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A brief history of Luton Town FC
By Nathan Jackson
July 13 2008
Luton Town FC are closing in on their 125th year as a club. They are one of the few sides to have gone from the bottom to the top and then back again, but that's not even close to the end of the story for a club that have often found themselves in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Luton Town were formed in 1885 when two local sides merged. The Wanderers and Excelsior joined forces after a town meeting to form Luton Town Football Club. Wanderers continued as a separate side for a few years, getting further than Luton in the FA Cup in 1885/6.

The majority of the games played in Luton's early days were either friendlies or in the FA Cup. They started playing their games at Dallow Lane, transferring to Dunstable Road soon afterwards and then to their current Kenilworth Road home.

Luton were the first professional football side in the southern half of the country, with Frank Whitby also becoming the first professional footballer "down south". He was paid just 5 shillings per week, although it wasn't long before the whole side were earning 2 shillings and 6 pence per week.

They helped establish the Southern League but lost their first ever competitive League match to Millwall on 16/10/1894. Millwall and Luton were by far the best sides in the Southern League, finishing first and second in the first two seasons. The Hatters unsuccessfully applied to join the Football League and joined a new United League. It was deemed a failure though due to only eight teams taking part, Luton again finished as runners up to Millwall.

Another application for the Football League was made, this time they were successful and despite competing in Division Two, they still continued to field a side in the United League and even won the competition in 1897-98. However, a rather unsuccessful spell in Division Two saw them return to the Southern League after they decided not to reapply to the Football League.

Their first ever profit as a professional club came in 1903, that side also considered a player who was considered one of the best of his day, Bob Hawkes. They moved to their current Kenilworth Road stadium in 1905 and their first opponents at this new stadium with Plymouth Argyle.

The game against Plymouth was quickly nicknamed as "the Green Game" due to the common green feel throughout the game. Plymouth Argyle were playing in green, J.W Green kicked off the game and he was also an employee of Green Brewers. The referee and Luton's club secretary were both called Green and all this took part on a green pitch. The game finished 0-0.

The 1911-12 season was predicted to end in triumph for Luton, but it all went out of the window when Sammy Wightman died from an injury sustained in a match against Brighton. That was one of the serious low points of a season where the club were also relegated to the Southern League's 2nd Division, their lowest ever position in the English footballing structure.

Football seriously slowed down in England due to the war and the majority of the games were friendlies. Luton's first season back saw them finish bottom of the Southern League, no sides were relegated though and they instead joined the Football League's 3rd Division. Their first season back in the Football League also saw their switch to their current white home kit.

Three of Luton's squad were called up to play for their countries, but Luton still failed to win promotion and their main stand was destroyed just before the 1922-23 season. It really summed up Luton's luck at the time, every season they were highly fancied but never seemed to achieve anything.

One of the strangest ever results came on Boxing Day in 1927/8 when Luton Town were leading 5-1 but somehow conspired to lose 6-5, one of the greatest ever turn-around results in history. That summed up a season where they scored an impressive 94 goals but only had a goal difference of 7. Andy Rennie scored 43 goals in the following season.

Luton's luck didn't improve in the 1934/5 season, finishing fourth but they were heading for promotion before the sale of Bill Brown and Sam Bell. That combined with an injury to Charlie Fraser, he broke his leg midway through the season and apparently the snap could be head over the crowd noise at Kenilworth Road.

Another great of the time, Joe Payne, scored an impressed ten goals in a 12-0 win over Bristol Rovers. He was part of a Luton side who finally lived up to expection and won promotion in the 1936/7 season, beating Torquay 2-0 on the final day. Payne ended the season on 55 goals in 39 games.

Just years after the war, Luton completed a comeback of their own against Newcastle United. The Geordies had led 3-0 at half time but a Herculean fight back saw Luton Town progress 4-3, it was a result that convinced Newcastle to recruit Luton's manager at the end of the season.

Several midtable finishes finally ended in 1954/55 when Luton Town won promotion to the First Division. Luton kept the majority of their promotion winning side and finished 10th in their first season. A few midtable finishes were shadowed by a run to the FA Cup final in 1959. Luton fielded the same eleven players in every single round, only to be beaten 2-1 by Nottingham Forest in the final.

Luton's stay in the first division lasted until the 1959/60 season and they seriously started to decline after this. Denis Law scored six goals against Luton in the FA Cup but still ended up on the losing side. The game had been abandoned and Luton won the replayed game.

One of the shorted ever managerial reigns in history came when Jack Crompton resigned six days after being appointed as manager in 1962. He stated that the doctors had advised him to quit. They replaced him with Bill Harvey and despite him being a popular manager, he couldn't stop Luton being relegated again.  They were relegated again just two years later and entered the fourth division for the first time in their history.

1966-67 saw the club's worst ever finish in the Football League to date, a 17th place finish saw unrest amongst fans but they were lucky to finish that high. An 8-1 defeat to Lincoln City just before Christmas meant that the Hatters were one place off of the bottom of the division. It seems almost ironic that a thrashing was the turning point in their history.

66 points in the following season was a new divisional record under the two point system and they scored 87 goals as they jumped to promotion, beating Crewe on the final day to secure the title.

Two seasons later and Luton were promoted again after a 1-0 win over Southport on the final day but their 1980's was spent as being known as the club who infamously banned all away fans from Kenilworth Road. An FA Cup game between Luton and Millwall resulted in a huge riot and the pitch was invaded, many getting injured. Strangely, the majority of those arrested were fans of West Ham and Chelsea. Almost ironically, Millwall banned away fans at the beginning of the 21st century.

The ban on away fans also saw them controversially ejected from the 1986/87 League Cup. They refused to allow Cardiff fans to attend a two-legged tie at Kenilworth Road and the League reacted badly.

However, the 80s were generally a successful period for the club. Luton had won promotion back to the First Division in 1982. Luton had a very decent side and that side defeated Arsenal in the League Cup final, scoring two goals in the last seven minutes to win 3-2. Luton were denied entry to the UEFA Cup due to the ban on English sides from European competitions.

They had introduced an artificial pitch in the 1980's, but that was banned in 1991 and it was little surprise that they got relegated the year afterwards. Several years of midtable mediocrity later and they were eventually relegated in 1995/6. They missed out of promotion in 1996/7 when they lost in the Playoffs before the club slipped into administration.

Several years of failed promotion challenges were followed by relegation in 2000/1 and it meant three relegations in less than ten years for Luton. However, they stormed Divison Three at the first attempt, finishing second behind Plymouth Argyle, including a 12 game winning streak towards the end of the season.

They had come out of administration and hovered in Division Two for several years. Division Two, the old Division Three, had been renamed Coca Cola League One in the re-branding of the Football League and the Hatters started strongly, winning their first six and going undefeated in their first 12 games. They won the League with a massive 98 points and they also had six players in the team of the year.

2005/6 was an impressive season for the Hatters, finishing in a respectable position and also pushing Liverpool all the way in the FA Cup. However, 2006/7 was a very different story. They had started well but Newell was sacked following on from his comments against female officials. He was replaced by Kevin Blackwell but Luton couldn't avoid relegation to League One.

Luton entered administration again in 2007/8 and were deducted 10 points due to a new rule regarding finances in the Football League. Luton finished rock bottom and suffered their second relegation in a row and are now almost certain of finishing their lowest ever position in the Football League following a 30 point deduction.

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