Boss Rob Edwards says the Hatters can handle the pressure in their bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League ahead of Saturday’s game with Bournemouth.
With no victory in ten games in no small part to a crippling injury list, the Town have slipped into the bottom three and lie three points from safety.
But despite the situation, Edwards his confident his squad have the mental strength to deal with what’s thrown at them in the final seven games of the campaign.
“The players know the pressure will only increase but that’s okay because we can deal with that – we’ve dealt with it before,” said the manager.
“We had in last season, there was pressure with us to keep winning and we won the play-offs so we’re capable.
“The players have also spoken amongst themselves and they know what it means and they’re okay with the pressure. We’ve just to hope it brings out the best in us.
“It’s a huge weekend and a huge game. The players have spoken about winning, about focusing on winning a game of football – however we do it.
“We’ve performed well in this run where we haven’t picked up results but I’d take a bad performance if it meant we got a good result.”
A positive result against the Cherries could put pressure on the sides above the Town in the table – and the importance of the game is not lost on the manager.
“It’s an important game and one we can win,” said Edwards. “We had a tight game against them a few weeks back which we can take the positives from the first half and learn from what happened in the second.
“But we can only control what we can. That’s our work-rate, mentality and spirit. I want the players to play with emotion, passion and wear the hearts on their sleeves. Those are the things we can control – the result we can’t but let’s see what happens.”
Edwards also emphasised how much of a role the Hatters faithful will have on Saturday.
“The supporters will play a huge part and they know that,” said the manager. “All season they’ve been incredible.
“On Wednesday they were amazing and that gave me and the lads a lot of belief, especially when we went over to them at the end.
“They know they saw a team that kept going, kept fighting. They were proud of the bos and we’ll need them and we’ll need the place rocking.
“Watford was a year or so now, and those kind of atmospheres can play their part.”
