In response to Luton earning their first Premier League point, proud Town manager Edwards believed that Wanderers’ draw was a’missed opportunity’ for Luton
Despite earning his team’s first-ever Premier League point in this afternoon’s 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Hatters manager Rob Edwards believed it was a chance lost for his team.
After visiting defender Jeanricner Bellegarde was dismissed for striking out at Town captain Tom Lockyer late in the first half, the home team had almost an hour with a man advantage before taking the lead early in the second half on Neto’s outstanding solo goal.
To their credit, the Hatters hit back on 65 minutes, Carlton Morris rolling his penalty home after Issa Kabore’s cross was handled in the area by Joao Gomes, but despite having 18 shots in total, they couldn’t earn a precious maiden victory.
“The way the game went, it’s an opportunity missed as we did dominate the game,” Edwards remarked in a post-game interview.
You really want to try and find a way to win when they get a guy sent off, but they have skill, so I think we deserved to win after being so dominant with 11 men.
“You’d all agree that Neto is a top player; we give over the ball cheaply, and he scores a fantastic solo goal.
“It did become difficult, so to then get something from the game becomes a bit more positive.
“I’ve got to look at the performance.
“The lads are flat, the lads are deflated as they all feel, everyone can see it who was here today, there was a win there for us.
“But I think it shows how hard the Premier League is, I think it shows how good you’ve got to be, you’ve got to be almost perfect to get anything from it.
“We were close to that, in terms of how we wanted to play but we haven’t won.
“I’ve got to look at the whole thing, the performance, the improvement, I know there’s loads more we can do, loads more we can be better at.
“But we’re competing and we’re competing well, especially in the last three games.
“We’re not giving big chances away and we’re looking a threat.”
After using his post match press conference to call on his players to deliver a performance that the home fans could engage with, Town set about doing just that.
Led by the flying Chiedozie Ogbene on his full top flight debut, as Carlton Morris almost capitalised with a curling drive against the post from 20 yards.
Edwards felt it was the best 45 minutes he had seen since taking over in November as well, continuing: “I’m really pleased.
“We were really aggressive, on the front foot trying to take the game to them, trying to provoke them, that’s what I talked about, that’s what the players went and did, but that’s what Kenilworth Road can do as well.
“We’ve got to make sure we know who we are and what our fans want as well, also what we think the right thing is to win a game of football.
“Last week (against Fulham) we were one thing, but I thought we played really well and should have got something from the game.
“Today I’m sitting here now saying we’ve improved again and should have won, rather than got something from the game, we got something from the game, but we should have won.”
After four straight defeats in their opening four matches, Edwards was relieved to get off the mark though, as he added: “I think it should have been all three, but I’m really proud of the players.
“The performance was excellent, it’s a really good day for the club.
“I thought the supporters were great, everything that we asked of the players, to give the crowd something to shout about, to get them involved, to engage them, I thought we did that.
“We started the game so well, probably the best we’ve ever played since we’ve been at the club, due to the level of the game.
“They couldn’t really get out of the game and we did really dominate the vast majority of it.
“One or two moments, but Wolves are going to have that as they’ve got some quality players, so overall I’m really happy, really proud, but we should have won.”
