[Lord Snooty]

Luton Town v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday February 6th - 15:00 ko
at Kenilworth Road

Huddersfield Town travel to Bedfordshire to play Luton Town at Kenilworth Road on Saturday afternoon for a classic Championship meeting of mid table mediocrity. Both teams were heavily involved with the relegation battle last season, so really, mid table mediocrity is a huge improvement. But of course, we all strive for more.

It's getting a bit congested though in this mid table and the relegation fodder are actually getting a bit too close for comfort, so we really ought to start being serious about winning a few more and not "doing a Hull". Wendy's surprise win down at Dean Court on Tuesday night moves them to within 7 points of us. And Rotherham's win over Derby puts them within six of us.  There's a lot of teams between us but.......

February will be a very important month. Our injured players will start filtering back. Hopefully Josh Koroma will get out of the treatment room soon. He's been out since December the 8th. Missed ten games. And he's still our leading scorer. Never mind missing out on League One strikers. We need our Josh back. We have some winnable games coming up, which could well turn into must win games. We had too many must win games last season. Let's try winning some of these this month and then we can have a few "would be nice to win but not really that crucial if we don't games".

Luton have two new names in their squad. Having dodged the bullet of the ex player coming back to score against us for Stoke last week, Tom Ince is now being given another go, having signed for the Hatters on Deadline Day. Another one who is bound to score against us is Elijah Adebayo who they signed from Walsall on Monday night. He, of course, was one of the names linked with a move to us. We just know what will happen now.




A brief history of Luton Town: formed in 1885, they turned professional in 1890 and entered the Football League in 1897. However, as they were based in the south and most of their opponents were based in the north, they decided to leave the FL and went back to the Southern League in 1900. They played at Dunstable Road then, but in 1905 they moved to Kenilworth Road. They returned to the Football League in 1920 when the new Division Three (South) was formed and finished that first season in mid table.

They won Div 3(S) in 1936/37 and so were promoted to the 2nd Division. They scored 103 goals in the league but one match against Bristol Rovers in the previous season produced a league record that still stands today and is very unlikely to ever be beaten. They beat Bristol Rovers 12-0, but that wasn't the record. The remarkable thing was Joe Payne, who started the season at half back, was brought in to play centre forward because of injuries to Jack Ball and Bill Boyd. He only went and scored ten goals in the match! So they kept him in that position and the next season, when they won the title, he banged home 55 goals, a club record. He scored 83 goals in his 72 matches for Luton.

Joe Payne

They stayed in the 2nd division up to and after the war and in 52/53 they almost got promoted, finishing 3rd behind Sheffield Utd and Huddersfield Town, when only the top two went up. They did manage it though in 54/55 when they finished second as Birmingham City won the title and Rotherham just failed as the three teams all ended up on 54 points and Luton were promoted with a better Goal Average. This was the era when Gordon Turner played for them, who went on to be their all time record goalscorer with 276 in a 15 year career. He scored 32 in the promotion season.

A creditable finish of tenth in their first season in the top flight was followed by 16th, 8th and 17th. But then in 1959 they reached the FA Cup Final for their one and only time. They met Nottingham Forest, but got beaten 1-2. Goals from Roy Dwight (cousin of Elton John) and Tommy Wilson gave Forest an early lead, but then Dwight broke his leg after 33 minutes and had to go off. There were no subs in those days, so Forest had to battle on with ten men. In the second half Dave Pacey scored for his home town club, but Forest held on for the win.

Did the Wembley appearance lead to further success? No. They were relegated in the next season along with Leeds Utd. They finished 13th in the 2nd division, but then in the next season, they were relegated again and were back in the 3rd division for the first time in 26 years. It got worse. They had a mid table finish but then in 64/65 they were relegated to the 4th division for the first time, just six years after being runners up in the FA Cup.

Better days were just around the corner though. They won the 4th division title in 67/68 and almost made it back to back promotions, but finished 3rd when it was still just the top two promoted. But then in 69/70 they did go up and it was the goals of future Town manager Malcolm Macdonald that fired them to a second placed position. Supermac was sold to Newcastle and the team did fairly well in the league, but then in 73/74, just 9 years after being relegated to the 4th division, they won promotion back to the First Division, finishing as runners up to Middlesbrough, with Carlisle United taking advantage of the new three promoted clubs rule behind them.

