Belief has never been something missing from recent iterations of Luton Town Football Club. We know this. From the self-powered will of the fans when ignoring the shouts that they'd be down by Christmas, to that brief window recently where dogged performances won over a plethora of scrabbling media outlets, Rob Edwards' side look to repay any support.
This motif continued in Friday afternoon's pre-Crystal Palace conference. Edwards discussed the squad at his disposal, point targets ahead of the international break, and just whether his currently 18-placed group have enough to keep on the trails of Nottingham Forest, AFC Bournemouth, and of course Palace - who welcome them at Selhurst Park this weekend.
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Team News
While the upbeat and motivated ideology is unavoidable around the training ground, what Luton can't avoid seemingly, is an ever-fluctuating injury list. Edwards provided key updates, starting with Amari'i Bell.
“We’re not too much better off. Obviously, we lost Amari’i. That looks like a lengthy hamstring early doors against Villa. It was actually the other hamstring to the one he was feeling.”
“Last week going into the game he wasn’t fully right but not a lot of the players are fully right at this stage in the season. You’re always patching one or two things up. It was his other side. Whether he was over compensating or whatever, we don’t know. We don’t know the full extent, he’s still got more scans today (Friday), but I don’t think it’ll be great news.”
For any of Luton's online following, there would've likely been a sense of optimism as images emerged of Albert Sambi Lokonga and Elijah Adebayo training this week. However, with the Hatters boss keen not to force things, the impressive fan favourites could be out for longer.
“It’s really frustrating. They’re pushing, we’re pushing - but don’t feel quite right yet. I don’t even want to say that we’ll get them for Bournemouth at the moment because I don’t want to get people’s hopes up and then let people down. It’s frustrating because they know they’re close and they’ve been out on the grass and been trying to push but they’re just not quite right. The issue that we have, is that if you put them in and you push, and then whatever happens to Amari’i happens to them, and then they’re out for a long time."
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While Mads Andersen is another that has posted footage of himself undertaking some rehab, one young man who has been doing no such thing is Joe Johnson. Edwards explained his starlet's struggles with recent illness.
"Obviously Joe’s not had loads of playing time but has been involved in the squad for a long time this season. He’s got glandular fever, so we need to rest him. He’s out for a few weeks really, and we just need to look after him and make sure he recovers properly - so no pressure on Joe at the moment. It’s just rest up and get better.”
One positive (at least) note out of that listing of injury woes, came in the form of Gabe Osho.
“The only one that’s going to hopefully be coming in and around it, is Gabe Osho. We’re going to give him as much time as possible going into this weekend.”
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Moving away from Villa capitulation was tough but key to Palace prep
When Aston Villa's Lucas Digne scored in the 89th minute at Kenilworth Road, the truly deflated stature of Rob Edwards was one very rarely seen this season. After that goal at the death saw the Villans steal the three points, Edwards looked simply bereft. The manager addressed whether that was one of the most frustrating defeats in his career thus far after what had been a truly remarkable second half fight back from being 3-0 down.
“It’s right up there. I just felt that we performed so well and I’m disappointed for everyone. Me, the lads, the supporters - there was a great feeling to that second half. We played as well as we have all season. We’ve had lots of good performances. To create the chances that we did and score the goals we did, it’s hard - they don’t concede many. They don’t give many chances away at all, they’re so well organised. I was just very frustrated in that moment but, you know, the sun came up the next day and you have to pick yourself up and go again, and we have done that. The lads responded well this week.”
Focussing on Crystal Palace while still looking back, Luton's boss responded to whether a potential league double over Saturday's hosts could be on the cards. The former Wolves defender's side enjoyed a 2-1 Kenilworth Road victory in December, yet it was words of precaution instead of complacence that followed.
“Like we always say, the second game is always going to be different. There are different things around it now, obviously. They’ve got a new manager as well. It’s nice we got the three points in that game, but it’s difficult to refer back to it. Different day, different set of circumstances but certainly again, we’re going to go into it and give everything to try and win.”
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Thoughts on a new face across the dugout's divide
Luton's welcome to Selhurst Park arrives as Austrian Oliver Glasner's third game in charge of the Eagles. Previously, the former Eintracht Frankfurt boss' side enjoyed a 3-0 win against Burnley, before a difficult 3-1 defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur last time out. Edwards offered his consummate thoughts on the opposition's new manager.
“There’s obviously a shift in style, a change in shape. But the players are the same players and it’s difficult to have a massive impact straight away, you know, that’s hard to do but you can still see the shift in style. You can see what they’re probably going to try and look to do. It’s really hard to come in and have a huge shift in style straight away.”
“They’ve got a front three. I know they haven’t got everyone fit but they’ve got a front three that’s very dangerous, well-connected and playing together, which is really important. They’ve got a tight back three as well that are going to do the same but obviously the opposite - try and make it very, very difficult for us to get through in behind them. They’ve still got a lot of Premier League experience in that squad and players that have got that out on the pitch so, we recognise we’re going up against a good team and a team that, at the moment, are showing some good belief and confidence."
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12 games to go... 'must-win' territory?
Previously, Jordan Clark was quoted as describing the Premier League run in of 13 games as '13 cup finals'. With one down and 12 to go, Edwards was asked whether his group had stepped into a spell of must-win games.
“We know, again, that every game and the closer we get, they ramp up and the importance grows. This is the next game, it’s the most important one, it’s the next opportunity for us. I know I always say that, but it is. It’s not a must-win because it doesn’t relegate us tomorrow if we don’t win, but clearly we’re in a different position if we do or we can take something from the game. We can’t put that pressure on ourselves, but we do recognise the importance of it as well and we’ve spoken about that. Whenever we’ve challenged the players in the past, they’ve responded really well, so we know it’s a big game as are all the 12 games coming up for us.”
Adding to this sentiment before the international break, the former Welsh international approached the topic of targets. Being one that has worked from a deduction-less table, Edwards looked to (unsurprisingly) take every game as it comes. That said, it didn't stop him from keeping a quiet number in mind ahead of facing three teams above in the table.
“We want to go into everything and try and win them all . So, 29 (points) would be great, but we know how difficult that is as well. We haven’t set a target, but we set our own little aim which I’m not going to share now we’re going into that international break. The players are on board with it as well. Like everyone at the moment, we’ve got our problems and our issues, and we’ve got one or two injuries at the moment but it gives opportunity to others and I like the team that we’re going to put out tomorrow."
"We are going to challenge them, we are going to try and win all three of the games but again, we know that’s very, very difficult to do. We’ve yet to achieve three wins in a row in the Premier League, we managed to do a couple, but yeah it’s a big, big week coming.”
A pleasant place to end, is Edwards' reaction to being asked whether he thinks his side can comfortably look back on this season knowing that they've given their very best, and whether they'll be Premier League players next term.
“I believe there’s enough here to achieve something really special and stay in the league. We’ve maybe changed people’s opinions of us, and shown that we’re alright. You know, “they’re ok, them. They’ll give them a game. They’ve got some good players and they play an entertaining way” and things like that but in the end, we want to achieve."
"It’s hard in the Premier League, to be winners. We can talk about how we’re winners, we want to be winners. We achieved something, we won last year - winning for us this in the Premier League year is obviously staying in the league. You’ve got to be judged over a longer period of time, so I want us to win.”