[themaclad]

LAST TIME OUT



FORM GUIDE

PNE 10 LUTON 13

MANAGER

Rob Edwards

On 11 October 2013, Edwards announced that he had retired from professional football at the age of 30.[31] He became Under-18s coach at Wolves, and his first season in charge (2014–15) was considered very successful by local newspaper Express & Star.[32] He was promoted to help Head Coach Kenny Jackett for the final two months of the season, and then to the role of full-time First Team Coach during the summer of 2015.

On 25 October 2016 Edwards was appointed interim head coach at Wolves following the sacking of Walter Zenga.[33] He took charge of two games – a 1–1 draw at Blackburn Rovers, followed by a 2–3 defeat to Derby – before Paul Lambert took charge. Edwards remained at a club in the role of first team coach until the conclusion of the season when he departed alongside Lambert.[34]

On 28 June 2017, Edwards was named as the new manager of his hometown club AFC Telford United.[35] The Bucks finished in 14th place in the National League North, 10 points outside the play-offs. Edwards left by mutual consent at the end of the season.[36]

Edwards was appointed as the head coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers U23 on 20 July 2018.[37] In his first season in charge, he led them to promotion to Premier League 2 Division 1, the highest level of youth football, for the first time in their history.[38]

In October 2019, Edwards left Wolves to take up a 'prestigious role' with The Football Association working as a coach with the England U20s.[39] On 24 September 2020, he was appointed as head coach for the England under-16 team.[40]

Forest Green Rovers
On 27 May 2021, Edwards was appointed Head Coach of League Two side Forest Green Rovers, joining the role on 4 June in order to be able to finish the season with his England sides.[41] After picking up four wins from his first five matches, Edwards was awarded the EFL League Two Manager of the Month award for August 2021 with his star striker Matty Stevens winning the Player of the Month award.[42] He won the award for a second time for November following three wins from three.[43]

Edwards then won the manager of the month award for a third time for January 2022 after picking up 14 points from six matches, including a 4–0 win away at second-placed Tranmere Rovers, moving ten points clear at the top of the league.[44] On 23 April, Forest Green drew 0–0 away at Bristol Rovers to secure promotion to League One for the first time in the club's history.[45] The following day, Edwards was named the 2021–22 EFL League Two Manager of the Season at the league's annual awards ceremony.[46] On 11 May, he departed the club following negotiations with Watford.[47]

Watford
On 11 May 2022, Edwards was announced as the new head coach of Watford, taking over from Roy Hodgson at the conclusion of the 2021–22 season.[48] His first game on 1 August was a 1–0 home win over Sheffield United with a goal by João Pedro.[49]


On 26 September 2022, Edwards was sacked as head coach after winning three out of ten league games and with Watford in 10th place.[50]

Luton Town
On 17 November 2022, Edwards was appointed manager of Championship club Luton Town, rivals of Edwards' previous club Watford.[51]

@LutonTown

https://www.lutontown.co.uk/

https://members.boardhost.com/lutonoutlaws/

[themaclad]

In The Dressing Room

Preston North End will once again be without striker Ched Evans, as he serves the second of his four-match suspension.

Ben Whiteman and Troy Parrott both made a return from injury in Saturday's Lancashire derby against Burnley, and they'll be pushing to start come Wednesday evening.

If Whiteman is to play any part, it will be his 100th appearance for PNE.

A Look At Our Visitors


Luton Town arrive at Deepdale in fantastic form, having lost just once in their previous eight Championship outings, accumulating 19 points in that run of fixtures.

The Hatters lost manager Nathan Jones to Southampton in November and, within a week, Rob Edwards came in to take over, and he has maintained Luton’s push for a Play-Off place.

Having lost out in the semi-finals last year to Huddersfield Town, the team from Bedfordshire will be hoping to go a step further this year for a shot at reaching the Premier League.

Going Head To Head


Games played: 51
PNE wins: 27
Draws: 10
Luton Town wins: 14
Last meeting: Luton Town 0-1 PNE, 13th August 2022

One To Watch

Leading the way for goals so far this season for Luton Town is striker Carlton Morris, who joined the club in the summer from Barnsley, who were relegated into League One.

He scored seven for the Tykes last term and that’s a total he’s already bettered during the current campaign, having netted 11 in his 29 appearances so far.

