Edwards stays defiant despite a sorry return
LUTON TOWN manager Rob Edwards was cheered off by both sets of supporters at Molineux and is still convinced his team can end their Premier League survival fight with a roar.
The Hatters have won only one of their last 13 games, losing 10 to sit a point below the safety line. But they showed here that they will not be found wanting in their desire to stay up.
Their final three fixtures — at home to Everton and Fulham, sandwiching a trip to West Ham — also give them hope.
Asked if this performance was good enough to keep Luton up, former Wolves player, coach and caretaker manager Edwards said: ‘No, because we lost. But what I saw was a team committed and trying to do the right things.
‘I have seen enough of this group over the season to know we can cause teams problems, especially at home.
‘I believe we can do it and so do the players — if they didn’t, it would have shown. We have got enough there.
‘What we didn’t do was go away. We kept pushing and we can take that into the final three games.’
For all Luton’s desire, their Achilles heel is their defending and so it showed.
It was the first time Wolves forwards Hwang Hee-chan and Matheus Cunha had started together since December 27.
And the pair needed no second invitation to combine to put Wolves ahead in the 39th minute.
Cunha held off Reece Burke then found Hee-chan to his left. The South Korean cut inside Teden Mengi before burying a low shot past goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski that nicked off Mengi on its way in.
More poor defending saw Luton fall further behind in the 50th
minute. Toti Gomes met Mario Lemina’s first-time cross with a free header from close range that gave Kaminski no chance, after Joao Gomes worked a corner short to Rayan Ait-Nouri.
Wolves dominated, but failed to turn their supremacy into more goals as Nelson Semedo, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Lemina all missed decent chances.
Instead, Luton’s Burke headed down Alfie Doughty’s cross for Carlton Morris to volley home his 10th Premier League goal of the season.
Cauley Woodrow and Luke Berry went close to an equaliser late on.
Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil was delighted to end a sevenmatch winless run in all competitions and insisted being able to start Cunha and Hwang after being without them for so long was a key factor.
‘It was massive. To be unable to name those two since the end of December was huge,’ he said.
‘It’s amazing the difference having a couple of attackers makes to us.
‘We wouldn’t have scored Hee-chan’s goal in the last six or seven games. He gives us something very different.’