Rob Edwards has urged players and fans to enjoy the fierce Bramall Lane atmosphere tomorrow when Town take on Sheffield United in a big Championship promotion clash – because Luton deserve to be in big games.
The Hatters are fifth in the division, aiming to cement a play-off place, while the second-placed Blades are bidding for automatic promotion, with ten points between them, so victory for either team could provide a boost to those goals.
The two clubs played out an enthralling 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road in August, but Town haven’t scored in their last three visits to the red half of the Steel City, with their last league victory coming in 1985.
But though United have only lost three times on home soil this season, the Hatters’ away day form is second only to runaway champions elect Burnley, as they’re unbeaten in their last six road trips, with four victories.
Manager Edwards said: “We want to enjoy it, we want to give our fans something to shout about, and I know they will, I know they’ll get behind the lads, they always do, their fans certainly will.
“It has to be one that we’ve got to enjoy, we’ll go and look around, as we walk out there, and they’re making a lot of noise, let’s go and enjoy it, embrace it and it’s got to get us going even more.
“I don’t want it to affect us in a negative way, this has got to get us going, we deserve to be here, we deserve to be in these games, the lads have been at this area of the table now for a long time, so let’s embrace it, let’s enjoy it, and bring out the best in us.”
While Edwards was at Luton Town Supporters’ Trust’s Meet the Manager event on Tuesday, his assistant Paul Trollope was in Reading to run the rule over Sheffield as they ran out 1-0 winners.
“We know them quite well,” said Edwards who beat the Blades 1-0 on the first day of the season in his previous role as boss of Town’s arch-rivals Watford.
“They’ve done very, very well, Hecky’s (manager Paul Heckingbottom) done a great job, they’ve got a lot of very, very good players and they’re where they are on merit.
“They can do a bit of everything, they can have a fight, they can have a football match, they can play through, play around, play over, they’ve got lots of strings to their bow, so both sides of our game have got to be really, really good on the day to get anything from them.
“That’s why they are where they are in the league, consistently now over 35 games, they’ve picked up a lot of points, so it’s a really good challenge, really good individual players and then obviously as a collective then they’re well coached.”
Luton have no fresh injury concerns ahead of the trip to Yorkshire, but it’s likely to be too soon for the return of defenders Reece Burke and Dan Potts.
Edwards said: “We’re pretty much as we were in the last game. Burkey has been progressing well. Saturday might be a bit too soon for him. On the whole, we’re doing really, really well now.
“Pottsy, I don’t want to put a timeframe on it. Not for Saturday. But as we were from the last game, but the ones that were out have improved, so we’re getting there.”
But Edwards is hopeful that the treatment room will be emptier as they approach the league run-in.
He said: “That’s what we all want at this stage of the season. It’s been a really intense period for everybody. That’ll be no different from any opponents. And everyone’s been feeling it a bit.
“People have been playing with knocks and pains, that’s just par for the course, in the Championship especially. But to have pretty much a fully fit group going into every game, because every game is important, it certainly helps us. It gives me some difficult decisions, but they’re decisions that you want to be making.”