Morris – who is mostly used as a central striker – doesn’t have a great record of playing against North End so far in his career, however, having lost on each of his last four outings against the Lilywhites.

Match Officials


Josh Smith will referee his third Preston North End game of the season on Wednesday night.

North End have come out on top in both fixtures officiated by Smith so far this campaign, with wins coming at home to West Brom and down the road at Ewood Park against Blackburn Rovers.

Smith has refereed 23 games in total this season, showing 103 yellow cards and three reds.

MACS VIEW

The joy of a home game, this could be a record breaker for all the wrong reason, a sixth home defeat on the bounce has never happened, if it does Mr Fantastoc will be under serious pressure, my cup is over flowing with happiness remember at night game against the sameopposition last season three down at half time, hopfully no repeat of that but don't bank against it

[themaclad]

Preston North End 1 Parrott pen Luton Town 1 Morris

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Cunningham, Hughes; Potts (Woodburn, 72), Whiteman, Browne, McCann, Fernández; Parrott, Cannon (Delap, 89). Subs not used: Cornell, Lindsay, Johnson, Brady, Ledson.

Luton Town line-up: Horvath; Burke, Lockyer, Osho; Onyedinma, Nakamba (Berry, 85), Clark, Ruddock-Mpanzu (Lansbury, 71), Bell; Morris, Adebayo (Woodrow, 71). Subs not used: Shea, Potts, Campbell, Taylor.

Attendance: 13,903 (498 Luton Town fans).

Referee: Mr J Smith.

Another less than impressive home performance although insaying that they worked their socks off after Whiteman's meeting with the card of red.
Mr Fantastic made five changes from Saturday's training exercise defeat at Burnley, started well until reality kicked in after about 15 minutes when the mostly impressive Luton outfit took control of the game, their inability to put the ball in the net was to be their achilles heel.
The Hatters passed and moved the ball about and generally made us run around chasing the ball. Had two quickfire chnaces both saved by Woodman who had a decent game apart fromhis kicking ability which was wayward. The second save was exceptional.
Adebayo then easily brushed aside Hughes before firinghorribly wide but that miss was topped by Onyedinma who couldn't hit teh target from 12 yards.
Rare forays into the opposition withFernandez supplying most of the ammunition although in truth Horvath didn't have a great deal to do, managed to be level at half time however things were just about to get more difficult for the home side.
End to end stuff at the start of the second period then Whiteman's lunge with two feet at Mpanzu made te red card inevitable.
Backs against the wall but again helped by Adebayo's inability to hit a cow's arse with a banjo missed another sitter. The sending off seemed to disrupt Luton for a time but 17 minutes Morris just about headed home at the back stick.
Six home defeats on the trot loomed Town hit the bar that would have ended the contest, but we got an equaliser when the inconsistent Mr Smith spotted a hand ball in the area, Parrott duly blasted home the kick, could have won it after McCann's tackle sent Cannon onto narrowly put the ball wide of te far post so a point and credit to them for not giving up when the odds were against them.

Preston boss Ryan Lowe said:

"I thought the fight, the spirit, the togetherness, was first class, I've got ultimate faith in the group that we can turn defeats into draws and draws into wins. It feels a bit more like it, it's not the three points but it's one.

"I said to the boys at half-time that we had to get after them and then unfortunately Ben got the red card but I'm not going to stop Ben tackling, it is what it is.

"The lads rallied around after the red card and we could have won it, but they could have won it as well. You've just got to pull together when things like that happen and that's what they did.

"I thought Troy was fantastic, he's rifled it down the middle and I am really pleased for him and hopefully he can kick on now."

Luton boss Rob Edwards said:

"I'm really pleased with big parts of the performance and we've got to look at performances, but ultimately we want results. We want points on the board and I do feel like it was two points dropped tonight.

"I thought we got that goal, they had that man sent off, and we were looking completely dominant, as I really felt we were with 11 men as well.

"We kept pushing, we kept trying, but we weren't able to find that second goal, which I know I've said a couple of times lately.

"You can't do that much more then create the chances we created, and then it's down to the boys to either hit the target or be ruthless.

"That's something we're going to try and keep focusing on and keep hitting home, but what I'm really pleased with is the performance and how we did create the chances."