Luton Town will kick off their FA Cup campaign on Saturday in high spirits, having enjoyed a positive start to life under the new management of Rob Edwards following Nathan Jones’s departure prior to the World Cup break.
On their return to action in December, and in Edwards’s first game in the hot seat, the Hatters would suffer a narrow defeat in a tough contest away at Middlesbrough, but they have since put three straight
Championship wins together, firstly beating Norwich City 2-1 before triumphing 3-0 away at Queens Park Rangers as Carlton Morris hit a brace and Alfie Doughty added an eye-catching third late on.
Having strengthened their position in the fight for playoff places with those results, the Bedfordshire outfit most recently took on Huddersfield Town away from home on New
Year’s Day, and after going 1-0 down, they would draw level through Amari’i I Bellbefore Reece Burke sealed another three-point haul with a decisive 84th-minute goal.
Such a result saw the Hatters climb to seventh spot in England’s second tier, and now only trailing Millwall in the final playoff place on goal difference, they will briefly put their league efforts on hold and hope to continue building momentum with what would be a fourth straight win in all competitions.
After reaching the fifth round last season, before eventually losing narrowly to Chelsea, Luton will bid to book a place in the fourth round when they welcome a struggling Wigan Athletic side to Kenilworth Road.
Unlike his counterpart, new Wigan Athletic manager Kolo Toure has not enjoyed a strong start to life in his new role, with the Ivorian still yet to oversee a win.
He was also brought in prior to the World Cup break, following the dismissal of Leamq Richardson with the Latics struggling at the bottom end of the Championship, and they have since dropped to the foot of the division having won just one of their last 13 outings.
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On their return to action in December, the Lancashire outfit firstly drew away at Millwall before suffering a narrow defeat at home to Sheffield United, and they now head into the weekend on the back of three straight 4-1 defeats having been comfortably beaten by Middlesbrough and Sunderland after Christmas.
They then took on Hull City last time out and were again beaten by the same scoreline, despite Nathan Broadheadpulling the game back to 2-1 soon after the hour mark, as Tyler Smith hit a late brace to seal an emphatic away win for the Tigers.
Now desperately in need of a change in form, having been cut three points adrift of safety, and inspiration under their new boss, the Latics will hope to turn a corner starting with what would be an impressive cup triumph at Kenilworth Road to advance to the fourth round for just the third time since they won the competition and then reached the semi-finals in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons respectively.
