Luton’s crazy rollercoaster can end with biggest prize
THERE is a lot of work needed at Kenilworth Road but a starting place might be to add a new line to a flag draped above wooden seats as the main stand meets the away end on Oak Road.
‘Luton Town — established 1885, betrayed by the FA 2008,’ it reads. Promoted to the Premier League, 2022? They are just three games away from doing so.
The flag is a nod to an English record 30-point deduction for financial irregularities which resulted in Luton dropping into non-League for the first time in the club’s history.
It completed a three-year fall from the Championship to the Conference. If it wasn’t for that calamitous dive, fans would scarcely believe the rapid rise back up the divisions.
To understand their ascension, it is necessary to recall the dark days of self-interested owners, gross mismanagement and fan boycotts. Luton were one of the signatories to the document that heralded the new era of the Premier League and its box-office TV money but were relegated in 1992 under David Pleat.
Things started to go terribly wrong in 2003 when John Gurney bought the club from long-time owner Mike Watson-Challis.
Charlatan owner Gurney had ludicrous plans: rename the club London-Luton to match the airport; build a 70,000-seat stadium surrounded by a Formula One track built on top of rafters straddling the M1; merge the club with Wimbledon FC; and link up with NFL and NBA franchises.
His 55-day ownership ended with sponsor and fan boycotts, which led to a £300,000 cash hole and, ultimately, administration.
A second stint in administration came four years later which saw the club fall out of the Football League. The five years there allowed the club to do a hard reset, with former Supporters’ Trust chair Gary Sweet at the helm.
Sweet, with backing from BBC News presenter and fan Nick Owen, straightened out Luton’s course with smart business practices and they were promoted again in 2014 under John Still.
Since then, the club’s league position has improved every season bar one, and the club have flown up the leagues with Nathan Jones in charge. The place was rocking on Saturday to roar Luton over the line against Reading and secure a top-six finish. Harry
Cornick scored the only goal of the game after he nicked the ball from goalkeeper Orjan Nyland to nip in and score.
Cornick, 27, joined the club in League Two. ‘I knew we were going to go through the leagues quickly, there is a special feeling about this club,’ he said. ‘My first game was a loss to Barnet. Now I can’t wait to see Pep Guardiola here tucked away with all those fans! (He gestures at the tiny stand towered by rows of terraced houses).
‘The gaffer is an infectious character, you just buy into him.’
Another to buy into Jones’ methods is emergency goalkeeper loanee Matt Ingram, who made his debut in a sobering 7-0 defeat at Fulham a week ago.
Luton’s success means Ingram must tell his wife their honeymoon to the Maldives is off again — first for Covid last year, now for the play-offs. Fancy a day in the sun at Wembley instead, Mrs Ingram?
Even opposition manager Paul
Ince raced to congratulate Jones. ‘I am so pleased for Nathan — we go back a long way, did our coaching licences together,’ he said.
‘Nathan was the one in the class who kept putting his hand up to ask and answer questions... I used to think, “Jesus, Nathan, we’ve been in here for two hours!”’
Luton’s rise has provoked fewer headlines than their demise but this is a superbly run club. The Hatters’ latest accounts show a £3million profit, while their record signing cost just £1.5m.
If Luton go up, the ramshackle but iconic stadium will need a new set of floodlights and upgrades to the cramped media box.
The fact ‘if Luton go up’ is a serious consideration at this stage of the season feels like a miracle. Jones, a deeply religious man, would disagree.
This is no miracle. This is a club with innate belief that has learned from its mistakes and is reaping the rewards.