Luton Town manager, Rob Edwards stood by his decision to make ten changes in a 1-0 defeat to Exeter City in the EFL Cup.
The Hatters dominated the majority of proceedings but it wasn’t enough to secure a place in the next round.
The only player to stay in the starting eleven was Alfie Doughty, with Tim Krul, Cauley Woodrow and Teden Mengi getting some minutes.
Demetri Mitchell got the only goal of the evening before getting sent off for his second yellow card of the evening.
With two minutes plus stoppage time to go, the Hatters weren’t able to capitalise on the man advantage.
What has Rob Edwards said about the Exeter City loss?
Luton fans may have expected some changes, but ten of them, not so much.
Despite this Edwards stuck to his guns: “I stand by those changes, the rationale behind them.”
The idea was to get some minutes in the tank for those who have been fringe players so far, but it didn’t go to plan.
On the individual games, the manager said: “There were one or two good performances in there, so I don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush at all, but I do want more.
“There wasn’t a lack of commitment, wasn’t a lack of effort, I will never label that at our group, ever, but I want to see more devilment, more quality in that final third, certainly.”
The Grecians defended for their lives and were able to keep the Hatters out.
On Exeter’s defending, the Luton boss said: “We had a lot of the ball, they defended with six, but we’ve got to be better in that final third, no excuses, no excuses at all, it’s disappointing.”
This was of particular frustration to Edwards who wanted an EFL Cup run: “The team we put out, we wanted to go deep into competition we really did.”
Edwards was apologetic to the supporters: “It’s tough to take, it’s horrible to go out of the competition and I know how much it means to the supporters who have travelled a long, long way as well.”
A trip to an Everton side with just one win this season is next and picking up points against these sides is paramount.
On their next game, Edwards added: “It hasn’t worked and we’re going to have to pick ourselves up quickly as we’ve got a big game away at Everton on Saturday.”