SAM PARKIN
Our guest columnist looks at his former club Luton’s revival
NEXT month it’ll be 30 years since Luton Town famously beat Arsenal at Wembley to win the 1988 League Cup. The team of Mick Harford, Steve Foster, Brian Stein et al are rightly immortalised within Kenilworth Road but, as things stand, the class of 2018 will also be remembered with fondness in years to come.
Top of League Two since November, the Hatters are in touching distance of a return to the third tier for the first time in a decade.
A narrow defeat against Wycombe and recent dropped points against Stevenage and Cheltenham have given the chasing pack hope they can claw back Luton’s slender advantage that a month ago had stretched to nine points.
Catalogue
If they are to achieve promotion, it will be another huge step for a club well on the road to redemption.
I was part of the Luton squad that fell out of the Football League in 2009 and I’m really pleased the club are slowly getting back to where they belong.
Looking back over my spell at the club is painful – and only partly due to the catalogue of operations I underwent during those three years.
Administration, points deductions, relegations. There’s enough material from that time in my life to write a series of books.
It was a dark period for everyone, but none more so than the people who had supported the club since those heady days of the 80s.
As a player during those desperate times, I always felt partly responsible. I spent two seasons fighting a career-threatening injury, but naturally I’ve since questioned whether I could have done more.
The club was relegated from the Football League on April 13, 2009, a week after 40,000 Luton fans had watched us lift the Football League Trophy at Wembley.
It was a brilliant day, one of the best, a precious afternoon of celebration for fans that had a huge feeling of injustice towards the footballing authorities. Along with promotion this season, that vast support will be desperate that plans for a new stadium don’t suffer any more glitches in the months ahead.
It’s something that’s been talked about for a very long time.
Kenilworth Road is unique. It can be an intimidating place for visiting players, sometimes even the home ones!
It’s probably worth a good few points each season but, for the future of the club and the town, a new ground is vital.
If the move finally happens, it’s exciting to imagine what the club could reach for in the future.
Things on the pitch have been running a lot more smoothly. Manager Nathan Jones has quickly become one of the most highly rated young managers in the country.
Galore
His team have played the best football in the division, scoring goals galore and handing out some real hidings.
Jones will be hoping his front pairing of James Collins and the fit-again Danny Hylton can score the goals to get the job done quickly.
Scott Cuthbert and Alan McCormack are also nearing a return and their experience in these pressure situations could be vital.
Accrington have been the most consistent of the challengers in recent weeks and the two sides meet next weekend in Bedfordshire.
It could be a big day in determining the destination of the winners’ medals.
Three decades on from the club’s greatest triumph, I expect the Hatters fans will be celebrating once again.