managerinsight

Town boss Rob Edwards insisted he saw signs of real improvement in his side despite their 3-0 defeat at Chelsea on Friday night.The Hatters were going up against a team that on paper, cost just under the princely sum of £450m to assemble, with two £100m-plus midfielders patrolling the central areas in British transfer record holder Moises Caicedo and Argentina World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez.They dominated possession early on as expected, having the quality to take the lead through a fine solo goal from England international Raheem Sterling, himself a £47.5m acquisition last summer.Luton boss Rob Edwards greets opposite number Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge - pic: Liam SmithTown weren’t without their spells of pressure though, particularly before and after the break, but crucially they couldn’t find the net, Ryan Giles’ deflected shot saved by Robert Sanchez the closest they came.Sterling then added a second with 68 minutes gone, while Senegalese forward Nicholas Jackson, who cost a mere £31.8m, still far more than Town’s entire squad was put together for, completed the scoring.Despite that, Edwards felt Luton had been better than their opening day 4-1 reverse at Brighton & Hove Albion, saying: “We don't like losing, I’ve got to stress that.“We know we want to win games, we know we want to get points, but I've seen improvement from 13 days ago.“I saw we can compete with a top, top team for massive spells of the game, so that's a huge thing to be proud of and to take positives from.“The lads have reacted so, so well from Brighton."We’re going to be able to take loads from this game and a lot of it are positives, but we know there are areas we need to keep working on and improving, but we were competitive with Chelsea Football Club.“I’m not going to go through the numbers, we all know, they're a huge club who have won the Champions League a couple of times in recent years, so lets be honest, should we be competing with them?“But we did, so loads of good stuff.“Where we've got to improve now, is continue to work really hard, and those moments, at both ends of the pitch are really, really key now.“We did create half opportunities, and one decent one.“You don't get many when you come here, so we've got to try and be a bit more ruthless and then at the bottom end, if we get a little bit stretched we've just got to make sure we close those gaps really, really quickly."They've got the quality to pick someone out, they’ve got the quality to then finish it, but lots to take, lots of positive things.”Town looked like they might be able to cause an upset in the early stages of the second period, as they began to have the better of proceedings, none more so than when Giles went close.Edwards knows it’s moments like that they need to really drive home their advantage at this level, as he continued: “I felt we started the second half really well, very positively."We had the territory, it was in their half, we weren’t able to create loads of chances, but I felt we’re looking strong in this game now, maybe they were ready to have a little bit of a wobble."We had moments to cross, we just lacked that little bit of quality, that little finesse, we didn’t pick someone out."Ryan Giles had a good opportunity that was half blocked, probably our cleanest one“It was a big moment for us, you’re not going to get many chances here at Stamford Bridge, but that was a really well-worked opportunity and really they defended it well as they got the block.“Then the game was going a bit more end-to-end, getting a bit stretched, and clearly then they become very dangerous as well, but because we’re in the game you can't change too much."You’ve got to hope that we can see any dangerous moments out, that second goal probably deflated us a little bit, we've got to make sure that we learn that third one doesn’t come, because even at 2-0 you’re still in the game.”After being breached by Sterling’s close-range finish for the crucial second goal, and then conceding again shortly afterwards, Jackson prodding home, with 15 minutes to go, there was a worry Town could go under and their goal difference take a hit.However, they didn’t and almost grabbed a consolation for the 3,054 away fans to celebrate, substitute Jacob Brown going close, lofting his effort off target when looking to capitalise on some defensive hesitancy.Edwards added: “I’m extremely proud of the group, as I saw full commitment to the gameplan, saw a group that stayed together right to the very, very end, didn't go under, and it competed with a brilliant football team.“I can see a real cohesion in the group, well organised, and a commitment there as well, so there’s a lot of good things, but we don’t like losing, none of us like losing and we want to pick up points.“We're a new group as well, I've got to stress that."There's a lot of new players there experiencing Premier League football for the first time and it doesn't get more difficult than Brighton away and Chelsea away.“Maybe one or two games, but we can take a lot from it, we'll learn and learn quickly, but I think we'll see more improvement in a week's time.”