Town chief admits his confidence has been knocked following Luton’s poor start
Despite being relegated from the Premier League last term, the Hatters chief was awarded a new four year contract in the summer, as he retained the full support of both the Hatters board and the fans to lead them back to the top flight at the first attempt, setting that out as his clear goal during pre-season. Those hopes have faded quite significantly after an opening 12 games of the season that has seen Town lose seven games already, including a demoralising 3-2 reverse at Coventry City last weekend in which they had led 2-0 just before the hour mark.
It saw the Luton manager come in for some stick from Town fans for the second away game running, having also heard chants of ‘Edwards sort it out’ at Bramall Lane before the international break after a tame 2-0 reverse. With the Hatters boss usually a figure who exudes real confidences, asked whether that had taken a dent due to their inconsistent form, Edwards said: “I think it affects everything.
“For me to sit here in front of you and say I’m fine, no, it doesn’t affect my confidence, I’d be lying. I’m a human being, of course it does. Any manager will have doubts over the course of their careers, and fears, and all of those sorts of things and you’ve got to then stick to your beliefs and what’s brought us success in the past and work really, really hard.
“Sometimes you come through it and sometimes you don’t and we know what happens when the results don’t change, that’s just the nature of the game we’re in. “It’s not a nice feeling losing games and we’re not in the position that we want to be in so of course it hurts, it kills me.”
On whether he takes the pressure of Luton’s struggles on the pitch home with him, or if he is able to switch off away from football, Edwards continued: “I don’t think anyone in this position does. You can try, however you do it, time with the family, or walk the dog, or try and watch a boxset, whatever it might be, but it’s always there. I try to as best as possible, I’ve got a brilliant team of people around me, and everyone shares it and feels it. We all want the club to be doing really and at the moment we’re suffering a little bit.
“It’s not as easy as just being able to flick a switch and turn things around. There’s lots of factors, but the stuff that we’ve got to try and and lean on is that there has been good performances, only last week, so that will give us confidence. When you’re around the place and on the training pitch it doesn’t feel like a group that’s struggling for confidence or belief, so that does give me confidence and belief that we can turn the performances into wins and then consistency as well.”
Leave a Reply