Edwards lauds Town’s penalty preparation ahead of ‘perfect shoot-out’ against Sky Blues

Luton boss Rob Edwards praised his side’s attention to detail when stepping up to secure Luton’s place in the Premier League with a terrific 6-5 penalty shoot-out victory over Coventry City in the Championship play-off final on Saturday.

After 120 minutes couldn’t separate the two sides, drawing 1-1, a shoot-out was needed to see who would become a top flight side next term, with the Hatters going first

All six were on target too, and impressively so as well, Carlton Morris, Joe Taylor, Marvelous Nakamba, Jordan Clark and Luke Berry all giving City stopper Ben Wilson little chance.

The trouble was all five of Coventry’s takers did the same with Ethan Horvath as well, meaning it went into sudden death.

Dan Potts held his nerve to send Wilson the wrong way, before Fankaty Dabo stepped up only to miss the target, sending Luton and their supporters into dreamland.

Speaking afterwards, Edwards revealed the length of time they had to prepare for the possibilities of a shoot-out, plus his previous work with the FA, made sure his players were mentally ready for the pressurised situation.

However, asked if they had even taken six so well in the lead-up, he said: “Probably not, no, so for them to do it when it really, really mattered and counted, huge credit to the players for the control.

“To control their emotions as let’s be honest, we could all step up and take a penalty in front of an empty stadium, but what they must have been feeling, I can’t imagine it, incredible.

“We had a lot of practice and we probably had to do more than Coventry as we’ve known for three weeks longer than them at least that we’re going to be in the play-offs.

“So a lot of research and work has been going into that, not just the taking of the penalties, where we wanted to be, the different stations, where we’re going to try and stand, the breaths when you put the ball down.

“We knew the order, as soon as the final whistle went the order was done, even with the changes we made.

“So we felt very, very organised and prepared for that moment.

”I know myself and Richie both worked at the FA, there’s a lot of work the FA put into the penalty side.

“Speaking to a lot of people who have been a part of the play-offs and penalties and getting their footage and leaning on their experiences, we did that.

“And in the end, it was a perfect shoot-out for us.”