A bright start
Kevin Blackwell signed eight players during the summer of 2007 in preparation for a tilt at promotion back to the Championship. During the first month of the season it seemed that the Hatters stood a decent chance of doing so, after four wins from their first five league and cup fixtures including a 3-0 victory over Premier League Sunderland at Kenilworth Road.
Administration, and -10 Points
However form began to tail off and worse news was to follow when the club were deducted 10 points for falling into administration in November. From being in a comfortable mid-table position the Hatters found themselves deep in a relegation battle.
8 man Luton
Results began to pick-up in December and a FA Cup second round replay victory over Nottingham Forest ensured the Hatters brought another cup clash with Liverpool at Kenilworth Road.
On Boxing Day the Hatters were involved in a highly-controversial match at Bristol Rovers where incredibly they held out to record a 1-1 draw despite having to play half the match with nine men and the last 13 minutes with only eight men on the pitch following three sending offs.
Sell, sell, sell
With the administrator in charge, the New Year saw the beginning of extensive player sales. But the club also hosted Liverpool at Kenilworth Road in the third round of the FA Cup and an exciting draw earned the Hatters a much needed money-spinning replay at Anfield. At this point the administrator had been working on cutting the spiralling wage bill, with Chris Coyne, David Edwards and loanee Jaroslaw Fojut all departing – and the Hatters unable to sign anybody while still in administration, leaving the squad decimated. Blackwell then decided to announce that he would quit following the replay at Liverpool.
2020 take over
Just before kick-off at the cup replay at Anfield the administrator declared Luton Town 2020 Ltd as preferred bidders to take over the club - a consortium headed by famous Hatters fan and TV presenter Nick Owen and including former Hatters Steve Foster and Godfrey Ingram as well as other influential businessmen, all Town supporters. The news made it an extra-special night at Anfield where almost 6,000 Luton fans out-sung the famous Kop for long periods despite a 5-0 defeat - Kevin Blackwell's last match, with the administrator moving quickly to install legend Mick Harford as his replacement.
-20
With the team struggling to find any form and with young players low on confidence, relegation to League 2 was confirmed following the 2-1 home defeat to Brighton on 12th April. With the new owners set to take full control of the club the Hatters prepared themselves for beginning their League 2 campaign with 15 points deducted for failure to agree to a CVA (Company Voluntary Agreement). However the Football League decided that because the club had been in administration for the third time in nine years, they would punish them further by deducting a further five points.
-30
But worse news followed. The club were still being investigated by the Football Association for the past financial irregularities made public two years previously. As a result the club had a further 10 points docked by the FA which meant starting the season with an incredible 30 point penalty.
Once the club was officially taken over a week before the season started, the club only had six professionals on the books leading up to the home game with Port Vale.
Victory at Wembley - but farewell Football League
Despite a slow start to the season the Hatters ended 2008 just one point away from wiping out the 30 point deficit and were only 15 points away from safety. The season was also brought to life by the club's run in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy which was won in superb style at Wembley with a 3-2 victory over Scunthorpe United in April with 42,000 Town fans in attendance. However, the points deductions proved too much and relegation out of the Football League was confirmed on Easter Monday.
Play-off heartaches
The club started life in the Blue Square Premier in 2009/10 after 89 years in the Football League. In their first season the Town finished second behind champions Stevenage but lost in the play-off semi-finals to York City. During the campaign Richard Money took over from Mick Harford and the Town also reached the third round of the FA Cup. The Hatters again suffered play-off heartache in 2010/11 under Gary Brabin, losing on penalties to AFC Wimbledon in the Promotion Final at the City of Manchester Stadium.
Back to Wembley
That meant a third season in non-league football for the Hatters and hopes were high of a tilt at the title in 2011/12. Unfortunately for the Town inconsistency dogged the team throughout the campaign and Paul Buckle replaced Brabin – taking Luton into the play offs with a last-day victory at champions Fleetwood….and on to another play-off final, this time at Wembley against York City.
Third time unlucky
At Wembley 30,000 Hatters fans turned Wembley orange and were celebrating just two minutes in when Andre Gray fired them in front. But joy turned to despair as Ashley Chambers equalised for the Minstermen before a contentious winner ensured it was York - and not the Town - celebrating a return to the Football League.
Cup run glory
Once again there were high hopes at the beginning of the 2012/13 campaign. While the Hatters were challenging for a place in the top six all season, it was their run in the FA Cup that made the headlines most. Wins over Cambridge, Nuneaton and Dorchester were rewarded with a home third round tie with Wolves. An Alex Lawless strike was enough to beat the Championship side in front of a sell-out at Kenilworth Road.
Hatters make history
The fourth round pitted the Town against Premier League Norwich City at Carrow Road. On that day the Hatters would make history. A fine defensively display looked to have secured a replay but, with 10 minutes to go, substitute Scott Rendell met a JJ O'Donnell cross to win the tie for the Town - and with it create history by becoming the first non-league side to beat a Premier League side.
