With the turn of the New Year comes a slight break for Luton Town, as they face Bolton Wanderers at Kenilworth Road on Sunday afternoon. However, as manager Rob Edwards made clear - his Hatters aren't looking to overlook Bolton under Ian Evatt.
Evatt, a former teammate of Edwards, is an all-too-familiar foe - and has Bolton firing on strongly as they sit second in League One, with four wins on the bounce, and as the second highest scorers in the league.
Ahead of the Third Round match-up in Bedfordshire, Edwards touched on a number of engaging topics. He started with his relation to the prestigious tournament.
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Edwards a believer of the 'Magic of the Cup'?
Rob Edwards comes across as typically positive and progressive in most outlooks and this was something he wanted to continue with the FA Cup. While he had played through nine ties back in his career - Edwards' mindset is clearly different as a manager.
“It’s a great competition. December was extremely busy. We had a lot going on, on and off the pitch. But January does quiet down a little bit with every game and the next one is the FA Cup which we’re really looking forward to. It’s an amazing competition.”
Now compare that to Rob Edwards the defender. How did he fare as a player? Surely there's some fond memories in there somewhere...
“Not really. I've never really had a cup run. It’s on the to-do list.”
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Team News ahead of Bolton
While there were the long term absences of Tom Lockyer and Marvelous Nakamba, Rob Edwards still found positives a-plenty as his Luton Town group have all but recovered.
"We’ve obviously got Locks and Marv out for the longer term. Other than that, everyone’s back and available or at least everyone’s back in training now. So, we’ve got as big a squad as we really could have at this stage in the season.”
Playing lower league opposition, it'd be easy to suggest that Town could rotate on Sunday. Though that came across as a real possibility, Edwards assured the media that the selection against Bolton would be as thought out as a game in the top tier.
“I’ll pick the team that I’ll think can go and win a game of football. This now, is the most important game for us. I’ll pick the team with that in mind really. I have said it before, I think we’ve probably got 16, 17, 18 people that are genuine starters for us so it’s really tough. (...) Each game offers different opportunities for people. There’s different strengths and weaknesses for the opposition and we’ll look at that. I’m pretty confident in the group we’ve got.”
"It’s probably too soon for (Dan) Potts, although he’s trained with us. Obviously it’s too soon to come straight into a game. Burkey’s been training a little bit longer than Pottsy but it’s still probably too soon to come into it from the start. It’s great that we’ve got them back with us and in full training now.”
(Despite AFCON) “He’s actually available (Issa Kabore). We’ve had this conversation as well, with the FA from Burkina Faso - so he’s someone that’s available for the game. He’s not going to their training camp. After that, he goes.”
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A look to Bolton and familiar faces
As said, Edwards played alongside Bolton's manager Ian Evatt. Part of that successful Blackpool side that won promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs back in 2009-10, Edwards made clear his respect for Sunday's Lancashire opposition.
"I know Evo really, really well. Former teammate of mine and he’s done a brilliant job. He’s been building that club now for a number of years. He’s had time and he’s showed that with results. Already won promotion, came close again last year. They are a really dangerous team, a confident team. They’re in good form and yeah it’s a very difficult game.”
“We had three years together at Blackpool. It was a successful time as well. He’s someone who, as a player, maximised what he was and did really well. He was a really good player and he’s taken to management very well, as well. Promotion with Barrow, he’s got a really good style. Bolton are a big football club and he’s been tasked with helping them, to reshape and rebuild them. He’s doing a very good job of it."
"He deserves a lot of credit. We will respect them and take them very, very seriously - as seriously as we take any team from the league that we’re in at the moment. They’re a dangerous team. Obviously in this game we’ll be favourites, so the pressure will be on us and we need to respond well to that.”
So, a bit of a new one for Luton with not being the underdogs. Contrasting this 'new' feeling though, there were still more familiar faces that presented themselves in Bolton's playing contingent.
"(Dion Charles) was actually in my first ever training session when I was going into coaching when I retired from playing. Richie (Kyle) was taking the session at Blackpool, he was in charge of the U18s and Dion was in that session. I was watching him, and we did some finishing with the forwards afterwards.”
“He’s gone on and done really well. He’s had to work really hard and earned it, Dion. He’s dropped down the levels and has fought hard to come back. He’s really excelling now. It’s nice to see."
"There’s also Jon Dadi Bodvarsson who I worked with at Wolves. There are others, they’ve got some real threats at the top end of the pitch. They obviously like to control the game with the ball. There’s similarities to a lot of what we’ve come up against in this league. I don’t see them changing their style, they’ll look to try and impose themselves, to try and play the way they do. So, we’ve got to be right at it to make sure they can’t.”
“It’ll be lovely to see Cam (Cameron Jerome), too. He was obviously brilliant for this football club in the time that he was here. It’ll be brilliant to see him.”
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Lockyer Update
To end this article, Edwards gave more positive news regarding sidelined captain Tom Lockyer. Previously described as "bored" at home, the manager revealed how the Welshman has kept busy amidst time off where he recently released a statement on his Instagram thanking all the doctors who came to his aid.
“He’s improving. There’s obviously more tests and things to come in the coming weeks. I’m going to go and see him after training tomorrow. I’m looking forward to that. It’s brilliant that he’s put that message out there. It’s good that he’s doing well, he finished off a big jigsaw puzzle, he keeps telling me. I was looking forward to trying and helping him finish that - so we’ll have to find something else to do.”