Rob Edwards wants the same again from his Luton Town side as they look ahead to battling Newcastle United in Premier League action on Saturday.
Key components and top performers were discussed before heading to Tyneside. As were the new faces at the club following the close of the January transfer window yesterday.
First, there was more that enough time to sift through the midweek ambush of Brighton - where the Hatters took just 18 seconds to open the scoring at Kenilworth Road, before finding doubling up a mere two minutes later. After the first two goals from Elijah Adebayo and Chiedozie Ogbene, Luton fought on to hammer in two more with man of the moment Adebayo, getting an historic first top flight hattrick in his career.
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Edwards wants a repeat of "relentless" Hatters in trip to Tyneside
Edwards looked back on Tuesday night's performance against Brighton with great pride, but also held a cautious stance to not overlook Saturday's opponents Newcastle. Eddie Howe's side come into this game after ending a poor run of form with an impressive 3-1 away victory against Aston Villa.
“We played well. I thought it was a continuation of a lot of the performances from the last couple of months. I thought for 99 minutes we were pretty relentless and committed to the game plan. We stuck to it and we got our reward for it.”
"The performance was good because there was a commitment from the players, an intensity, work rate - it was just relentless from the first second to the last. It’s how we play. Obviously I know people weren’t expecting us to be 2-0 nil up after a couple of minutes - we got our rewards early on in the game and we’re able to build on that."
With this notion of continuation, not culmination in Luton's Premier League progress, Edwards alluded to how he wants his group to approach the clash with the Magpies.
"In this game, against a different opposition away from home, the challenge is to go and back that up against a top team. That’s a big, big challenge but one that, I think, the boys are looking forward to and we’re ready for that challenge."
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Edwards delighted with hardworking Adebayo, but not just for his scoring
Of course, three-goal hero Elijah Adebayo had an instrumental say in Tuesday evening's victory over Robert De Zerbi's Seagulls. That said, Edwards subscribed to the view that no matter the tally on the former Fulham graduate's stat sheet this term, his influence and work rate are bound to reap positive rewards.
“Eli’s recognising that what gets him success is hard work. He’s been brilliant for us since he came into this football club. He’s a huge part of what we did achieving promotion. He’s been steadily improving, I think we all have throughout this season so far. I think it’s the hard work - staying consistent, with his feet on the floor. He’s (got to) keep doing the right things and that’s what we try to stress to everyone, really. None of us have made it yet. We’re a work in progress and we’ll continue to keep working really, really hard.”
A notable weapon in Luton's armoury against any team, is this fitness and will to hunt down the ball. Tuesday reflected one of the most effective Luton pressing examples in the Premier League to date, and Adebayo's involvement struck a chord with the manager.
“What pleases me is when good people who work very hard get success and that’s what he’s doing. He’s a really good person. You can get the headlines for the goals, but his pressing and his running is unbelievable. We got the press wrong against Brighton the other night where Jordan Clark jumped a little too soon and they found a spare man, like Brighton do, and Eli sprinted back about 60 yards into our own half to get back goal-side and force them back again. That stuff… that’s why we won the game the other day. When your number nines are doing that it’s pretty powerful.”
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Team news amidst Newcastle preview
In comparison to recent injury woes, Luton's squad update was relatively positive. Aside from the long term absences of Marvelous Nakamba and Tom Lockyer, of course, Edwards finds himself with near enough a full squad.
“We’ve got a couple more in. Issa Kabore is back from the AFCON. We’ve got Jacob Brown available again. So that’s really good. Hashi’s (Daiki Hashioka) obviously a new signing. He’s only come into the group and been in here a couple of days, so I don’t think we’ll involve him straight away. He’s going to come with us, but I think we’ll allow him to learn a little bit in at least a week before we ask too much of him. Teden Mengi is available as well. We’re in a good place.”
As Luton look to heave themselves further out of the danger zone with an impressive run of form that shows them unbeaten in 2024, and unbeaten in their last four away games - Edwards was still eager to outline just how quickly things can change at the highest level. A valid marker for this fixture, was the fact that Luton beat Eddie Howe's side in Bedfordshire. Edwards spoke about the potential for a double.
“We know it’ll be a different game. You know, their place St James’ Park has a great atmosphere and they’re coming off the back of some very good results and performances as well now. Things have changed quite quickly like they do in the Premier League. But the good thing is, we’re still in good form going to that game as well, so we’ll go into it with confidence and belief while recognising the size of the task we’ve got.”
On the talk of being unbeaten in 2024, the manager saw the funny side as things move swiftly on into February.
“It’s really good so far! (Laughs) Long may that continue. I was enjoying 2023, that was a pretty good year for us as well. I’m just enjoying life at the moment. We’ll keep our heads down and keep working really hard and keep trying to get better and we’re doing that at the moment - that’s the most pleasing thing.”
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New faces, with the same ambitions
Last time in press room, Rob Edwards mentioned his general dislike for the January transfer window. While this theme carried over to this week - he still had time to speak fondly of Daiki Hashioka from Sint Truiden and young Taylan Harris from Reading. On the latter, Edwards said:
“Young Taylan, we like him. He’s got an exciting future, we think. He can play anywhere on that front line and obviously he’ll have a lot of time, there’s no pressure on him to come in and work within the academy. Let’s see how far he can go.”
With Hashioka, it seems that the 24-year-old Japanese international has already made an endearing mark since arriving this week. Edwards happily broke down his new man's qualities and spared no detail.
“Great personality, first and foremost. Wonderful, wonderful lad. He can bring us some control, he’s good with the football. He’s aggressive and wants to defend, which is really, really important to us. He can play on the front foot. He’ll have lots of time, we’ve got to stress that we’ve got to be patient with him as well. I think the way we play is quite unique and you’ve got to be ready for all that because you’re going to have to run but he’ll do all that.
"He’s actually got a goal in him, but yeah he really likes to defend as well, so we’re really looking forward to getting to know him better and work with him further for a longer period of time. He can get to know us and what we want and we can really see his skillset close hand as well. It was a good one on the first night for him to see us. I had to let him know that it’s not like that every week!”
“He enjoyed it (against Brighton). He was up singing the songs, he was learning the songs - serenading Tom Lockyer even though he was a couple of rows down from him. He had a great night.”