By Nathan Jackson
June 11 2011

Luton Town were last season's Playoff Final losers after going down 4-2 on penalties to AFC Wimbledon. The Hatters have been made pre-season favourites for promotion and they now have a former Lincoln City player as their manager.

WEBSITE - GROUND GUIDE - PLAYOFF FINAL

Luton Town have been in the Blue Square Premier division for the last two years following on from being the first professional club in English footballing history to be relegated three seasons in a row (before someone says it, Northampton record was three in four).

The financial issues at Kenilworth Road meant that at the start of the 2008/9 season they were given the near impossible task of surviving relegation to the Conference when they were deducted a total of 30 points before the season had even begun. To put it in that sort of context, they would have had to have produce automatic promotion form throughout the entire season to stand a realistic chance of staying up. I confidentally predicted them to finish rock bottom and they certainly didn't react well to that reaction, as you can tell by the comments below the preview.....I wish I had taken that bet now. They did go down but in all fairness to them, they did well to not get relegated until mid-April.

Fortunately for Luton they have survived financially in the Blue Square Premier and have come close to promotion back to the Football League in both seasons.

They started life in the Blue Square Premier very well, winning four of their opening six games, including a 4-1 win over Mansfield and a 3-0 mauling of Crawley. However, their results throughout the season didn't continue with constantly winning and a 0-0 draw at Mansfield on March 2nd mean they were only just in the Playoffs. However, nine wins in a row gave them and outside shot of the title, although they did have to settle for the Playoffs. That run of wins saw them maul Hayes and Yeading 8-0, Grays 6-0, Ebbsfleet 6-1 and Salisbury 4-0. They would end the season with just one win in four.

All their hard work throughout the season fell apart in the Playoffs as they lost 1-0 home and away to York, the home match in particular seeing the club heavily criticised due to the reaction of their supporters. Violence resulted in the York players having to go into the away stand to avoid getting attacked by Luton supporters - Video 1 - Video 2 (poor quality on this one).

So Luton started again a few months later and started off where they had generally left off before the Playoffs, winning their opening three games and drawing the fourth, that before suffering their first defeat since February when they lost 3-1 at Tamworth. Long winnings runs were following by long runs of poor results and they ended the regular season with just four wins in thirteen. Despite that, they still easily won the Playoffs, beating Wrexham 5-1 on aggregate.

Luton's following at the City of Manchester Stadium for the final was double that that followed AFC Wimbledon (picture of their crowd left), but as Lincoln found out in the 2004/5 Playoff Final, taking double the amount of fans as the opposition means nothing, with Wimbledon eventually winning on penalties.

So Luton must try for third time lucky in the Blue Square Premier and they have been made 7/2 favourites to win the division. Gary Brabin has been appointed as permanent manager following on from Richard Money leaving the club towards the end of last season. The former Lincoln man was interviewed for the Lincoln job in September 2009 following the sacking of Peter Jackson. His failure to guide Luton to promotion last season was his third different Playoff campaign with three different clubs, all of which have failed to deliver the ultimate prize of promotion. It was also his second Blue Square Premier Playoff Final defeat in three years, the previous one being when Torquay beat his Cambridge side in 2009.

The clubs haven't shared many links in the past, with the most high profile being Mick Harford, who has also managed Luton in the past. Other links include Lennie Lawrence (once assistant at Sincil Bank and former Luton manager), Peter Holmes and Janos Kovacs.

Getting to know the Blue Square Premier : Luton Town

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 11/06/2011 23:42

theimps.ka
11/06/2011 23:42

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net