Rob Edwards believes all the pressure is on Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest this week, despite a major opportunity for Luton to lift themselves out of the Premier League drop zone.
Just three points above them are Forest, the team they’re aiming to leapfrog in the table, but the Hatters could do that tonight with a victory in their rearranged game in hand at the Vitality Stadium.
However, manager Edwards will have to mastermind it with a severely depleted squad, which this week saw Amari’i Bell’s season all but ended after a hamstring operation.
Surgery for the Jamaica international and a new injury to Gabriel Osho – who has just been selected for the Nigeria national team for the first time ever – means Luton are without nine senior stars, as well as teenager Joe Johnson, who has glandular fever.
But a last-gasp leveller at Crystal Palace on Saturday renewed hopes of avoiding relegation and the next four days could help shape their prospects.
“I actually think the ‘other teams are still under more pressure to beat Luton Town,” said Edwards, adding: “So, I think we can go into the game still as underdogs and we go and fight and do what we do.
“We put our own internal pressure on here. We have our own expectations and our own beliefs. The whole club and the supporters, we all know what we’ve got to do, so I don’t think there will be any added pressure for these two games.”
The manager added: “We know what the next couple of games mean, but we also know that if it doesn’t go well, results-wise, we’re not out of it either.
“We can make some real strides, but even if we do we know what we’ve got for the next nine games. It will still be strap in and make sure we’re right at it anyway. It’s not defining, it’s just important.”
On Town’s deepening injury crisis, which Edwards doesn’t expect to ease much before the end of the season, the Hatters chief said: “We’re up against it, a lot of difficulties at the moment and there’s a lot getting thrown at us, but it’s not going to derail us. We’re not going to let it knock us.
“If we’d been performing badly and not getting results then confidence could be lower, but I don’t see that in this group. I see a team with a lot of energy, enthusiasm, belief and we’ve got to maintain that.
“We’re not going to get results in every game until the end of the season. We’re going to get more knocks. We have to be able to deal with that and to get enough results to get us above that line (relegation zone) and then keep us above that line.”
