Luton Town F.C.

Luton Town F.C. are an English football team based in the town of Luton in Bedfordshire. They are nicknamed The Hatters due to the historical association of the town with the hat making trade. They currently play in the Football League Championship after winning theFootball League One title on April 23, 2005.

Their only piece of silverware to date is the League Cup, which they won in 1988 under the management of Ray Harford. They were on the losing side to Nottingham Forest in the 1959 F.A Cup final, and have never finished higher than seventh in the league (they achieved this under the management of John Moore).

Luton were members of the top division of English football for ten seasons leading up to the formation of the Premier League in 1992, but were then relegated and have yet to regain their place among the elite. By 2001, a series of crises - including narrowly avoiding bankruptcy - had counted against Luton's fortunes and they were relegated to the league's basement division. But they won promotion at the first attempt under manager Joe Kinnear and his successor Mike Newell has since taken Luton to within one promotion of Premiership football.

For some 20 years, Luton have been considering a move away from their cramped Kenilworth Road ground. In 2001 the club acquired a site near the M1 motorway but consent has yet to be given for any development.

History

Creation

Created by the merger of Luton Wanderers and Luton Excelsior in 1885, they were one of the founder members of the Southern League in 1894, and were the first professional football club in the South of England. They applied for membership of the Football League in 1896, joining in 1897 but resigned from the League in 1900 to re-join the Southern League. They moved to their Kenilworth Road grounds in 1905.

Rise and Fall

The Southern League became Division Three after WW I and Luton remained in that division for seventeen seasons. The team won promotion from the Second Division in 1954-55. Luton made their only appearance in the FA Cup final in 1959 losing to Nottingham Forest. They were relegated in the Fourth Division in the next few years. Recovery began in the 1967-68 season with the Fourth Division championship and was followed by a long spell mostly in the Second Division before winning that championship in 1981-82 under David Pleat">1981-82 in English football">1981-82 under David Pleat.

The Ray Harford era

In the mid 1980's the club became famous for instituting an "away fan ban" following a pitch invasion and hooliganism by Millwall fans. The ban and associated membership scheme was the idea of then chairman David Evans (politician). This led to the club being expelled from the League Cup in the 1986/7 season as they refused to relax the ban in order to allow Cardiff City fans to attend the two-legged tie.

The most successful years in the history of Luton Town F.C were the 1980s, beginning with the already-mentioned promotion to the First Division in 1982. Pleat maintained Luton's First Division status over the next four seasons before moving to Tottenham. He handed over the reins to coach John Moore, who guided Luton to a seventh-place finish before handing in his resignation and being replaced by Ray Harford. Harford inherited an impressive Luton squad including Les Sealey, Brian Stein, Danny Wilson, Ricky Hill, Paul Walsh, and Mick Harford. They achieved a famous 3-2 victory over Arsenal in the League Cup final at Wembley. It is the only major trophy ever won by Luton Town. But Harford was sacked less than two years later, in January 1990, with Luton battling relegation.

Relegation

Jim Ryan took over from Ray Harford as Luton's manager and was sacked after 16 months in charge despite securing First Division survival again at the end of the 1990-91 season. David Pleat was then appointed manager for the second time, but Luton were relegated on the last day of the 1991-92 season and have been outside the top flight of English football ever since.

Another Relegation

Pleat remained in charge at Luton until the summer of 1995, when he moved to Sheffield Wednesday. His successor Terry Westley was sacked in December 1995, after just six months in charge, and Westley's successor Lennie Lawrence was unable to prevent Luton from finishing bottom of Division One and suffering relegation to Division Two.

Relegation Number 3

Lawrence was sacked at the end of the 1999-2000 after four unsuccessful seasons which had seen Luton miss out on the chance to gain promotion. He was briefly replaced by Ricky Hill, who was in charge until November 2000 when Luton's terrible performances in Division Two cost him his job. He was in turn replaced by another Luton legend Lil Fuccillo, who was also sacked within months. Former Wimbledon manager Joe Kinnear took over but was unable to prevent Luton from sliding into the bottom division of the league for the first time in over 30 years.