Enter John Still
The Hatters would fall at the fifth round following a home defeat to a Millwall side that would go onto reach the semi-finals. By the now, though, the Town's league form was nose-diving and, days after the Millwall game, Paul Buckle left Kenilworth Road by mutual consent. The Hatters wasted no time in making their new appointment, hiring Dagenham & Redbridge manager John Still – but ended the campaign in seventh place.
Champion-ees!
John Still’s first season in charge made him a Town hero – building a team that smashed the Conference with 101 points and 102 goals in front of adoring fans home and away and taking the club back to the Football League where they belong. A season of consolidation saw the Town miss out on the play-offs, and with success looking unlikely again in 2015/16, Nathan Jones stepped up to the mark.
Good times ahead
Poor home form meant no play-offs again – but big news was brewing in the background, with the promised plans for a new ground (and a whole lot more) being announced to massive excitement. The future is bright, the future is orange!
Out of League Two
The first full season of the Nathan Jones era began in scintillating fashion as Plymouth were dispatched on their own patch with goals from Jack Marriott, Jonathan Smith and new-boy Danny Hylton.
Hylton would prove to be one of the best pieces of business the club has done in recent years, as his 27 goals that season helped the Town to a fourth placed finish in League Two. But, exiting the play-offs in somewhat brutal circumstances after an injury-time goal to Blackpool is one we were all keen to forget about at the earliest opportunity.
The draws that had hindered the Town that campaign were eliminated in the 2017/18 season. The diamond formation that Jones had been so set on implementing would prove to be fruitful, as the Hatters seemed set for the League Two title as they put eight past Yeovil, seven against Stevenage and Cambridge and five against Swindon. Accrington though would have the final say as their outrageous form for the second half of the season saw them take top spot, with the Town settling for second. Awards left, right and centre for the team that wowed the most were waiting though, with Alan Sheehan, Danny Hylton, Luke Berry, Marek Stech, Jack Stacey and Dan Potts all getting named in various teams of the season.
Back-to-back
Expectations varied from supporter-to-supporter as to what the Town were capable in their first season back in League One, but very few would have foreseen what was to come. A run that saw the Hatters move from mid-table mediocracy to seemingly challenging for a play-off place, before breaking into the top two got the dreaming started.
Nathan Jones wouldn’t be the man to oversee consecutive promotions though, as he departed for Stoke City at the beginning of January.
A familiar face in Mick Harford took over the reins on an interim basis, initially just game-by-game, but as the momentum continued, big Mick was confirmed as manager until the end of the campaign.
The visit of Portsmouth on a snow-swept Tuesday night saw Kenilworth Road host one of the most memorable games in recent history. Thank you, George Moncur. The top spot was taken by the Hatters, and a 28-game unbeaten run ensured they wouldn’t loosen their grip on the third-tier title, which was secured on the final day of the season with a 3-1 win over Oxford United. Back-to-back promotions achieved. Mick Harford’s name sang around Kenilworth Road. The stuff of dreams.
Ten years on from their relegation to the Conference, the Hatters were back in the Championship.
Championship
After narrowly avoiding relegation in the Covid-interrupted 2019/20 season that began with Graeme Jones in charge and ended in late July with his namesake, Nathan, having returned during Lockdown to oversee the Great Escape, the Town finished in a healthy mid-table position in 20/21 and went even better the following campaign by reaching the play-offs, where they agonisingly went out to Huddersfield at the semi-final stage.
That defeat turned out to be a minor stumbling block on the relentless road back to the top flight as at the end of a superb 2022-23 season the Hatters were promoted to the Premier League for the first time.
In November 2022, Nathan Jones had departed for a second time, to take over at top-flight club Southampton in November, and was replaced with Rob Edwards, who had recently been sacked by Watford. Edwards steered the team back into the Championship play-off places, finishing third, before a nail-biting penalty shoot-out victory over Coventry at a packed Wembley Stadium saw the Hatters make history by completing the rise from Non-League to the Premier League in nine years.
Premier League
With £13m spent on redeveloping the Bobbers Stand to bring Kenilworth Road up to the Premier League's broadcasting requirements, Town lost away games at Brighton, Chelsea and Fulham before welcoming West Ham to the Kenny for our delayed first home game in the top flight for 31 years on September 1st 2023.
A first Premier League victory arrived on the road at Everton later that month, before Crystal Palace were beaten on home turf in November. A point against Liverpool and thrilling end-to-end matches with the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Spurs endeared the Hatters to the nation, only failing to score in one of their last 26 matches.
Ultimately they fell just short of survival and had relegation back to the Championship confirmed by a final day defeat to Fulham, although a vastly inferior goal difference to Nottingham Forest meant that their fate had realistically been sealed a week earlier following defeat at West Ham when supporters stayed behind for 15 minutes to applaud the team off the London Stadium pitch.
Being a Luton Town supporter has been anything but dull!