Luton Town, a football club from a small town about 30 miles off London, has spent most of its time toiling in the lower divisions of English football.
Since 1992, when it was relegated from the first division, the club has suffered points deduction, a bankruptcy scare and successive exits down the pyramid to end up in non-league football.
To put things into perspective, English league football is a five-step hierarchy, which starts with the Conference Premiership and ends with the first division, now called the Premier League. Non-league football is the sixth step.
On May 27, 2023, it beat Coventry City on penalties at Wembley in the EFL Championship playoff final to complete its return to Premier League.
The Hatters have written a Hollywood script for themselves.
“It means everything,” Rob Edwards, the Luton Town manager said before launching into a rendition of Bon Jovi’s ‘Always’ and holding the play-off trophy on the Luton Town Hall balcony.
“It’s for you, the Luton Town people, for the town, these players who deserve it, for the backroom staff who work so hard, the board. We’ve got to enjoy this moment.”
The journey to the top
Luton’s resurgence began 10 years ago under manager John Still, who had helped Dagenham and Redbridge F.C. rise from fifth division (National League) to third division (League One) in four years.
John – taking over a side that had four managers over four years – chose to rebuild in the 2013-14 season and won the National League in his first season in charge.
Also Read | Dabo to leave Coventry after play-off final penalty miss against Luton
Even as John left in 2016, new manager Nathan Jones, the former caretaker-manager of Brighton and Hove Albion, ensured the club’s progress, earning successive promotions to League One and then to the EFL Championship in 2019.
The dream to the top was finally taking shape. Until it was not. In the 2021-22 Championship playoff semifinal, Luton was eliminated by Huddersfield Town and then Southampton poached Jones away.
The person who then came to its rescue was, until recently, a key member of an enemy camp – Edwards, the manager of its archrival Watford. And under him, the journey to its maiden Premier League campaign was complete.
The final that decided Luton’s fate
Luton had faced heartbreak to Blackpool in the League Two playoff semifinal, losing 6-5 on aggregate in 2017, which forced it to play in the third division for another season.
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When it entered Wembley, for the Championship playoff final, it looked to bury the ghosts of its past, for a spot in the Premier League. But just then, another stumbling block appeared.
Its captain, Tom Lockyer, fell unconscious on the field without any contact from the opposition, leaving the side shocked.
However, they heaved a sigh of relief after he was attended to by the medical team and taken to the hospital. “He is responsive and talking to his family, who are with him. We are all with you, Locks,” read the club statement.
Soon, Jordan Clark found the net, putting the Hatters in front. The 29-year-old, after receiving the ball on a cutback from Elijah Adebayo, earned the lead only to see Coventry’s Gustavo Hamer cancel it in the second half.
As the match trudged into penalty shootouts after a goalless extra-time, Fankaty Dabo’s miss for Coventry in sudden death saw Wembley become Luton’s ‘Theatre of Dreams’ for a day.
A Tale of Ironies and Learnings
Jones – who Southampton signed in 2022 from Luton to escape Premier League relegation – had been the backbone to develop the side to rise up the pyramid. At the end of the 2022-23 season, Luton ended up becoming one of the teams to replace Southampton in the Premier League.
The Hatters, after all, had the last laugh.
For Edwards, it was his testament to perseverance. The 40-year-old was sacked by Watford mid-season, last year saying that his performances ‘hadn’t reflected the club’s hopes and ambitions.’
Watford, too, was relegated last season while Edwards found his moment of glory with arch-rival Luton.
But the most beautiful story of them all has been one of loyalty through and through. Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, a product of West Ham United, was loaned away from the Premier League side after a brief spell there, in 2013.
Luton Town became his destination, a club whose training ground was then also used by dog owners to walk their pets and the club was out of the English League football system.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Ah nah, this is not what I’m familiar with,’” he said in a recent interview, reflecting on his arrival at the club. In 2023, life came full circle for him as he became the first player to move from Non-League football to Premier League with a single club.
Mpanzu has become part of the club’s furniture now – an almost permanent figure at Kenilworth Road, Luton Town’s home stadium.
Getting into the League of big boys next season, there will be major changes needed. Kenilworth Road is the smallest stadium in the top flight with a capacity of just over 10,300 - acceptable for a fifth-tier side.
Playing in the Premier League will be worth an estimated £170 ($210 million) in increased revenue – a chunk of which will get into the expansion of its old home as well as the development of a new one, expected to finish by 2026.
But for now, Luton Town would cherish its fairytale run – one that took 10 years, months of sleepless nights, constant perseverance of footballers, an army of football fanatics from Luton and hope for the sun to shine again.
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