Rob Edwards admitted Luton shot themselves in the foot and weren’t “quick enough” or “slick enough” as they suffered a dispiriting defeat to Premier League basement boys Sheffield United.
How quickly football can turn after a week in which they bagged four goals against Brighton and played out a 4-4 classic at Newcastle.
The Blades hadn’t won on the road all season and still look relatively cut adrift at the bottom, so they had to win at Kenilworth Road to give them a sniff of survival and they were 2-0 up by the break. Town could not replicate their recent form.
Two mistakes from Gabriel Osho either side of ridiculous VAR penalties apiece – with Reece Burke punished for Luton and goalscorer Vini Souza for Sheffield, both for handball – somewhat cancelled out any controversy.
Still, Edwards said: “Neither were penalties, in my opinion. I don’t know what a penalty is anymore with hand ball. Neither players looking at the ball. Both players have got to jump and have their hands up. I don’t think either one was a pen. I don’t think ours was a pen. I don’t think theirs is a pen.”
Carlton Morris’ second spot-kick in a week, early in the second period, offered the hosts a way back in, but though they managed a season’s best 75 per cent possession, their final ball was severely lacking.
Instead, a calamity of errors saw United counter and Osho, after allowing Cameron Archer past him for the first opener, looked like he’d rescued the situation only to give away possession in Town territory.
The ball was swept out to Souza and the Brazilian blasted the third. And even with almost half an hour left to play, including time added on, it proved to be too much of a mountain to climb
“(It was a) tough day for us,” said manager Edwards, adding: We made a couple of errors that were really, really costly in the end.
“It doesn’t mater how much of the ball you have it’s what you do with it and we were punished.”
After Morris had slotted an identical penalty to the two he took at Newcastle last weekend, there was a palpable sense around Kenilworth Road that the comeback was on.
To Town’s frustration, but to the Blades’ credit, the visitors managed the situation well, while the Hatters were left to loft crosses and ineffective cross into the box for the defenders to hack and head away with glee.
And then it got worse for Town, against a United side that had only managed seven prior goals on the road, conceding 28 of a record 55 at this stage of the campaign.
“We were on top,” said Edwards, adding: “If we hadn’t made another mistake, we might have got something from the game. We shot ourselves in the foot with the third goal. We could’ve dealt with it in the middle of the pitch, we regained it around the edge of the box and lost it again.
“They were clinical when they got that chance at at 3-1 it’s tough and obviously they can really hang on to it, get bodies back and defend their lead, which they did very, very well.”
The manager added: “Goals change everyone’s emotions in games. We tried, we huffed and puffed. It’s all right having 70-odd per cent of the ball but it’s what you do with it.
“At key moments today we just came up a little bit short. And then when we did have loads of possession in that final third we weren’t quick enough, slick enough of precise enough.
“When we did get behind them, it was a wayward cross, not picking someone out, didn’t work the goalkeeper enough.
“So, there’s no complaints. Well done to them, they defended well and were ruthless when they got their chances.”
It was only Town’s second defeat in ten games across all competitions, but against the basement boys who hadn’t won on the road all season, it was a bitter blow after such positive form, if not always results, since the start of December.
Still, the Hatters remain out of the bottom three by one point and a game in hand over Everton, but with the Toffees losing at Manchester City it was a real chance to put some daylight between them and the drop zone.
They’ll have to try and do that when Manchester United visit Kenilworth Road for the first time in the league for 32 years.
It never gets any easier in the Premier League, especially once there is a sense you’ve cracked it.
