Luton boss delivers Sunderland play-off fixtures verdict ahead of Stadium of Light match

Luton boss Rob Edwards believes his side can draw confidence from last season’s play-off campaign as they head into a two-legged semi-final against Sunderland.

The Hatters were beaten by Huddersfield at the same stage last season but have finished in the top six for a second successive campaign.

“We hope so,” replied Edwards when asked if last year’s experience can act as motivation. “You can’t guarantee that you are going to win football matches, but we can learn from that experience, we can talk about it. The one thing that I’m looking for is the performance, doing our basics and those things really well because that’s what has served us well throughout the season so far.

"If we do those things right you give yourself a good chance of getting a result, but we can’t guarantee that win so I can’t say ‘yeah, we’re going to go one step further’

“I feel that we are in good shape. We’ve got a pretty healthy squad to choose from, which is great as well at this stage of the season. We’re in as good a shape as we could be, but we’ve got to go and do it.”

Luton have known for some weeks they would finish in the play-offs after securing third place in the Championship.

“We’ve known for a few weeks, but this week there’s been a shift in the focus and I’ve seen that out on the training pitch, that’s really encouraging,” Edwards added.

“We always try to keep the game tight in any game. The game is all about scoring one end and keeping the ball out at the other so we always try and keep it tight. But we’ll always try to win the game as well.

"We’ve got our way to do it and Sunderland have theirs, I’m sure it will be an exciting couple of games, but we’re not going up there to just sit, wait and let them come onto us, that’s just not how we play. If a draw is a good result, only time will tell, but we’re not going up there looking for that at all.”