Edwards on injuries, being 'proud' and home atmosphere
- Published
Rob Edwards has been speaking to the media before Luton Town host Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
Edwards confirmed Teden Mengi is the only player who might have a chance to return on Saturday and said on the injury situation: "Still that way [bare bones of squad]. I don't anticipate too many changes but we are making progress. There will be some players coming back but it will be a struggle for this weekend."
Being one point off safety with five games remaining is a situation Edwards said the Hatters "would have taken": "At the beginning, we knew it would come down to the final five games. We are cool about that - we have spoken about that. [Manchester] City was never going to be defining but the next five will be. We know how important they are. Our aim - we know it will be difficult - is to pick up points in all those games."
On being used to pressure: "We knew the fight we would be in so we are OK with it. We wanted to pick up more points of course - every team has said they have left points out there. I have seen a team grow in performance levels and compete with teams all season. Makes me very proud."
He added: "The players are realistic and know the importance of these games. There is no point hiding from it - we need to make it bring out the best in us."
On whether they can use the model that Brentford have use to sustain their success: "I think we have quite a successful model as well. I would say we have done pretty well. We do what we do - Brentford do what they do. We always get asked, 'could you do like them?', but we have to do what we do and we do it pretty well. Hopefully, in a few years people will be asking can they do like Luton do."
He said "five wins would be lovely" from the remaining games, but added: "That is difficult. We don't have a crystal ball and don't know what everyone is going to do. A lot of us are playing each other over the next few weeks. We know we have to win some football matches. How many that is we don't know."
On whether Kenilworth Road will now ramp up the atmosphere for each game: "As long as we are still in the fight, I think it will do. On the last day, if we are still in the mix then that will be an amazing atmosphere. We have three special games at home to come if we are still in the fight."
Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences
Listen to commentary of Luton v Brentford on BBC Radio 5 Live from 15:00 BST on Saturday
