Luton face Huddersfield in Championship play-off semi-final; promoted back to EFL in 2014 after five-year exile in non-League; Nathan Jones has masterminded much of their rise; watch Luton vs Huddersfield, live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm on Friday; kick-off 7.45pm. 1238.7 %, National team players:
If we dont get play-offs or promotion there might be a tinge of disappointment but that in itself is ridiculous really.
The interesting thing is promotion, we dont hide away from it. During the first season after the Second World War, Luton Town's first appearance in a major final.
These are heady times for the Hatters after years of financial problems, points deductions and relegations. We compensate for that lack of finance by employing good people, by not cutting corners and working tirelessly. Our greatest strength is that together we can compete at this level. 30 points deducted20 by the Football League, 10 by the FAfor various financial irregularities under past owners. Ronaldo, Cucurella, Zinchenko latest, Forest sign Lingard on one-year deal | West Ham didn't want bidding war, Carra: Man Utd must be in Champions League | De Jong would be 'top class', Papers: Chelsea on brink of signing Kounde, Pep putting faith in Cucurella to solve problem position, Hamilton holds milestone victory hope as Merc reveal new upgrade, Van Den Bergh dethrones Wright to set up MVG showdown, Man Utd transfer rumours: Ronaldo eyeing Atletico move, Nathan Jones is in his second spell as Luton manager and has taken them into the Championship play-off places, Luton's James Bree scored a sensational free-kick in the 3-1 victory over Hull City, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, scoring here against Dartford in a league match in 2014, has been with Luton since their Conference days, quick-thinking striker Harry Cornick, who waited for goalkeeper Orjan Nyland, How to watch Championship games live on Sky. I looked at the clock in the dressing room and said to the players: Remember this time five to five, on April 13. At the time, chief executive Gary Sweet said: "We have just nine games left to climb out of the relegation zone We need a manager who can hit the ground sprinting - someone who knows us, our players and our environment, and someone who knows the league. Having been 10 points from safety, Luton lost just one of the last nine fixtures to stay in the Championship. The results are what you see above the surface but everything below the surface could be flimsy because youre nicking results, Jones says.
This is the story of their fall and rise. [9], Financial crises during the 1970s led to the sale of important players[10][11] and it was not until David Pleat, a former Luton player, was appointed in 1978 that Luton started to recover. [12] Pleat's team achieved promotion in 198182, and remained in Division One until 1992. Everyone is aware of that and were not aiming for the stars just yet. It shows you if you need to be a bit more ambitious. 
(Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images). Jones and the club parted ways and a replacement was needed. Jones led Luton up to League One in 2018 and had the Hatters flying at the summit of the league in the 2018/2019 season, but bigger clubs were taking notice of the incredible work he had been doing. 
Nathan Jones returned to replace Jones in May 2020 and inspired an extraordinary escape from relegation. You only have to look at clubs that have a really good season but all their walls are falling down now because they dont have the infrastructure now. A strong season in League One in 2018-19 saw them occupy an automatic promotion place in January 2019 when interest from Championship Stoke City saw Jones leave Luton to the anger of some fans that month. [9] The club claimed a Football League Trophy victory in 2009,[16] but with it came the relegation to the Conference Premier made inevitable by 40 points deducted in two seasons. Theres something about the club that reflects the town as a whole, really, where when its good its really good and when its not it can fall to pieces. Perhaps what is most important about Lutons meteoric rise is that they have not overspent to get where they are, having seen the perils of other clubs who bet the house on promotion, only to plunge themselves into financial oblivion. Luton fought valiantly under then-manager Mick Harford, now back at the club as part of Jones backroom staff, as they reached the EFL Trophy final and came from behind to win 3-2 against Scunthorpe United in front of 40,000 Hatters fans.
He was sacked at Stoke after 10 months and Luton floundered in the relegation zone until Graeme Jones departed. Incredibly, that replacement was Nathan Jones, the returning anti-hero, who was tasked with avoiding relegation. 
Working as the first-team coach at Brighton, the then-41-year-old was handed his first job as a full-time manager at Kenilworth Road. To reach the top flight, 30 years after they left it and only eight after they were playing in the National League, would have been "possibly the greatest story in football", manager Nathan Jones said in the build-up to the two-legged tie. For the two, three, four years or however long we have left we have got to cherish it. Instead, the Hatters have learned from the mistakes of yesteryear and are the poster boys for what a financially stable club in the lower divisions of English football should look like. Elderly Luton fan injured by coin at play-off match, Their proposed move to a 23,000 capacity purpose-built stadium at Power Court remains a way off, despite, approval in January of plans to develop land near the M1 motorway. And the CEO had one message for clubs or other chairman who want to copy the Hatters blueprint: go down to non-League for a few seasons..
