News

Luton – Has The Honeymoon Period Ended For Edwards

|
Image for Luton – Has The Honeymoon Period Ended For Edwards

A very contentious question but one which, I feel, can be debated by the Vital Luton fraternity.

Since taking over from Nathan Jones, I wonder whatever happened to him, Rob Edwards has been a breath of fresh air as far as Luton Town are concerned.

The side have started to play a more expansive game and Edwards style has endeared him to the Hatters faithful.

But, as they say, is the honeymoon period over, the initial tide of good fortune that inevitably dwindles as time passes by?

Now, I’m not advocating that we should be looking at a managerial hot seat change far from it, merely that now may be the time where Edwards has to battle through a bad phase in his fledgling Hatters career.

If we look at the fixtures Edwards has been in charge of, since replacing Nathan Jones, the results have been as thus:

• EFL – Middlesbrough (a) – LOSS
• EFL – Norwich City (h) – WIN
• EFL – Queens Park Rangers (a) – WIN
• EFL – Huddersfield (a) – WIN
• FA Cup – Wigan Athletic (h) – DRAW
• EFL – West Bromwich Albion (h) – LOSS
• FA Cup – Wigan Athletic (a) – WIN
• EFL – Wigan Athletic (a) – WIN
• FA Cup – Grimsby Town (h) – DRAW
• EFL – Cardiff City (h) – WIN
• EFL – Stoke City (h) – WIN
• FA Cup – Grimsby Town (a) – LOSS
• EFL – Coventry City (h) – DRAW
• EFL – Preston North End (a) – DRAW
• EFL – Burnley (h) – LOSS

15 games of which Luton have won 7, drawn 4 and have suffered 4 defeats, but, if we omit the FA Cup games and concentrate purely on the EFL Championship, the record reads, 6 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, with Edwards team taking 20 points out of a possible 33 available.

Indeed, the 3 defeats have come against Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion and Burnley, or a team closing in on an automatic promotion place, a team described as the best we’ve seen play at Kenilworth Road this season and a team running away with the title, in all honesty nothing to be that concerned about really.

The FA Cup though, is another matter, the 3-0 defeat at Grimsby can easily be described as the worst performance of the season so far, coming about due to a multitude of changes in the starting XI affecting our rhythm, in hindsight perhaps wrong choices were made, with a 5th round tie at Southampton beckoning.

Perhaps the ‘honeymoon is over’ jibe has come about due to the fact we’ve not won any of our last 3 games and have taken just 2 of the 9 points available.

But does that simply emphasise how tight, when it comes to ability, the Championship can be, after all, we’ve not plummeted down the table and are still occupying 4th place.

My conclusion is that we’ve nothing to fear, we’re not Watford, we don’t axe our manager after a poor run of results, we persevere, we hang on in there and we will be rewarded.

After all, I seem to recall that when Nathan Jones jumped ship for a second time, our ambitions were just about retaining our Championship status, we’ve come a long way since then, so I’ll finish this article with a familiar phrase – Crisis What Crisis?

But do you concur with my view or do you beg to differ?

Please feel free to have your say in the comment facility beneath this article.

COYH’s

Birmingham City v Luton Town?

Birmingham City to Win

Birmingham City to Win

Luton Town to Win!

Luton Town to Win!

A Draw!

A Draw!

Previous article by Mad Hatter

Edwards Calls It Right After Luton Defeat Against Burnley

Share this article

Welcome To My Tea Party!

12 comments

  • Chris winter says:

    With regards to your comment what happened to nj.i can tell you that to reboot his career he signed as a player for cranborne FC in the Dorset league an started his first game on Saturday and got an assist in the first 10 mins.sadly on 10mins he was injured an had to go off.Alan is unavailable to help him to busy with ours lol so anyone available ?

