No more toothpaste for Edwards as Town boss jokes he might try some lucky pants to boost Luton's survival bid

Luton boss Rob Edwards joked that he might try out some new lucky pants in a last-ditch bid to aid the Hatters’ efforts to stay in the Premier League this season.

Everton come to Kenilworth Road tomorrow evening, with opposite number Sean Dyche having ditched his usual match attire of a shirt and tie after the 6-0 loss at Chelsea recently, opting for a tracksuit instead, which coincided with the Toffees winning three games in a row on home soil to successfully preserve their top flight status. Edwards admitted he did have some superstitions last year when Town were going for Championship play-off glory, but declared he might have to find a new one going into the first of Luton’s final three games which will decide their fate this term.

He said: “It does funny things to you football. Last year I was using the same toothpaste for about six months just on match days. I was scraping the barrel trying to get the last bit out, I was doing that in the play-off final, I was like, ‘come on, I need you today!’ So little things like that, you have your lucky pants don’t you, I think we’ve probably all got our strange little things that we do that have no bearing whatsoever on the end result, but you’ll do anything to try and get that win.

“I’ll do things in the same sort of order. Try and drive the same way in, try and take the same roads, same route, leave at the same time, dog walk at the same time, little things like that now. But when it hasn’t been a good result I might change it up and a different colour of clothing, or the lucky pants are no more and it’s a different pair, we’ll try and give another pair a go. We’ll do that tomorrow!”

Since beating Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0 in February, Luton’s form has dropped off badly, only winning one game from the following run of 14, suffering 10 defeats, as they have been unable to leave their position in the bottom three for the past few weeks. Town have also shipped 39 goals in that time, including 12 in their last three matches, but despite the stats increasingly against them, Edwards has remained unwavering in his belief that he will be managing at the higher tier of English football next season.

He continued: “No, it never has (changed). I know we’ve had some difficult moments, we picked up a really good win against Bournemouth and a really good performance, which probably got brushed under the carpet a bit because it was just about the win at the time, everyone focused on the win, but the performance was great. A tough game against (Manchester) City, disappointment against Brentford and an improvement against Wolves.

"We’ve only had one win, but some difficult games in there, so no, belief hasn’t waned at all. It’s there and we have to have that belief, that hope, we have to have something to really focus on and I’m big on that. We talked a lot about it last year, achieving what we wanted to. We spoke about that feeling of success and then how we get it as well, so the belief is still completely there. I can feel it with the players, the staff and our supporters as well.

"The supporters have been incredible and after every game you can see them with us and actually lifting us as well, and we’re really lucky in that respect. To retain our status in the Premier League would be huge, the level of the task is massive. As we stand right now we’re in the mix and we have as good a chance as anyone, I believe, to do it. It would be some achievement."

Although Edwards has been proud of how his side have gone about their first ever season in the Premier League, he is desperate to make sure it’s not just a one-off and they are preparing for another campaign in the top tier over the upcoming summer, adding: “To be at this level as a young British manager, there’s not that many of us that get the opportunity and I love it. I love being in the Premier League, I love the challenge of it and we all do, the staff do, the players do, supporters as well, and I think we’ve really enjoyed it.

"It’s been difficult at times for us, but our difficult moments have been different to a lot of other teams’ difficult moments. It’s been our first experience of it, we are a smaller club, we can handle losing games as long as we lost them in the right way. That’s why we’ve only really had a couple of dips this year, not many at all. So I’ve really enjoyed this challenge, I think it’s brought out the best in us and we don’t want it to end, we want it to continue.”