Luton Town FC: The Rise to the Premier League
Blackpool FC. Fulham FC. Manchester City FC. Wigan FC. Hull City FC. Swansea FC. What these clubs have in common, asides a dedicated fanbase and the spirit to fight for wins, is their unprecedented climb from battling teams at the lower strata of Championships to qualifying to the big stage: the Englih Football League (EFL). Luton Town FC, a professional club with a history of more than a century, is the most recent club to join this category.
Founded in April 11, 1885, and based in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, the football club draws its nickname, The Hatters, from the town’s historical association with hat-making trade which has been prominent there since the 17th century and at some point, became the world’s biggest producers.
The history of Luton Town FC is filled with numerous promotion and relegation tales, with one major trophy and several financial crises. Between the year 1982 and 1992, they were in the first division and won their first major honour, the League Cup, in 1988. Luton Town FC has a long-standing rivalry with nearby club, Watford, referred to as the Beds-Herts derby, or M1 derby, which comes from the M1 motorway that passes through both towns.
Luton Town was the first club in Southern England to turn professional. It joined the Football League in 1897, left in 1900 due to financial problems, and rejoined in 1920. They qualified for the First Division in 1955 and contested a major final for the first time against Nottingham Forest FC in the 1959 FA Cup Final. In 1960, the team got relegated from the top division, and was further demoted twice within the next five years to the Fourth Division in the 1965–66 season before they were promoted back to the top level in 1974–75.
In 1981–82, the club won the Second Division and got promoted to the First Division. Continuing the winning streak, Luton won the 1988 league cup after defeating Arsenal 3–2 in the final match, and remained a force in the First Division until they got relegated at the end of the 1991–92 season. Between 2007 and 2009, a series of financial difficulties had the club fall from the second tier of English football to the fifth in successive seasons. In the 2008–09 season, 30 points — that is, 20 points for leaving administration without a Company Voluntary Agreement, and 10 points for making illegal payments to agents — was deducted from the clubs total points for financial irregularities which led to their relegation to the Conference National League.
The Journey to the Premier League
In their first season, in the Conference Premier league, they finished second but lost in the semi-final playoff to York City 2–0 in 2009–2010, and finished third in the following season, 2010–2011, but lost in the playoff final to AFC Wimbledon 4–3 on penalties. Their streak of frustrations continued in the 2011–12 season as they went on to finish fifth in the league, losing to York City in a playoff final that ended in 2–1, and had their lowest finish at 7th position in the 2012–13 Conference Premier season.
Their best Conference League performance was in the 2013–14 season where they won 30 games, scoring 102 goals, with 101 league points and ending the season with a qualification to the Football League. Thanks to the players of the team and to their record-breaking top striker, Andre Gray, who scored 30 goals in the league and also won the golden boot award of the season.
They got promoted to League Two and sustained their presence by finishing at eighth, eleventh, and fourth positions in the 2014–15, 2015–16, and 2016–17 seasons respectively, but by sheer determination and the zeal to win, they finished second in 2017–18 season and gained promotion to the EFL League one. Luton Town FC proved once again that their qualification to the league was for nothing other than clinching the top spot. They won the EFL League One in the 2018–19 season which meant they qualified for the English Championship — after twelve years.
Facing tougher competitions in the Championship — one of the toughest leagues — Luton Town finished nineteenth in the 2019–20 season but improved every season, with increased number of games won, by finishing twelfth in 2020–21, and sixth in 2021–22 — which meant that a playoff semi-final was on the cards — but losing to Huddersfield Town, 2–1 on aggregate, brought the curtain down on their aspiration.
The 2022–2023 season was the glory season for the Hatters. They started off with a slow pace but picked up momemtum and shortly after that, they hit a brick wall. Nathan Jones, the manager responsible for the meteoric rise of the club was lost to Southampton on 10th of November 2022. Seven days later, the Hatters hired Rob Edwards, who was sacked by their club rival, Watford, and surprisingly guided the Hatters to a third place finish that season. He remains at the helm of affairs to this very day.
Luton Town beat Sunderland 3–2 on aggregate in the play-off semi-finals and to reach the play-off final against Coventry City. It was blood, sweat and tears, as they battled for over 90 minutes without a clear winner in a match that ended 1–1, but the moment of glory came when they netted 6 goals in penalties as against 5 by Coventry. The earth-shaking jubilation of 85,711 spectators was evidence that this was the moment they had been waiting for and it was well deserved. By this win, Luton Town got promoted to the Premier League.
Luton Town remains the first and only football team to return to the top tier of English football after successive relegations to the fifth tier.
Sources:
Luton Town Football Club Official Website: https://www.lutontown.co.uk/
