Rob Edwards insists there is still fight in his Luton side despite a 3-0 slump at Leeds United, but was left frustrated as the players came “off piece” from a “clear plan”.
It was the Hatters’ fifth straight away defeat in the Championship and against the in-form league leaders the contest was effectively over by half time when Joel Piroe made it 2-0 with one of the last kicks of the half.
Sam Byram put Town behind after just 10 minutes, but it was thoroughly with the run of play as United dominated the visitors, who were left chasing shadows at times.
Town kept the Whites out until the stroke of half time, but the timing was killer as Piroe found the rebound from a corner, after Thomas Kaminski had clawed off the line.
Again, Luton frustrated Leeds after the break but it felt like delaying the inevitable which came in the 81st minute when a long ball outfoxed Amari’i Bell and Dan James lobbed Kaminski.
Edwards said: “The fight’s there. But there was poor decision-making and then big mistakes that we’re getting punished for. That has been a case for a long time.”
However, despite being comprehensively on the back foot, at just 1-0 Town had two big chances. Victor Moses saw one effort hooked off the line and then Reece Burke had the freedom of Elland Road to pick his spot but headed Carlton Morris’ cross disastrously wide.
Substitute Elijah Adebayo also saw a header hit the roof of the net and was denied by keeper Illan Meslier, who also beat away a Shandon Baptiste blast.
“I suppose if one of those goes in, maybe it changes things and the mindset and maybe the atmosphere or whatever, I don’t know,” Edwards told the BBC.
“But we did have two big, big chances in that first half. We weren’t able to take one, great clearance and we missed the target with the other.
“So, it could have been a different story, but it wasn’t.”
Instead, Leeds finished the game with 76.3 per cent possession, a stat that rarely dropped below 70 and at one point in the first half reached 79.5 per cent.
“Clearly they were the better team,” Edwards said, adding: “They are the better team at the moment. And, it looked like that tonight. But I think the frustrations for us, there was a clear plan there, and we came off piece at the wrong moments.
“We, we pressed at the wrong times and opened up too many spaces in that first 20 minutes or so, where we needed to make better decisions.
“We wanted to be aggressive, we wanted to press, that was the message. It’s always the message, but we’ve got to be able to do it at the right moment, the right people.
“Maybe a striker going too soon, which made a midfielder have to jump inside and then there were spaces on the outside and they’re good at finding those spaces.
“And from the sideline then, with 35,000 people, it’s difficult to make those changes when we need to make the good decisions when we’re out there.
“The goals are obviously the things that people will look at, goals win games and they’re all avoidable. They’re all very, very disappointing, particularly the second because I feel that that really then, right before half time again, it’s a real blow.
“We shouldn’t give the corner away in the first place and then we don’t deal with it. So, yeah, incredibly, incredibly frustrating.”
And Edwards admitted that life on the road is not matching their recent home efforts.
He said: “I just feel we’re – especially away from home. Not at home, but away from home – finding that balance of being aggressive then and not opening up spaces behind.
“This is something that we’re really searching for, which is difficult at the moment. So we don’t want to go up to ultra aggressive and gung-ho straight away in the second half, and open up too much. We’re in the game.
“And again, the third goal was really the final nail in the coffin. It’s game over then, but it’s avoidable.”
Be the first to comment