Success at last

Kinnear got Luton promoted at the first attempt (as Division Three runners-up in 2001-02) and they finished ninth in the 2002-03 Division Two campaign. Following a takeover that summer, Kinnear was sacked by the club's new owners who appointed former player Mike Newell as their new manager, claiming that he had been elected by a phone vote (which subsequent BBC documentary Trouble at the Top proved to be incorrect - Kinnear and Steve Cotterill got more votes than Newell, but neither was willing to work under the new board)!

The new owners were removed from power when supporters' group Trust in Luton acquired shares in the club's major creditors, Hatters Holdings, and put an administrative receiver in charge. When a local consortium took control in mid-2004, Trust in Luton were gifted a 10% shareholding and a seat on the board.

Luton Town were among the pre-season favourites for relegation from Division Two in the 2003-04 season but Newell surprised all the observers by taking the club close to a playoff place. This achievement was then surpassed in the 2004-2005 season when Luton were champions of Football League One and thus promoted to the Championship. At the end of the 2005-06 season they finished in 10th place. Newell expressed some disappointment that they didn't make the play-off's given their strong start, but promised to push for promotion to the Premiership in 2006-07 - which he felt could be achieved if new signings were made.

Stadium

Their stadium is the 10,155 seater Kenilworth Road Stadium, Maple Road, Luton. Since the 1980s the club have been constantly reporting losses there. After going into receivership, the Club had to sell the site to the local council and now leases the site from them.

Recently it has been claimed that the stadium proposal near the M1 will not be viable if Luton Airport is granted permission to build a new runway, but the validity of this claim is unclear. A new site is currently being looked at by the board close to the villages of Harlington and Toddington, near Junction 12 of the M1, the board has declared an intention to build a 20,000+ seater stadium to be ready for the 2008/09 season, but as yet it is not known if permission is likely to be granted or if it were, whether an inquiry would then be necessary because the site is on green belt land and the proposal includes large scale retail and warehousing development close to rural village communities. Local planning authorities have indicated that the plan is misconceived and in the context of the planned expnasion of Milton Keynes and Luton/ Dunstable and road improvements, the Club should consider a move to the new juntion 11A of the M1 motorway (England).

Manager Mike Newell was frustrated that the board had not considered this problem sooner and did not inform him of the problem until it was reported in the press. However he still has the desire to stay with Luton and lead the team to the Premiership.

Current season

The 2005-06 season saw Luton starting as they finished the previous season by beating two of the relegated Premier Division teams, Crystal Palace and Southampton, in the first two games. They continued their excellent start with further victories over Preston and Norwich, both of which had been tipped for promotion, but Luton's form dropped from November, and they slipped to 9th in the Championship.

They began 2006 in the top of half of the Championship, three points off the playoff positions but in their first game of the new year they lost to local rivals Watford 2-1 at Kenilworth Road. Subsequent form was poor, though the highlight was beating high-flying Reading F.C. 3-2, and they finished the season outside the play-offs in 10th place, a feat few non-Luton fans believed was possible in August.

They also gave European Cup holders Liverpool a shock in the third round of the FA Cup, racing into a 3-1 lead before eventually losing 5-3 in a highly exciting game.

Rivalry

Luton fans maintain a rivalry with those of Watford F.C., which has, somewhat surprisingly, been described by FourFourTwo magazine as the fiercest local rivalry in English football. The two sides met regularly in the Southern and Football Leagues from 1900 to 1937, but Luton's promotion meant that aside from a Southern Cup meeting, the two sides didn't meet again until 1964. Throughout the sixties and seventies the two sides met sporadically, and the rivalry gradually grew in significance, bringing with it trouble in the ground and outside of it. The two sides were promoted to the First Division in the 1981/82 season, with Luton taking the Championship ahead of Watford. The two sides were also relegated together from the new Division 1 in 1995/96. Watford's promotion from Division 2 in 1997/98 meant that the two sides didn't meet again in the League until the 2005/06 season, when Luton were promoted into the Championship. Clashes in the nineties had seen a decrease in violence, but a one-off League Cup tie in the 2002/03 was marred by violence inside Vicarage Road, as Luton fans spilled onto the pitch encouraging a mass brawl. The two clubs first League meeting in eight years, on January 2nd 2006, passed largely without incident with Watford winning 2-1 at Kenilworth Road. Later on in the season the sides met at Vicarage Road the game ending in a 1-1 draw.

