An Irrational Comeback of Luton

May 28, 2023 at 2:31 pm 1 comment

Wrexham’s return to the Football League after 15 years was one of the stories of the football season, but in Luton, where the airport is situated where I first set my foot on British soil, “an even more remarkable script has been written,” as the BBC reports: Luton Town’s Premier League promotion.

Having last been in English football’s top flight in 1992, the year the Premier League began, Luton have waited 31 years to take their place at the top table. As recently as 2014, the “Hatters” were in the National League – the fifth tier of English football. They had fallen out of the EFL in 2009 amid a financial meltdown.

Less than 10 years on, they are back in the English top flight. Following a 1-1 draw after extra time in the Championship play-off final, Luton won 6-5 in the penalty shoot-out over Coventry City.

Both goals in the game came after Luton lost their captain Tom Lockyer early on in the eight minute after he collapsed on the pitch, and the defender was taken to hospital where the club have confirmed he is “responsive and talking” to his family. Despite this adversity, Luton scored first and went ahead through Jordan Clark, but their half time lead was cancelled out by Coventry’s Brazilian midfielder Gustavo Hamer in the second half.

Luton Town goalscorer Jordan Clark said boss Rob Edwards had told them to win the Championship play-off final for Tom Lockyer after the defender collapsed in the opening stages of the match. Speaking soon after victory was secured, Edwards told BBC Three Counties Radio he was “only thinking about Lockyer”. He later told Sky Sports: “I just felt emotional. I feel for ‘Locks’, who has been our best player this year.”

In the shoot-out all of the five regular penalties and Luton’s sixth were converted until Coventry’s Fankaty Dabo blasted the 12th penalty kick of the shootout over the crossbar to send the Hatters to the Premier League for the first time.

Dan Potts wore the captain’s armband as he scored Luton’s sixth penalty.

Hatters captain Tom Lockyer, 28, was pictured celebrating in his bed after his team-mates had won the shootout, and they held up his shirt in their trophy celebrations at Wembley.

Luton Town is the first side to go all the way from the top tier to non-league and back. Their victory at Wembley completed a remarkable achievement for Luton boss Rob Edwards, who began this season as manager of the Hatters’ fierce local rivals Watford.

Just a year on from managing Forest Green to the League Two title, Edwards won his second successive promotion. He left Forest Green to take on the Watford job at the end of last season, but was then sacked in late September. He then returned to management in November when Nathan Jones walked out on Luton for a second time – and Edwards has now masterminded the completion of one of football’s great journeys.

Luton Town’s cosy and compact Kenilworth Road with a capacity of just a little more than 10,000 in the densely populated Bury Park area of the town is a throwback to a bygone era of English stadiums. Next season it will play host to some of the biggest names and teams in world football.

Supporters file into one side of the Oak Road Stand through what must be the most unconventional entrance in the land, with turnstiles sandwiched between a long row of terraced housing.

After clicking and clunking through the barriers, they are guided to a tight alleyway before ascending metal stairways that have the feel of being in the gardens of the adjoining homes.

Sparsely spread sheets of corrugated metal provide limited privacy for properties either side of the away entrance at Kenilworth Road (above).

Inside the ground, facilities are basic with limited legroom in the seats. Maybe that explains the title of Robert Banks’ s brilliant book about the ups and downs of a West Ham supporter (below).

Luton have already planned to build a new stadium at the site of an old power staton, where all should be different but next season will be played at Kenilworth Road which has been their home since 1905.

Luton’s biggest success was a 3-2 win over Arsenal in the League Cup final 1988. They also won the 2008/09 EFL Trophy.

The club’s nickname, “the Hatters”, reflects Luton’s historical connection with the hat making trade, which has been prominent there since the 17th century. The nickname was originally a variant on the now rarely seen straw-plaiters. Supporters of the club are also called Hatters.By this way there is a historical connection to Rapid, which was founded by the workers of a hat factory in Vienna in 1897 as so-called “1. Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club” and renamed “Sportclub Rapid” on 8 January 1899.

Luton Town was founded more than a decade earlier in 1885. The Hatters are associated with two very different colour schemes—white and black (first permanently adopted in 1920), and orange, navy and white (first used in 1973, and worn by the team as of the 2015–16 season).