It was just a one year stay. They were relegated alongside Chelsea and Carlisle. Better times weren't far away again though and in 1977 they appointed David Pleat as manager, who had played for them in those 4th division days. He got them promoted in 81/82 as Champions of Division Two, eight points ahead of runners up Watford. Pleat's most famous day was on the last day of 82/83 when Luton had to win at Maine Road to stay up. Their win, thanks to a Raddy Antić goal, had Pleat dancing for joy on the pitch on hearing the final whistle, which not only became an iconic image, but also saw Man City relegated.

They stayed up for a few years and achieved their highest ever league finish in 86/87 when they ended the season in 7th place. Pleat had been poached by Tottenham Hotspur by then, so it was John Moore, a former 4th division team mate of Pleat's and his assistant manager, who managed the club to this position. He only stayed in the job for one season though. He didn't like being the boss and so went back to being just a coach and Ray Harford took over. Harford had immediate success by winning the League Cup in 1988.

It wasn't their first visit to Wembley that season though, as they had been to the final of the Full Members Cup a month earlier when they lost 1-4 to Reading. This time they were up against Arsenal, the cup holders and strong favourites. Luton took an early lead though through Brian Stein when the famous Arsenal defence failed to clear a set piece. So one nil to Luton at half time, it wasn't until the 71st minute when the next goal arrived. It was an equaliser for the Gunners from substitute Martin Hayes. And just three minutes later, they were ahead through dreary voiced Sky pundit Alan Smith. Arsenal could have scored again and again, but for great saves from Andy Dibble, who had been on loan at Town earlier in the season and was only playing because of an injury to first choice keeper Les Sealey. Arsenal then got a penalty. Nigel Winterburn took it and Dibble saved it. There's your turning point. Not long after, Luton equalised through Danny Wilson and with the game heading to extra time, Tony Adams fouled Stein on the edge of the area. He scored from the resulting free kick, in the last minute of the game and Luton Town had it's one and only major trophy.

They did reach the final again in the next season, but in a repeat of the 1959 FA Cup Final, they lost to Nottingham Forest. Mick Harford scored the opening goal in this one, but two goals from Nigel Clough and one from Neil Webb gave Brian Clough the third of his four League Cup triumphs as Forest manager.

Luton flirted with relegation in the next couple of seasons until 91/92 when they went down alongside Notts County and West Ham, thus missing out on the first season of the Premier League. And then in 95/96, they got relegated again to the 3rd division.

They made it to the Play Offs for the first time in that first season in what was now called League One, but failed at the semi final stage, being beaten on aggregate by Crewe Alexandra. Another couple of mid table finishes, then the slump continued and they were back down in the basement league following relegation in 2000/01.

It was just a one year stay there though as they bounced back by finishing as runners up to Plymouth Argyle. That was under the management of Joe Kinnear, but he was sacked and replaced by Mike Newell. It took him a couple of years but he got them up to the Championship by winning League One in 04/05. They won it in style as well, finishing twelve points ahead of runners up Hull City.

Newell led them to 10th in the Championship, but disagreements with the board caused him to leave and he was replaced by Kevin Blackwell, which sparked off a disastrous chain of events that saw them go into administration, get points deducted and get relegated from the Championship, League One and League Two, ending up in the Conference for the start of the 2009/10 season.

Before that relegation to non league though, they went and won the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, beating Scunthorpe Utd 3-2 at Wembley with goals from Chris Martin (on loan from Norwich), Tom Craddock and in extra time, Claude Gnakpa came up with the winner.

They were a force in the Conference, but just couldn't get out of it. Their first three seasons saw them reach the Play offs. The first one they lost on aggregate to York City. The second one, they reached the Final at the Etihad Stadium but lost on penalties to AFC Wimbledon. They reached the Final again in 2012, this time at Wembley, but despite a goal in the 2nd minute from Andre Gray, they were beaten 1-2 by York City, again.

They missed out in the following season, but then in 13/14, they were back. They won the Conference at a canter, clocking up 101 points, that was 19 above runners up Cambridge Utd. They then reached the League Two Play Offs in 16/17 but lost on aggregate to Blackpool. But that didn't deter them as they then won back to back promotions, finishing as runners up to Accrington Stanley and then winning the League One title in 2018/19.

Head to Head



Luton Town lead the head to head with 12 wins to Huddersfield Town's 9, with 4 draws.

Not many games to write about here, this being only the 26th meeting of the two teams. The last few have been totally unmemorable for us Town fans, with Luton doing the double over us last season and the game at our place this season being quite a dreary draw. George Moncur opened the scoring in that one, then Carel Eiting nodded home his first goal for the Terriers.

