The Hatters boss said: “It was disappointing in the end with the final result. I saw a performance that I thought we started the game very well, the first five or six minutes, then I thought we stopped playing with our normal intensity. It allowed them to get a foothold in the game.

“It’s different. There were different things asked of us today. We were going to be more dominant with the ball, and when we have that, we’ve got to know when to speed the game up at the right times, and we just lost that a little bit in the first half.

“I thought we regained it in the second half, and were the dominant team. I thought the game was really at only one end, so I was pleased with the second half performance.

“We created one or two chances, we hit the woodwork, we’ve had a nailed-on penalty go against us. It’s a penalty on Alfie. I don’t know what the point of VAR is if they aren’t going to over-turn that. I never moan about decisions, you know that, but that was a mistake.

“But look, if we aren’t going to score it’s important that we keep a clean sheet. We’ve done that. We are going to have to change the schedule now and we are going to have to go and do it all over again.”

With the league game at Burnley now brought forward to Friday night, ahead of a midweek replay at Bolton the following week, Edwards added: “We were planning to give the players a rest tomorrow, but they’ll have to come in now, we’ll recover and we’ll build towards the game on Friday. We knew there was a chance of that happening, and that’s it, we’ll deal with it.”

On League One high-flyers Bolton, managed by his close friend and former Blackpool team-mate Ian Evatt, Edwards said: “I thought they were good. They were exactly what I thought they’d be.

“They looked to try and take the ball. I thought it was hard for them against our press then to try and get any control really, so they are going to try and miss the press and go a little bit longer, but we competed well on the firsts and seconds, and it allowed us to get good control in the game.

“But if you allow them tine and space they will play, they will still try to do it even when they haven’t got some time and space. They are brave and they are well coached. They are a good team.

“We were better today, and we should be, but we haven’t won the game and now we’ve got to go and do it at their place, which will be tough. We know that.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for them. They have done a really good job, they are doing a really good job, you could see how tough it was today.

“The FA Cup is unique. That’s why it’s a great cup competition, isn’t it? At least it’s not thrown up an upset today, but we know now we’ve got to go and do a job to make sure we’re in the hat for the next round.”