Luton Town Football Club 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 the Football League One title on April 23, 2005.
| Luton Town badge | |||
| Full name | Luton Town Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Hatters, Town | ||
| Founded | 1885 (after merger) | ||
| Ground | Kenilworth Road Luton | ||
| Capacity | 10,260 | ||
| Chairman |  Bill Tomlins | ||
| Manager | Mike Newell | ||
| League | The Championship | ||
| 2005-06 | Football League Championship, 10th | ||
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They won their first piece of major silverware in 1988, when they won the League Cup, under the management of Ray Harford.
Luton are one of a relatively small number of teams to have played in all four divisions of the Football League. Their most recent spell as a top division club ended in 1992, and they were in the league's lowest tier as recently as the 2001-02 season.
For some 30 years, Luton have been considering a move away from their cramped and outdated Kenilworth Road ground. Currently, the board of directors are looking to move the club to near Junction 12 of the M1 motorway.
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. Arthur Taylor of Bedford, who played for the Club from 1885 until 1894, was their first professional captain in the 1891-1892 season.
Luton Town 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 World War I and Luton remained in that division for seventeen seasons. The team won promotion from the Second Division in 1954-55. Following a brilliant season, Luton made their only appearance in the FA Cup final in 1959 losing to Nottingham Forest. They were relegated in the 1959-60 season, falling rapidly to the Fourth Division within the next six years. Depression set in and attendances dwindled.
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.
The Ray Harford era
In the mid 1980s the club became famous for instituting an "away fan ban", following a pitch invasion and hooliganism by Millwall fans, and for the introduction of an artificial playing surface in 1985. The ban and associated membership scheme was the idea of then chairman David Evans. 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 club took the artificial pitch out following the decision to ban artificial pitches.
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. The Club celebrated their proudest moment at Luton Town Hall with their most famous fan, comedian Eric Morecambe. 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, David Preece,Mal Donaghy and Mick Harford. They achieved a famous 3-2 victory over Arsenal in the League Cup final at Wembley. After Luton stunned the holders by taking a shock 1-0 lead early on, they seemingly ran out of steam, and by half-time Arsenal had overhauled them. Arsenal were still 2-1 up with ten minutes to go and Luton's goal had been continually under siege throughout the second half; however, the match turned on its head when Nigel Winterburn missed a penalty - had he scored, Arsenal would have almost certainly have won the final 3-1, but goalkeeper Andy Dibble turned the spot-kick round the post, and in the last seven minutes Luton scored twice to win 3-2. The League Cup triumph, still Luton's only major trophy, would have been enough for UEFA Cup qualification; but at this time all English teams were banned from European competitions due to the Heysel Disaster.
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, after losing top-scorer Dwight Marshall to a broken leg in the relegation run-in.
Administration and Relegation
The club was forced into administration after the failure to gain planning permission for the KohlerDome, a stadium for multi-purpose usage, and this led to many first-teamers leaving the club over the next few months. The club was pulled out of administration by director Cliff Bassett the day before the 1999/00 season started. Lawrence kept a young, inexperienced side up successfully, despite being forced to sell youngster Gary Doherty late in the season.
Mike Watson-Challis then purchased the club in 2000, and Lawrence was sacked after four unsuccessful seasons which had seen Luton miss out on the chance to gain promotion. He was briefly replaced by Ricky Hill. Ricky was given over £500,000 to spend on players, but it was squandered, and the club plummeted to the foot of the league. Hill was dismissed in Novembers 2000, due to the dismal form the Hatters were displaying. He was in turn replaced by another Luton legend Lil Fuccillo, who was also sacked within months after no significant improvement was made. Former Wimbledon manager Joe Kinnear took over and brought to the club Steve Howard for £50,000. However, the club was ultimately relegated to the basement division for the first time since 1968.
Promotion and Takeover
Kinnear got Luton promoted at the first attempt following a huge over-haul of the squad. In came players like Chris Coyne, Russell Perrett, Adrian Forbes, Carl Griffiths, Aaron Skelton and Kevin Nicholls. The club rampaged through the season, ending the last 14 games undefeated including a spectacular 12 game winning streak, ended by Macclesfield Town at Kenilworth Road. The Town finished the season as runners-up to champions Plymouth Argyle.
The team next season had to deal with the loss of talented left-siders such as Matt Taylor and Jean-Louis Valois and they finished ninth in the 2002-03 Division Two campaign. In May 2003, the club was again taken over, this time by a John Gurney led consortium.
