Townsend headed straight for the substitutes bench after placing his aspect in entrance, grabbing the Lockyer No 4 shirt which had been positioned hanging subsequent to the house dugout earlier than lofting it up above his head in the direction of the group who responded with extra chants for his or her hero.
Edwards, who was visibly emotional on the full-time whistle as he and his squad gave a lap of honour across the pitch, stated: “I’m an emotional wreck for the time being, my children are going to hammer me for crying once more!
“I’ve acquired to be trustworthy, it’s been laborious to focus on a sport of soccer this week with every part that’s gone on. My focus has been on Tom and his household, then there’s been a job to do in an essential Premier League sport.
“I believe the efficiency was most likely probably the most full efficiency that we’ve had to date this season. I believe we’ve been taking part in actually, rather well and I don’t assume it’s due to what’s occurred that we’ve received the sport right this moment and saved a clear sheet however we did discuss it. We wished to do it for Tom.
“I assumed right this moment we actually embodied every part that Tom Lockyer is and each single person who went on the market, even those that didn’t, supported one another, fought for one another and had been so courageous.
“He (Lockyer) textual content me earlier on saying he thought the three factors had been there for us right this moment and he jogged my memory that he’s okay, he stated cease worrying about him. He stated he’s bored already sat at house, and I believe they (Lockyer and his household) had been going to be watching the sport.”
Ordinarily the main focus would have been on what an infinite three factors that is in Luton’s push for survival, however the consideration understandably lied elsewhere on what was an emotional afternoon at Kenilworth Highway.
On the pitch, the defensive unit stood up properly to the duty of defending Newcastle of their captain’s absence. As anticipated, the house aspect got here underneath loads of stress throughout spells however threw their our bodies in the way in which time after time and when the ball did break by way of, the spectacular Thomas Kaminski was there to maintain it out of the online.
This was Luton’s first clear sheet of the Premier League season and a well-merited one given the hassle they put in. For all their attacking stress, the guests had been wayward in entrance of objective and had been made to pay for his or her missed probabilities.
Callum Wilson noticed a header properly saved by Kaminski within the first half in Newcastle’s finest alternative however the Hatters may have had a hat-trick of targets, twice hitting the woodwork by way of Ross Barkley’s swerving effort from distance which crashed off the bar earlier than Jacob Brown discovered the bar as properly early on within the second half.
It was a blunt efficiency from the Magpies, whose poor away type continues to carry them again as they push to as soon as once more qualify for the Champions League and boss Eddie Howe stated his aspect didn’t deal with the emotion of the afternoon properly.
“I’m very dissatisfied with the efficiency right this moment, particularly within the first half. We knew this was going to be a very troublesome sport, we knew the entire day was going to be powerful, clearly the sport and the way Luton play, but in addition the emotion of the sport and I don’t assume we dealt with that properly,” he stated.