Those games last season were the first since 2007/08 when we did the double over the Hatters, winning 2-0 at home through Luke Beckett and Danny Cadamarteri. Phil Jevons scored the only goal of the game down at Kenilworth Road.

Danny the Cad

We never seem to have many seasons in the same division. The most was in the 60s when we had three consecutive seasons together in Division Two. The first time we met was in the previous decade when we had been relegated to the 2nd division. We did the double then, beating them 3-0 at home and 2-0 away as we won promotion back to the First Division under the management of Andy Beattie.

When Luton got promoted, we had our one and only season together at the top level and they got their first win against us, winning 2-0 at Leeds Road in 55/56. We won 2-1 down at theirs with England international Bill McGarry getting both goals. It didn't help though. We got relegated.

The first time we met in the FA Cup was in 1960. And what a disappointment. We had beaten West Ham in the 3rd round 5-1 in a replay at Upton Park and 28,220 spectators came to Leeds Road to see more of the same. Luton won it 1-0.

The Hatters were on a downward spiral and so we met in the 2nd division for the next three seasons before they went down to the 3rd. One of the games in that period was an entertaining 4-3 Town win at Leeds Road in 61/62. Peter Dinsdale, Derek Stokes (2) and Pat Saward with the Town goals in that one.

There was only one season together in the 70s and that was in Division 2 as we were on our slump to the bottom. Luton beat us both times, 4-1 at theirs and 2-1 at ours. We didn't meet again in the league until the 90s, but we had our second and final FA Cup meeting in 84/85.

We were a mid table division 2 team and they were in the First. They won 2-0. This was my one and only visit to Kenilworth Road. Their chairman was a fan of Margaret Thatcher and I think later went on to be a Tory MP. Anyway, the horrible arsehole tried to make the experience for the away fan as bad as he could in an attempt to stop away fans going, he would later ban them altogether. There were about 2,000 of us there that day and we were all crammed into a tiny pen, the likes of which caused so much devastation at Hillsborough a few years later. Not a very pleasant experience and I've never been back. Shithole!

After Luton beat us, they came up against Millwall. Their fans were having none of it. They trashed the place. Always disliked Luton after this and I know I shouldn't say it, but I gave a little cheer when the Cockney scum smashed the place up.

Well if you feel sorry for poor little Luton, don't. After the second leg of their Conference Play off semi final in 2010 at Kenilworth Road, when they had been beaten by York City, the celebrating York players had to run for their lives as the Luton fans began a riot on the pitch, reminiscent of those nasty Millwall fans back in the 80s. They carried it on outside as well, bricking the supporters' coaches. Funny how the Millwall riot is well documented, but this one isn't. It took a fair bit of internet trawling to find this report. https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/8133899...ebrations/

Sorry, I've gone off script here. Back to the Head to Head. So we had one season together in the 90s. That was in 95/96 in the 2nd tier after we had won promotion by beating Bristol Rovers in the Play Offs. That was with Neil Warnock in charge, but by now we had Luton legend Brian Horton in charge. We drew 2-2 at theirs just before Christmas with goals from Andy Booth and Lee Makel. Then a Rob Edwards goal beat them 1-0 at home in March. They were relegated at the end of the season.

We got relegated in 2002 and so met again in the 3rd tier in 02/03. We lost 0-1 at the MacAlpine and 0-3 at Kenilworth. And so we were relegated again. But we bounced back again with Peter Jackson in the hot seat for his second spell in charge and we went down to Luton and came back with the three points with two goals from Junior Mendes, one of which was goal of the season if I remember correctly.


So what's going on darn at Luton Tarn? Managed nowadays by Nathan Jones, the subject of a famous song by The Supremes in 1971 and Bananarama in 1987.

Born in Blaenrhondda in 1973, he first went to Luton as a player in 1995, but never got a game and so he ended up playing for former Derby manager Colin Addison in the lower regions of the Spanish Football Leagues. After a couple of years of Spanish sunshine, he came back to the beautiful English sunshine in Southend. He then rejoined Addison who was by now at sunny Scarborough, in 1999. Whilst there, he was part of the team that got relegated to the Conference, via a famous late goal elsewhere. That was the one when Jimmy Glass, the Carlisle keeper scored a late winner to send poor Scarborough down.

He then went to Brighton and spent five years there yo-yoing between the bottom few leagues while playing at the Withdean Stadium. And he followed that with a seven year stint at Yeovil Town. He captained Yeovil at the 2007 Play Off Final, but they lost to Blackpool. He took his coaching badges and started coaching the Ladies team, before becoming assistant manager of the men's team, assistant to Terry Skiverton. He was still playing at this time, but eventually hung up his booits in 2012 with a career total of 555 appearances.

