Luton Town travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend, looking to put their last outing firmly in the rear view mirror.
Last Saturday's heavy 5-1 defeat to Brentford at Kenilworth Road dented confidence, and added to a week's aggregate of 10-2 following the same defeat away at Manchester City.
Despite this, and the ever-swirling rabble of Premier League drama elsewhere, Rob Edwards yet again stood stoic in the face of difficult times on the pitch for the Bedfordshire club.
Still in the mix, the Hatters sit in 18th place on 25 points, a point from safety with four matches left.
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Team News
Team updates began in a rather solemn tone this week, as it was announced Issa Kabore's season was over. He was forced off in the first half against Brentford after picking up a heavy knock to his ankle. Edwards confirmed the worst.
"He’s got a high ankle sprain now so he’s going to miss the remainder of the season, which is really disappointing for us and for him more importantly. He’s been a real consistent performer for us, so that's a shame. He’s been great for us and been able to play in a number of different positions.
"He’s been really consistent, he’s learned and what Issa does, as well as anybody else, is he commits 100 percent every single day, every time he crosses that white line, so I’m really disappointed for him."
The final four games of the term bring about a more serious margin for error than before, of course. However, with Gabe Osho and Sambi Lokonga returning last time out - there's hopes that a good training week can push Luton on despite losing Kabore.
"(Osho and Lokonga) have been fine, they benefited from the game last week and have trained well.
"It was a little bit of a ‘welcome back lads, go and deal with that,’ straight in at the deep end, to a Premier League fixture, but they’re capable. I thought their performances were good, it certainly wasn’t due to them being out for a while - the scoreline, but they’ll definitely benefit from that and a weeks’ training as well.”
While another positive arrived with Reece Burke's all clear following illness concerns, the imminent involvements of both Elijah Adebayo and Chiedozie Ogbene seem postponed further.
“Eli is getting closer, tomorrow's probably going to be too soon, but he’s the next one off that conveyor belt of injuries at the moment.
"We’re pushing him, he’s pushing as well, but tomorrow is too soon. Chieo is still slightly behind Eli, there’s still a chance for Chieo by the end of the season, but it’s certainly way off this one at the moment, he was out on the grass on his own this morning.”
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Stinging defeat needs a better reaction against Wolves
Luton were bereft at times against an Mbeumo-boosted and Wissa-propelled Brentford. However, once the dust had settled and Edwards' apologetic lap of the pitch had come to an end, Luton's attention fixed to what went wrong.
"When it started going against us last week, it was probably the first time this season where we struggled to cope. It was almost like we all felt, 'we're supposed to be getting something from this' but Brentford are pretty good. We didn't cope very well mentally and it affected our performance.
This big message this week has been, obviously we've gone through the bits we got wrong, but it's back to our performance levels. We can't control the win, there's been too much made of 'we've got to win, we've got to win', the win will be a product of our performance and playing to our principles. We've gone back to that."
Luton's boss took accountability, before addressing this week's opponents, and his former club, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
"It was one game and it's been one game in 34. We've lost a lot of games this year (laughs) but we've lost them when we've been playing very well. This is the first time where we've been knocked down in a game and weren't able to get up."
Wolves sit in 12th place on 43 points, having scored 46 goals and conceded 54, and comfortably settled for another season in England's top flight.
"(Wolverhampton) is a club that's very dear to me. I spent a number of years there as a player and as a coach. It's a really special club, it'll be nice to go back but that's where it ends. All I care about tomorrow is Luton Town and our performance."
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Watchful eyes on Wolves and O'Neil
After drawing with the West Midland's side 1-1 at home in September, Luton look to better this result. While honours were even then, the two sides also share the two youngest managers in the division.
When asked about Gary O'Neil and whether the two's paths had crossed many times before, Edwards was brutally honest.
"Gary was a better player than me, so he was a little bit higher and no, only earlier on in the season when the teams met.
He's done a great job, he's obviously not been managing that long, but he did fantastically well last year with Bournemouth and he's back at it with Wolves."
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Keeping heads clear amid Forest drama and questioning of officials' integrity
Nottingham Forest were in the news this week when their dramatic tweet following a 2-0 defeat to fellow PSR-fighting foes Everton, claimed that VAR's Stuart Atwell was a Luton fan. This came after three penalty appeals were ignored. As Geoff Doyle of BBC Three Counties aptly explained:
"The outburst from Nottingham Forest at the weekend was extraordinary implying their defeat at Everton was because the VAR official was a Luton fan. The irony is Luton would have preferred a draw."
When it was put to Edwards, he reacted accordingly.
"I don't think anyone can question the integrity of our officials, first and foremost. I don't know who supports who, and then obviously we've been brought into it so I understand why you're talking about it, but I can't comment any further. I don't want to be drawing on it too much.
I don't want to be questioned, certainly in regards to the officials' integrity. Their job is difficult enough and mistakes can happen. People can feel aggrieved and I think we can maybe stick to that."
