Rob Edwards says that Luton’s play-off hoodoo doesn’t mean a thing to his Hatters with the club hoping to make it seventh time lucky this season.
Town have never won promotion from any division via format and they head into tomorrow’s Championship semi-final second-leg at home to Sunderland 2-1 down after the weekend.
Town, who finished the regular season in third, must beat Sunderland who are on a ten-game unbeaten streak having ended the Hatters’ 14-games without defeat at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Tony Mowbray’s men are also looking for successive promotions via the play-offs after winning the League One shootout last term.
Though Edwards only joined Luton in November, last term Town suffered Championship semi-final heartbreak at Huddersfield.
Asked if the club’s six previous unsuccessful play-off attempts will play a factor in this season’s quest to reach the Premier League, the manager said: “No. That is a thing, but that doesn’t mean anything in the here and now, what’s happened in the past doesn’t affect what happens now.”
Six of the staring line-up at Sunderland were part of a Hatters squad that was decimated by injury at this stage last term, eventually seeing them knocked out to a late Jordan Rhodes goal at Huddersfield.
Edwards said: “I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it to be honest, apart from in the press, so I don’t see anything from us or the players at all, not spoken about it or mentioned it at all.”
The manager knows his men must improve on the below par second half showing at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, where Sunderland overturned Elijah Adebyo’s opener.
For Edwards, the plan is to: “Try and be the best version of the team that finished third in the league this year. That’s it. We want to attack the game, we know we have to win it to stand any chance of going through, so it’s pretty easy for us.
“So, our task is very similar to a normal league game, we want to try and attack it and win the game, obviously now this is a bit of a final if you like, because there’s something at the end of it.
“Going into the semi-final, we wanted to win it, we wanted to be in the best position possible, but at the same time, going away, to the Stadium of Light, you want to be in the tie and we’re in the tie.”
Asked why his side didn’t perform to their best in the second period on Saturday, Edwards said: “We didn’t keep the ball well enough and we weren’t quite as aggressive as we normally are, so we were a little bit more mid-press if you like rather than high.
“A lot of our transitions, we gave the ball back too quickly and too cheaply, so that was the main reason why. In saying that, and we could be a lot better in the second half, they score the goal from a short corner routine, they didn’t open us up.
“For all the really good players that they’ve got, they didn’t create many chances, or any chance from open play, so that will give us a lot of belief as well.”
Asked what his message will be or the home leg, which Luton must win to progress, Edwards said: “To be calm, to be ourselves, to do what we’ve done all season long, and try and be good at what we do.
“The message hasn’t changed from us, it’s go and enjoy it, try and enjoy it, and embrace it and attack it, be brave, those are the words and phrases that we use. That will never change while I’m here as manager, just because now this is a bigger game, that doesn’t change.”