So he then got a job as u21s coach at Charlton Athletic, but only stayed for 12 months as his old club Brighton had a vacancy for him. They had left the Withdean and were now resident in the brand spanking new Amex. He was assistant to three different managers there and had a stint as caretaker in between the resignation of Sami Hyypiä and the appointment of Chris Hughton.

Hughton had his own coaching team brought in and so Jones was demoted, eventually leaving to join Luton in League 2 in 2016. His first job was to dismantle the squad that had won the Conference a couple of years earlier but were now struggling in League 2. His new squad got to the Play Offs, but lost on aggregate in the semis to Blackpool. They didn't let that defeat get them down though and set off the next season at speed. They beat Yeovil Town 8-2 on the opening day and also had a 7-1 win over Stevenage and a 7-0 win over Cambridge Utd. They did win promotion, but it was Danny Cowley and Lincoln City who won the title.

He had Luton up at the top end of League One when Championship Stoke City came knocking on his door, trying to lure him away. They did and he left the Hatterries for the Potteries in January 2019. He didn't last a year though and once Cowley had left Lincoln for Huddersfield, he got the better of Jones again by getting his first win as Town manager at Stoke courtesy of a Juninho Bacuna last minute goal.

He was sacked by Stoke in November, but was soon back in work when he rejoined Luton in May last year, who had won promotion to the Championship in his absence. That was during the Covid lockdown break and soon after the restart he finally got one back on Cowley when they came and did a smash n grab of the three points in July.

Who's in their squad then? Well the main man is James Collins. His goals have been instrumental in their rise from the depths. He joined them in League Two in 2017 from Crawley Town and got off to a fairly decent start, scoring a hat trick on his debut in an 8-2 win against Yeovil Town. He scored 25 goals that season as the Hatters won promotion and then 20 in the next as they went up again.
He started his career at Aston Villa and has since played for a few lower league teams, in between a season in Scotland with Hibs in 2013/14. Can't hold his beer though. In 2016 he was filmed pissing into a beer glass and pouring it over a balcony at the Cheltenham Festival.  

James Collins

In goal, James Shea was the regular in the promotion years but has since lost his place to Croatian Simon Sluga. Shea came from AFC Wimbledon in 2017 and Sluga arrived last season from HNK Rijeka.

In defence they have ex Town player Martin Cranie. Ex Ossett Town and Barnsley lad James Bree, who made a big money move to Aston Villa, but is now back in the Championship. Matty Pearson is another Yorkshire lad. He has played for the Shaymen and came to Luton from Barnsley in 2018. Welsh centre back Tom Lockyer got sent off against Brentford and so should've been suspended for this one. However, he won his appeal and will be available.

Dan Potts is the son of West Ham legend Steve Potts. He started his own career with the Hammers, playing a couple of games in the Premier League before moving to Kenilworth Road in 2015. As a kid though, he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Thankfully, aged 16, he got the all clear. The skipper is Sonny Bradley, the big lad with the neck tattoos who scored against us last season. He started out with his home town club, Hull City and signed for Luton in 2018 from Plymouth Argyle.

Midfielders include ex Man Utd youngster Ryan Tunnicliffe who came from Millwall in 2018. Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu has been there for yonks and has over 260 appearances for them now. His cousin is Peter Kioso, who is also on Luton's books, but is out on loan at Northampton. Luke Berry came from Cambridge Utd in 2017. George Moncur signed from Barnsley in 2019 and scored against us in the match at the John Smith's this season.

There's an oddly named lad on loan from Leicester. He's Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and hasn't yet played in the Prem for them, but has a couple of times in Cup matches. He's with the Hatters for all this season.

Dewsbury Hall

Glen Rea came from Brighton in 2016 and played for the Irish u21s. Jordan Clark signed from Accrington Stanley in the last summer window and scored against Chelsea in the Cup. Kazenga LuaLua played in the Prem with Newcastle, but has been in the Championship since with Brighton, Sunderland, QPR and now Luton since 2018.

Forwards include ex Bournemouth crooner Harry Cornick. Danny Hylton, who came from Oxford Utd and has over 50 goals in his Hatters career. Kal Naismith, who started his career in Scotland with Rangers, is a recent signing from Wigan. Sam Nombe is on loan from MK Dons.