In all meetings between the two sides Luton have the superior record, with 56 wins and 183 goals to Watford's 37 and 156 respectively. 29 matches have been draws.

Current first-team squad

As of June 18th, 2006.

Manager: Mike Newell
Coach: Brian Stein
Coach: Marvin Johnson

Club officials

Chairman: Bill Tomlins
Life President: Mike Watson-Challis
Secretary: Cherry Newberry

Former players of note

Joe Payne - most goals in a season: 55, scored 10 in one game.
John Hartson - highest transfer fee at the time, sold to Arsenal for 2.5 million pounds
Curtis Davies - broke Hartson record for highest fee; sold to West Brom for 3 million pounds
Bob Morton - most league appearances, 494 between 1948 and 1964
Frank Soo - first non-white person to play for England (1945)
Don Givens - former record-breaking striker for Eire.
Billy Bingham - played for, and managed, Northern Ireland.
Alan Slough - home-grown talent, and one of the leading players in Luton's resurgence in the late '60s.
John Aston - outstanding winger, and won a European Cup winners medal, with Man. Utd., before joining Luton.
Ricky Hill - former England international, once rated by Phil Thompson as one of the most gifted players in England.
Ronny Rosenthal - Israeli international.
Paul Walsh Arguably Luton's most naturally gifted forward ever. Another Luton player who played for England in the '80s. He and Brian Stein both played up front for England against France in '84. Joined the all-conquering Liverpool side.

A Luton Town fan site ^* had a vote for the best team ever with the following results

Les Sealey 207 appearances, voted best keeper in Luton history
Ron Baynham 388 appearances in goal, voted second.
Andy Dibble saved a penalty in the League Cup final.
Ian Feuer giant fan favourite.
Kirk Stephens 277 league appearances - voted best right back.
Tim Breacker runner up
Steve Foster voted best central defender
Mal Donaghy - most international caps, 58 for Northern Ireland
Syd Owen 388 league appearances
Matthew Taylor voted best left back
Graham French voted into the midfield
Bruce Rioch - was the star of Luton's Div 4 championship winning team of 1968. Went onto greater heights with Derby and Scotland, and managed Arsenal.
David Moss superb crosser, free-kick specialist, and goalscoring winger
Mick Harford got the most votes of any player, and one of the best English centre-forwards of his generation.
Malcolm Macdonald - nicknamed 'Supermac' by the Oak Road end, and probably the most famous player ever to play for the club. Scored 5 goals in one game for England - equalling a national record.
Brian Stein 427 appearances, 130 goals
Gordon Turner - most goals, 243 in 450 appearances between 1949 and 1964

Managers

Charlie Green 1901-1928
George Thomson 1925 (8 days)
John McCartney 1927-1929
George Kay 1929-1931
Harold Wightman 1931-1935
Ned Liddel 1936-1938
Neil McBain 1938-1939
George Martin 1939-1947
Dally Duncan 1947-1958
Syd Owen 1959-1960
Sam Bartram 1960-1962
Bill Harvey 1962-1964
George Martin 1965-1966
Allan Brown 1966-1968
Alec Stock 1968-1972
Harry Haslam 1972-1978
David Pleat 1978-1986
John Moore 1986-1987
Ray Harford 1987-1990
Terry Mancini 1990
Jim Ryan 1990-1991
David Pleat 1991-1995
Terry Westley 1995
Lennie Lawrence 1995-2000
Ricky Hill 2000
Lil Fuccillo 2000-2001
Joe Kinnear 2001-2003
Mike Newell 2003 to date

Supporters groups

Loyal Luton Supporters Club
Trust In Luton
FLAG
WHOSH

External links

English football clubs | Luton Town F.C. | Sport in Bedfordshire | Luton

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