Disappointed Rob Edwards not giving up on Luton’s survival bid

Rob Edwards refused to wave the white flag after Luton missed the chance to move out of the bottom three of the Premier League with two games remaining.

Although Edwards did not hide his disappointment about his side ­drawing 1-1 with Everton at ­Kenilworth Road on Friday night, the Luton manager insisted that they will not let up in their quest to stay up. Luton have drawn level on points with ­Nottingham Forest, who remain in 17th place thanks to their superior goal difference, and all is not lost yet. The mood could shift if Forest fail to win at Sheffield United on Saturday afternoon.

“We wanted a win,” Edwards said. “We threw everything at it. We tried. We were the team pushing right until the end.

Related: Elijah Adebayo strikes but frustrated Luton fail to put Everton away

“In the end a draw wasn’t what we wanted. I’m proud of the players, the club, the supporters. They stayed with us until the end. We tried to do all the right things. We’re still in the mix.

“On another day we could have won the game but we didn’t. We’ve got to keep going. We don’t have a crystal ball. It might be four points, five, six. It might be enough. We’ve got to believe it is. We go again.”

Luton, who earned a point thanks to Elijah Adebayo cancelling out Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s opener, trailed after Teden Mengi gave away a penalty for a clumsy foul on Jarrad Branthwaite.

“We don’t have too many ­complaints,” Edwards said. “Teden is going to have a fantastic career. It’s a learning experience for him. He held him for a bit too long.”

Edwards joked that he would “just go into a dark room and rock in a ­corner” while Forest are playing at Bramall Lane. “The boys are a ­little bit flat in there but we’ll see what happens tomorrow,” Adebayo said. “We’ll do what we have to do. The boys have everything, pushed them back and made them defend. We’ll see how it goes.”

Sean Dyche was aggrieved that Everton were not awarded another penalty for Mengi’s early challenge on Dwight McNeil. “I know there’s a lot of news and noise recently about ­penalties, but I’m amazed we didn’t have another one,” Everton’s ­manager said.

“I’ve seen it back and his foot has clearly gone on top of Dwight’s foot. That one, from the penalties I’ve seen this season, I’m very surprised they’ve not given that.”