was up all night. Wasn’t very well last night (Friday), so I thought his performance was really good. So, I think maybe he might be more illness. So hopefully he’s OK.”
While Shandon Baptiste didn’t even make the squad that walloped Watford due to “a bit of tightness,” Edwards added: “Hopefully he’s available but certainly won’t be fit I think to start at the moment still because obviously he’s only had 20 minutes, 30 minutes against Sheffield (United) a couple of weeks ago. So yeah it’s just making sure that we don’t then push him and break him. So fingers crossed for him.”