Days afterwards, manager Kinnear and his assistant Mick Harford, considered a legend to Hatters fans were both dismissed. This sparked a protest by Luton fans, who demanded their instant re-appointment. The protest was fierce and led to the resignations of new chairman Roger Terrell and vice-chairman Lee Power. This forced the leader, John Gurney, behind the consortium to reveal himself.
Gurney then proceeded to announce his plans for the club. These plans included building a stadium over the motorway, including a Formula 1 style race track, and changing the club's name to London Luton. Unsurprisingly, Luton fans were unimpressed, and they set up a supporters' group Trust in Luton. Gurney appointed ex-Luton striker Mike Newell as manager following a phone-vote, dubbed 'Manager Idol' by the media. The new owners were removed from power when TIL acquired shares in the club's major creditors, Hatters Holdings, and put an administrative receiver in charge.
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, although he wasn't helped by the transfer of striker Tony Thorpe to QPR for £50,000, despite Thorpe being highly regarded at Luton, he upset the Hatters faithful after leaving just days after his interview on Sky Sports, in which he stated everyone should stand together. Thorpe has since been given a song by Luton fans, which is still sung in part to this day. At the end of the season, Newell also lost talented players such as Emmerson Boyce and Matthew Spring to bosman trasnfers.
Champions 2004/05
After adding the likes of Paul Underwood, Marlon Beresford and Rowan Vine tp the squad, Luton were ready to start the 2004/05 campaign. The team started extremely well, winning their first 6 games, and remaining undefeated in their first 12 league games. They then lost 3 league games on the trot, before finding form again and pulling away over the course of the season from runners-up Hull City. The team finished the season in 1st position, claiming 98 points and scoring 87 goals along the way, with the likes of Kevin Nicholls, Ahmet Brkovic and Steve Howard all getting double figures. Youngster Curtis Davies was named the League One Player of the Year (2005), and he was one of 6 players from Luton in the PFA Team of the Year for League One, the others were Marlon Beresford, Chris Coyne, Ahmet Brkovic, Steve Howard and Kevin Nicholls.
2005-2006 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 game considered to be one of the competition's greatest ever.
Current season
The start of the season saw club captain Kevin Nicholls move to Leeds United for £700,000, and top scorer for the last five seasons Steve Howard move to Derby County for £1 million. Mike Newell assured supporters that replacements would be made with the funds generated, and Adam Boyd was signed for £500,000 from Hartlepool United soon after. Other players coming in to Luton in the pre-season include Richard Langley on a free transfer from QPR, Sam Parkin for £340,000 from Ipswich Town and Lewis Emanuel on a free transfer from Bradford City. On the 23rd of November goalkeeper Dean Kiely was signed on a month's loan from Portsmouth. This was later extended by one month to allow Kiely to stay until the end of January, but he has sinced joined West Brom.
Trinidad & Tobago winger Carlos Edwards was sold to Sunderland for £1.5 million on the second day of the January transfer window. The winger was signed on a free and a £1.5 million profit was one manager Newell couldn't turn down. On January 11, 2007, Luton sold forward Rowan Vine for £2.5m to Birmingham. It is proposed that if Birmingham gain promotion in the 2006/07 season that Luton Town will receive a further £500,000.
Newell was expected to make a couple of loan signings as well as a permanent signing this January; He has already sealed the return of Matthew Spring from Watford for £200,000 potentially rising to £300,000, and has also signed Drew Talbot from Sheffield Wednesday for a £250,000 fee. On the 30th Björn Runström arrived on loan from Fulham for a month. More signings were expected, however Newell had a number of bids turned down by players on transfer deadline day, leaving it too late to take any further action. However, Newell is confident that a few loan players will be joining the Hatters shortly.
Luton were tipped by some to make a push for promotion during 2006-07, but their form this time round has been something of a disappointment. As of 15th February 2007, they occupy 21st place in the Championship and have collected a mere 32 points from their opening 31 league games. This puts them just once place and six goals above the relegation zone, while they lie 15 places and 21 points short of the playoff zone.
Current first-team squad
As of February 15th, 2007.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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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. The club sold the site to the council following financial difficulties under then chairman David Evans. During the late-90s, David Kohler put in planning application for the Kohler Dome, but after this was turned down the club fell into administration, and has yet to submit application for another stadium.
The club's owners at the time, the Watson-Challis', purchased some land just off Junction 10 of the M1. Here they hoped to be able to build the Hatters new stadium. However, issues arose over the viability of the site after Luton Airport announced their plans to build a new runway. The current board of directors have now decided that this site is not viable, despite statements to the contrary by local authorities.
