Coburn spent last season on loan at Millwall which he loved and, in an interview with the Northern Echo this summer, revealed that he’d decided before the end of the campaign he’d like to make the switch permanent.
That was music to the ears of Millwall boss Alex Neil, who was desperate to get the striker back to The Den, and all parties largely settled on the deal before Edwards was appointed Boro’s boss.
Edwards and his Boro side are today tasked with shackling Coburn when they come up against their former striker.
And for the head coach, there’s no element of summer transfer regret.
“It’s an interesting one. He showed a real desire to go and play and go there,” said Edwards.
“I know he’s come through here and people will have an attachment, but once players have made a decision and that’s where their head is at, I think it’s the right thing to do.
“Today and the other game aside, we obviously wish him well.”
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Millwall only just missed out on a place in the top six last season and are expected to again be in contention this term. They got off to a fine start, winning at Norwich last week, and they followed that up with midweek progression in the Carabao Cup, succeeding where Boro failed in their nightmare first round defeat to Doncaster.
Edwards said: “It’s certainly not an easy one [after midweek]. We want to focus on the good things we did last weekend against Swansea and take those into this game.
“Tuesday wasn’t a good night for us, so we want to show that other side to us we did last weekend.
“But Millwall are a very good side with a very good manager in Alex.
“They’ve got a really clear way of playing, and it appears he’s got a whole group there who he knows and trusts, which is a great spot to be in as a manager.
“He’s getting the most out of them. They know how they want to play, and they do it very well.
“We’re going to have to stand up to the physicality of it, but we’re aware they’ve got very good players as well.
“This is not me saying it’s just going to be direct; there’s so much more to their game than that. But certainly that other side to it, the defending set-pieces and stuff like that, we’ve certainly got to do those things really, really well.”
Edwards has liked what he’s seen from his players at Rockliffe since Tuesday night’s cup shock.
He said: “There’s been a good reaction from the boys, which I’d expect because they’re professional athletes.
“For whatever reason, sometimes the cup can cause a bit of a drop in the mentality from players. It’s not the message that was coming from us. But it happened and we want to see a reaction.
“But equally, our focus since has been, we won our first game in the league, we got a good start, and we want to try and build on that. Rather than dwelling on it too much, we have to focus on what is a big game coming up.”