    • Steve Bahrain says:

      With all due respect, he was the best assist and chance creator in Europe, only got injured when he catered to outside opinions… God willing he will be fit next week.
      (Apologies, whilst the Saints fans are toxic, can’t help parroting a few gems in amongst there)

  • Steve Bahrain says:

    Regard Edwards, no fear or concern… Has been brave in selection, already started the groundwork for his planning on Summer by clearing some players in Jan and using loan system.
    Has been unlucky with a few injuries, penalties, poor refs and he can’t do much about clear chances from 6 yards sailing over Oak Road….
    IF we can keep performing (big IF as looked like a lot of attrition up against Burnley) we will keep picking up points.

  • Scotty says:

    I have no qualms about Rob Edwards. He is clearly a talented manager and has the right people around him. Nathan’s departure was ill-timed leading to the same difficult time for Rob to come in. He had no time to assess the squad so I am guessing he had little input in the transfer window. However, he picked up the reins, made little disturbance to the team and tactics while he bedded in and has slowly added some flair and attacking intent to proceedings. They are better to watch and his substitutions are mostly positive. What I like is that where Nathan would defend a one goal lead, Rob seems to look to score again. There are a lot of good teams in the Championship and most can hurt you on their day. We are clearly short defensively, and have had some poor luck with injuries, neither of which is his fault, and some inexplicable poor finishing. He can plan the moves and watch them lead to the opportunities, but he can’t legislate for open goal misses! It may not be our time yet, but long term I have faith that Rob with the backing of the board will be good for the club and its ambitions.

  • Chris winter says:

    Does Luton today monitor this site lol. Always a day late when we break news on here do you get think mh should get paid by them for us giving them a story.

  • Steve says:

    In a word NO ..forget grimsby as for the others tough point at Coventry Preston Burnley well if elijah could hit the target target we woukd of stuffed Preston and drawn to runaway leaders Burnley tgerefore having 3more points Edwards cannot be held responsible for elijahs wayward finishing

  • Les Jennings says:

    Les Jennings. I think Edwards has found his feet now. His first game against Middlesbrough if he had been here longer he would have substituted Bell before he got sent off and against W B A they looked a good team before we were two nil up and brought on Burke ? I thought we were brilliant on Saturday hope he will be a great manager.

  • Peter Atkinson says:

    I really CAN’t see where this article is coming from!! RE has joined ‘mid season’, inheriting somebody else’s team, and, what 20 points from 33 in the Champ; that’s NOT bad is it!! The teams we HAVE lost to are operating with a FAR greater ‘budget’ than us, and, as for the FA Cup, well, I think it was fairly ‘obvious’ that he was ‘prioritising’ the Championship with us, currently, sitting in the ‘play-off’ zone!! We have also, seen, the, return, of some ‘Luton Town’ football, rather, than the, rather, ONE ‘dimensional’ stuff we was seeing towards the end of NJ reign!! Even RE said that there, WILL, be ‘bumps’ in the road, and, lets see what team we will have to start next season, where, then, he SHOULD then be ‘judged’!!

  • Chris winter says:

    My original thought was is the bounce factor of a new manager at an end.And in no way a suggestion that robs not doing a good job just that things are now back to normal.

  • Roby says:

    Rob is a great guy , like his personality & honesty & character. That goes a LONG way to winning over the dressing room. Give him time !
    After the shoddy treatment he got at Watford he is WELL motivated to succeed . Have every confidence he will.
    Remember Brentford were knocking on the Premiere league door for YEARS ,including a heartbreaking collapse last game ! Then next season they went up & STAYED up.

    Sure a one seaon cameo could help pay for all the debilitating inflation to build Power court, but if we are patient might even STAY up for a while too.

    Have Patience ! glad we didnt get Critchley !! look at his record at QPR !!

    Nathan has lost his Mo jo for a second time on being dis loyal . His Christian faith doesnt look kindly on worldly ambitions & going for 3 to 4X the salary ! Whatever Divine help he had at Luton has clearly DESERTED him !

  • jimbo says:

    keep squeezing out good performances R.E. the future looks good.COYH.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *