Welcome back to Kenilworth Road for the sixth time already this calendar year, and what a rewarding time it has been so far. We’ve already taken four points from promotion candidates in Bournemouth and Blackburn, and today we host a side with whom we are currently jostling for position in the upper reaches of the table.
We welcome everyone who has travelled from the Hawthorns in support of West Brom, including their directors and officials, as well as their new manager Steve Bruce, who would have hopefully returned home from his scouting mission at St Andrew’s last Saturday with little to work from!
It wasn’t a great day all-round at Birmingham, with the fans’ half-hearted tennis ball protests against their owners clearly having an impact on our momentum at the time, although didn’t change the disappointing outcome.
The result paled into insignificance, however, when we learned of the death of one of our own in the minutes before kick-off. We talk about the Luton Town family, and Barry Lake had spent a lifetime following the team around the country, a popular figure in the stands and away from matches.
I sat with Wayne Turner at Leighton Town watching the development squad on Tuesday night, and Wayne explained that Barry was his plasterer on his many building projects. Along with his sons, he had done work for us at Kenilworth Road, too. His other sporting love was cricket, so it is with tragic irony that he passed after suffering a cardiac arrest in the Cricketers pub in Birmingham.
On behalf of everyone at the Club, I would like to thank everyone who did what they could to try to save Barry and send our heartfelt condolences to his family. There will be a period of applause in the 75th minute of today’s game as a tribute to Barry.
We don’t forget the families of those who have passed here at Kenilworth Road, and today marks the second anniversary of the passing of little Ethan. Ethan was only eight years old when a brain tumour sadly claimed his life, and the tin foil cup he made for us in his final days at the wonderful Keech Hospice still stands proudly atop our cabinet in the Trophy Room.
We hope his family enjoy being back here today and that we have the same result as on Ethan’s final two visits, when we beat Wigan and Derby in our first season back in the Championship.
We know that our trophy cabinet has many more pieces of silverware in it than some nearby clubs, but the Beds Senior Cup won’t be added this season. Wilko and I were given great hospitality at Leighton and despite the result we enjoyed our visit to Bell Close, as we always do when we go to any of our non-league neighbours.
It was disappointing to lose on penalties, but it was a great education for our young players against senior opposition, in difficult conditions. We wish Leighton Town the best for the rest of their Spartan South Midlands League campaign.
Understandably, there is plenty of excitement about Chelsea coming here in a few days’ time in the FA Cup. Thank you to everyone who has enquired about tickets – some in very creative ways, it has to be said – and to those who want to get involved commercially.
After missing out on the Manchester United game here last season, and the fourth-round trip to Stamford Bridge, it is fantastic that we are able to host Chelsea, under our lights, with supporters present this time.
Once the draw was made, we assertively decided to ensure that our objective in the allocation of tickets for this particular game was to reward our most loyal supporters for sticking by us over the last couple of difficult seasons by the sales plan so well implemented by Mike and his ticket office staff, but also to strictly cut the number of payable tickets requested by friends and dignitaries.
We make no apology to those who we have had no alternative but to decline tickets to for this tie, and would warmly welcome their attendance at another game. The demand is a firm reminder exactly why we need Power Court, which we’d have easily filled both in the stands and hospitality areas.
Of course, this sets me up nicely to provide a brief update on stadium relocation matters. Without getting technical and boring, there’s little specific to say at this time despite so much activity behind the scenes, taking up a vast majority of my time.
But, I can assure you that all is going to plan, even if that plan gets more difficult by the harsh further decline in the retail market (brought about by the pandemic) and the sharp increase in materials and labour prices. But we’ve never hidden from a challenge and are taking these obstacles in our stride.
We are still on track for a ‘first-half’ 2022 detailed planning application at which point those plans will be made public. We’re also in the middle of engaging with the various stakeholder supporters’ groups on specific matters relating to them, such as Hatters Heritage and our Disabled Supporters Association.
Further questionnaires will ask for your feedback in due course too, to gather more intelligence on your opinions on matters such as safe-standing, hospitality and travel. Your response levels are always amazingly engaging, for which we thank you.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll notice some activity at Power Court as the site gets tidied up in general, some buildings start to get demolished and we carry out more exploratory work on certain groundworks, all in readiness.
Thank you for your patience. It won’t be in vain.
On the pitch, as I have already touched upon, we have been on a fantastic run both in league and Cup. To win six and draw two – both against sides in the automatic promotion places – of our last nine league games leading up to Birmingham was phenomenal. To travel in great numbers to Birmingham City with a big expectation of a win from most is a sign of how far we have come in the last couple of seasons.
Such expectation is great to see and being on such a run increases our own confidence to a point where we expect, too. However, we are faithful to our ‘feet-on-the-ground’ principles here and still think the initials PO still stand for the Post Office, as far as we are concerned!
Along those lines, we had a quiet January transfer window, maybe a disappointment to some, but not to us. Every supporter at every club wants their team to buy that new big-named striker, of course, and we are always on the look-out, as you know. But we will only recruit if a certain player improves our squad immediately or is one we can develop for the future and we can lighten the headcount in the meantime, especially in the winter window!
January is a pitfall for disaster, which we’ve experienced in the past but not, thankfully in the last couple of years. The truth is, if the summer is your offensive window, January is the defensive one where you need to keep your players and snap up value opportunities that may arise.
Indeed, as you will remember, we effectively conducted three windows’ worth of business last summer, which was a necessity due to some key players departing and us reaching a period of transition. New, younger, hungry players were recruited, and our expectation is that all of them will be nothing other than a success if we all have the faith and patience to allow them to develop.
We were happy to allow Simon Sluga to leave to join Ludogorets – a decent club on top of the Bulgarian League – and we are more than happy with the arrangement for him. We couldn’t block an opportunity for him to play in the Champions League, where if he plays and does well, we will also do very well out of it.
Simon made the journey back a couple of days afterwards to walk the building and say goodbye and a thank you to everyone, which tells you all you need to know about him. He overcame a very difficult start on the pitch, and all the pressures that come with moving to a new country, getting married and having your first child there in the middle of a global pandemic, to really consider Luton his home and influence our improvement as a Championship club with his performances in goal.
We wish him every success, while welcoming Jed Steer on loan from Aston Villa – a player who we know is a good character, and who brings vital experience of not only playing in the Premier League, but also of winning promotion from the Championship via those POs!
Finally, a very happy birthday to Roger Wash, who turned 70 this week. Wilko has written some extra words for today’s programme detailing our Club historian’s valuable contribution over the past four decades. But from me, thank you for all you do Roger, enjoy the game today and let’s celebrate with three more points towards hopefully another memorable entry to the Club’s annals.
Come on you Rip Roaring Hatters!
Gary
