Luton Town 'let themselves down' in the second half of their play-off semi-final first leg at Sunderland last weekend, according to Gabe Osho - and they were determined to avoid a repeat in the return game on Tuesday. Sunderland took a 2-1 lead to Kenilworth Road after coming from behind to win at the Stadium of Light, with their slick attacking football leaving Luton chasing shadows.
But it was a different story in midweek as Luton used their strength and height advantage to great effect, winning 2-0 on home soil and 3-2 on aggregate to book a place in next Saturday's Championship play-off final at Wembley. Osho admits Luton let their standards slip in that first game, but says they made up for it in the second.
"I think we let ourselves down in the second half [at Sunderland], but we spoke about it literally straight after the game," said the defender, who prodded home Luton's first goal from a corner in the second leg. "We knew we had [the return] game coming, it was going to be at home, we know the way we play would favour us in this as opposed to the way they play at their place.
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"So we just thought if we just do what we do best, we should overpower them and we did. That's why there wasn't really much concern after the Saturday game.
"We knew that coming back here would be a much different game and suit us a lot better so we knew we had to be ourselves and we were. Once we go ahead at home, we’ve recently been solid and I think we all knew, if we can keep a clean sheet you probably end up going through.
"It came to fruition, all that hard work over the last week or so, even since the away game, less so on the pitch, but more tactically, in the analysis room, between the players, all came good and we're through."
While Osho says the players were not unduly concerned after losing the first leg, there was criticism from Luton fans. He told LutonToday: "It was deserved as in the second half we were way, way below our standards.
"We knew that, the gaffer let us know that, obviously we don't really listen to what’s going on outside, but when you know yourself you don't need to hear that. We just knew we needed to go into Tuesday and perform better, be ourselves and we'd get the win."
Luton already had their two-goal lead by half-time on Tuesday, and he says Hatters boss Rob Edwards warned them not to sit back and let it slip as they had in the initial game. Osho said: "It's important as they have good, technical players, so if you sit in, chances are in 45 minutes they're going to create something really, really dangerous.
"The gaffer really got into us at half time and said make sure you do not do that and we didn't. I think we learned from Saturday, as Saturday we did sit in and they took control of the game.
"They have a few players that can produce special moments, that's what we realised in the first game. They can just not be doing much and then just come up with something crazy, so they still had little bits, but nothing of substance.
"We defended well, we knew it was going to be a tough game, so as a back-line we're really happy we kept their forward threats quiet."
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