However, the board have already located a new site, close to the villages of Harlington and Toddington, near Junction 12 of the M1, the board has declared an intention to build a 22,000 seater stadium alongside an enabling development. But with this land being a green-belt site, many question whether planning permission will be given to such a large development, considering its close proximity to nearby villages. Local authorities have suggested the soon to be developed Junction 11A of the M1 as a preferred venue, but at this point in time the Luton board seem focused on their efforts with Junction 12 instead.
On February 15th 2007, Luton announced a deal between themselves, Cliff Bassett and developers Rosemound Developments Limited to build the stadium, subject to the local authorities planning consent. The deal will allow a 30 acre site to be given to the board, along with £25 million set aside for a new stadium. The stadium is proposed to be a 22,000 seater. Other developments on the site are planned, with land-owner Cliff Bassett hoping to unlock the potential the land has for his own developments.
Some fans have made it clear they do not believe the club has fully exhausted all the options available to them in regards to a new stadium site within the boundaries of Luton, and many are concerned about a move to outside of the Town that has homed the club for almost 122 years.
Manager Mike Newell has criticized the board in recent months over the lack of progress made in regards to a new stadium, yet in August 2006, he signed a new four-year deal with the club.
Rivalry
Luton fans maintain a rivalry with those of Watford F.C., which has 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 2 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 vastly superior record, with 56 wins and 183 goals to Watford's 37 and 156 respectively. 29 matches have ended in draws.
When Luton meet Stockport County, this is known as 'The Hatters' Derby due to both team sharing this nickname. However this is not considered much of a rivalry in anything other than the nicknames.
Club officials
- Life President: Mike Watson-Challis
- Chairman: Bill Tomlins
- Chief Executive Officer: John Mitchell
- Director: R.Badghot
- Director: M.King
- Director: D.Peter
- Life President: Mike Watson-Challis
- Secretary: Cherry Newberry
- Commercial Manager: Peter Davis
- Manager: Mike Newell
- First Team Coach: Brian Stein
- Youth & Reserve Team Coach: Marvin Johnson
- Physiotherapist: Jon Bowden
Honours
- 1936/37: Division 3 Champions
- 1958/59: F.A. Cup Runners-up
- 1967/68: Division 4 Champions
- 1981/82: Division 2 Champions
- 1987/88: Simod Cup Runners-up
- 1987/88: Littlewoods Cup Winners
- 1988/89: Littlewoods Cup Runners-up
- 2004/05: League One Champions
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 Éire.
- 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.
- Steve Howard - Scored 103 goals in 226 appearances over five seasons between 2000 and 2006.
- Carlos Edwards - First Luton player to play in a World Cup for 20 years, since Mal Donaghy in 1986.
A Luton Town fan site [1] 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.
- 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
- See also: Category:Luton Town F.C. players
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
Records
- Year Formed: 1885.
- Year Turned Professional: 1897.
- Record Attendance: 30,069 against Blackpool in the F.A. Cup, on the 4th March 1959
- Record League Win: 12-0 v Bristol Rovers in Division3 on 13/04/1936.
- Record League Defeat: 0-9 v Small Heath FC in 1898.
- Most Consecutive Games Without Defeat: 19 in 1968/69.
- Most Consecutive Games Without A Home Defeat: 39 from 1925 to 1927.
- Most Consecutive League Wins: 12 in 2001/02.
- Most Consecutive League Defeats: 8 during the 1899/00 season
- Record Goals In A Single Match: 10 by Joe Payne in match versus Bristol Rovers in 1936, which remains to this day, a Football League record.
- Record League Goals In A Season: Joe Payne with 55 during the 1936-37 season
- Record League Goals In Total: Gordon Turner with 243 from 1949-64. Gordon scored 265 goals in all competitions for Luton, more than any other player.
- Record League Appearances: 495 by Bob Morton, 1948-64, and he managed 550 in all competitions.
- Most League Goals Season: 103 during the Division 3 promotion season in 1936-37.
- Most League Points In A Season: 98 during the championship winning season of 2004-05 in League One.
- Record Transfer Fee Paid: £850,000 to OB Odense F.C. for Lars Elstrup in August 1989
- Record Transfer Fee Received: £3,000,000 for Curtis Davies from West Brom on August 31st 2005.
Supporters groups
- Luton Town Supporters Club [2]
- Loyal Luton Supporters Club [3]
- Trust in Luton
- FLAG
- WHOSH
- Famous fans include Monty Panesar.
Most famous past fan was director Eric Morecambe who frequently put jokey references about the Hatters into the most popular British TV comedy show of the 1970s
References
The Luton Town Story - Timothy Collings 1985. Published by Luton Town F.C.