Its pulled us together and theres a siege mentality about the club now that well do things our way and the right way. Luton are still to face play-off rivals Middlesbrough, QPR and Nottingham Forest before the end of the season but with Bradley and midfielder Luke Berry on the way back from injury, plus the recent signing of free agent Robert Snodgrass, Jones and his squad are in a strong position. Thats part of history. Eventually then-chairman Mike Watson-Challis sold the club for just $7 in 2003 to a consortium led by a businessman by the name of John Gurney, who was one of ten people charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the country in 1999. Their proposed move to a 23,000 capacity purpose-built stadium at Power Court remains a way off, despite approval in January of plans to develop land near the M1 motorway which will help pay for it. The decision to bring Jones back in May 2020 proved to be a masterstroke. Perhaps the years spent in non-league football was the best thing possible for Luton. I never saw that, I never saw being on the fringes of the Premier League eight seasons after we got out of the Conference. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images), Kenilworth Road has a cult following from football fans. [9] Inconsistent performance and financial uncertainty meant that Luton rose and fell through the divisions from season to season,[13][14][15] and in 2007 a collapse began that would result in three successive relegations. Pictures: Getty Images). Analysis and opinion from our chief football writer. We managed to stay up that year after looking absolutely doomed and ready to go down.
However, as expected, they were duly relegated to the Conference Premier (now the National League) where an uncertain future awaited. But having drawn the home leg 1-1, the return match was a case of 'if onlys' for a committed and superbly organised Hatters side - if only Harry Cornick's instinctive close-range effort in the first half had flown a yard either side of goalkeeper Lee Nicholls instead of straight at him, if only Cameron Jerome had not headed fractionally wide of the post after the interval. Poor form with the Potters left Jones sacked after 10 months with Stoke, while Luton found itself fighting for Championship survival. Luton Town Football Club is an English football club, founded in 1885. We have a goal, we know what we want to do with the new stadium, as a Premier League club, playing a certain way with a sustainable model that is not overspending or facing points deductions.. Its beyond our wildest dreams, really. This season, Jones has made Luton a difficult side to face, aggressive and attacking. That 30 points felt harsh and we did nearly overcome it but its made us who we are today to some extent. It wasnt really until the gaffer came back that we kicked on and saved our season. [1] After becoming the first professional team in the south of England in 1891,[2] Luton joined The Football League in 1897 before leaving three years later.
We have seen what this division has got to offer, weve gone toe-to-toe with Fulham and Bournemouth this season and those teams around us we have competed against really well like West Brom and Sheffield United, says Bradley. We beat Norwich when we were down there they were a Premier League side and it was things like that which made you think we still had a good club but we needed to get it back on the right direction. Whatever fans feelings upon his return, Jones had worked his magic again - and continues to do so. We beat Norwich when we were down there they were a Premier League side and it was things like that which made you think we still had a good club but we needed to get it back on the right direction. Saving the club from relegation upon his return was impressive enough, but then cementing a mid-table finish followed by a push for promotion is more than supporters could have imagined possible when they finally got out of non-League in 2014. Its about plodding your way there and moving along the stepping stones to get there. Almost all signings single out the manager and his in-depth analysis of them and explanations of how he will improve them as reasons for joining the club. Luton by no means were a minute club, either. Another Saturday, another chance to win 250,000 with Super 6.
But it could be that we exit it by the top one instead., (Design: Sam Richardson. The club began the 2008/09 League Two season on -30 points after being punished by the EFL and FA for financial irregularities committed by previous owners.
Last updated on 17 May 202217 May 2022.From the section Luton. It was Stoke City, who were in the Championship, that took the plunge on Jones in January 2019, with the move drawing the fury of numerous fans. Should the Hatters gain promotion to the Premier League, they will be the first club to go from the top flight down to non-League and back again. What could have been if that last 90 minutes of the season had gone a little differently. For some of the younger lads and lasses to think about Luton as a lower-league club is quite odd to those of us who know its heritage. [8] Luton earned another promotion four years later, returning to Division One for the 197475 season, in which Luton were relegated back to the Second Division. Were the third-smallest club by budget in this league so by rights, we should be exiting it by the relegation door. It was John Still who began Luton's revival with promotion from the National League, but it was the Welshman who led them to take the next step from League Two and laid the foundations for a successful League One campaign in 2019 before accepting an offer from Stoke City.