Elliot Lee, who scored against us last season, signed for Oxford Utd on Deadline Day. And also on Deadline Day, they signed ex Town player Tom Ince for the rest of the season and Elijah Adebayo from Walsall, who we were also trying to sign supposedly. So what do we know about this lad? He started out at Fulham, joining them as a 9 year old. He has had a couple of non league loans, followed by loans at Cheltenham (in your beautiful state of Glossestershiyer), Swindon and Stevenage. The Cottagers released him at the end of 2018/19, which is when he signed for Walsall. This season, he has scored 10 goals in 28 games  in League Two for the Saddlers.

Last week's line up away at Blackburn:

12 Sluga
6 Pearson
15 Lockyer
5 Bradley
3 Potts
16 Rea
7 Cornick
17 Mpanzu
22 Dewsbury-Hall
18 Clark
19 Collins

Subs
1 Shea
2 Cranie
8 Berry
9 Hylton
14 Moncur
24 Naismith
25 LuaLua
27 Nombe
28 Morrell


Club connections: Let's start with the managers. Brian Horton managed Town from June 1995 to October 1997. But he will be most remembered as a hard grafting midfielder for First Division Luton Town in the David Pleat team that relegated Manchester City. He was 32 when he joined them and skippered them to promotion from the 2nd division. Earlier, he had had two promotions with Brighton and a long spell playing for Port Vale. After three seasons at Kenilworth Road, he went to Hull City as player/manager and guided them to promotion out of Div 3. He then managed Oxford Utd and Man City before arriving at our place when Neil Warnock resigned after winning us promotion.

Malcolm Macdonald was and possibly still is, a legend of the game in some places. Unfortunately, not in Huddersfield. He scored 58 goals in 101 matches for the Hatters and helped them win promotion from the 3rd division in 69/70. This earned him a big money move to Newcastle. He finished top scorer for them in all the five seasons he was there and was by now a Superstar and a star of the BBC programme of that name. Whilst at Newcastle he scored all five goals for England in a 5-0 win over Cyprus. He then was transferred to Arsenal and top scored for them in two seasons before getting a serious knee injury, which eventually finished his career. He later said that the pain from the injury was what caused him to become an alcoholic. Sadly, by all rumours and reports, he was a washed out pisshead when he was Town manager, turning up drunk for training and even on match days. His time with us is remembered for a heavy defeat against Man City.

Kevin Blackwell played for Town and then later managed Luton. During his playing days, much like his coaching days, he tended to follow Neil Warnock around. But before they met, he had a non league career, whilst working as a brickie. He played for Barnet and Boston before joining Colin at Scarborough. He was their keeper when they were promoted to the Football League in 1987. He then followed Warnock to Notts County and Torquay and then came to us shortly after Colin became our manager. Whilst a Town player, he made just the five appearances but took up a coaching role as well.
Anyway, moving on a few years and clubs, he was surprisingly given the job of managing the Beeston Bellends in 2004. He took them to the Play Off Final in 2006, the one where they got hammered by Watford and got sacked by Ken Bates soon afterwards for making negative comments about the conman in charge club's financial situation. So he ended up managing his home town club, Luton Town. Dream job managing your home town club? No, no, no! More like out of the frying pan, into another frying pan. He didn't last a year and was sacked as the club went into administration.

One of their current squad played for us before and that is of course, Martin Cranie. Born 34 years ago in Yeovil, he came to us at the start of the 2015/16 season, released by Barnsley after they were relegated to League One. Before all that though, he started out at Southampton and made his debut in the Premier League against Chelsea, a game they lost 0-4 and 17 year old Martin scored an own goal. He had loans out at League One Bournemouth and Yeovil during his four years at St Mary's, but then when Harry Redknapp took over at the Saints' arch rivals Portsmouth, he made Martin one of his first signings.
That was a step up to the PL as Southampton by now had dropped to the Championship, but he still couldn't get much game time and so was loaned out again, this time to QPR and Charlton. He was then sold to Coventry for half a million and then to Barnsley, from where he joined us and helped us win promotion to the Premier League. He turned out 64 times for us, followed that with spells at Middlesbrough and Sheffield Utd, before landing at Luton at the start of last season.

Last season they had two more ex Town players on their books. Izzy Brown, having made his league debut for West Brom in 2013 and then getting sold to Chelsea for nominal compensation, is now at his seventh loan club in seven years. We were his third loan and Luton his sixth. The other ex Town player was Jacob Butterfield. A waste of talent, now wasting it in Australia.

Goalkeepers Andy Dibble and Martyn Margetson, I've mentioned before. In the Cardiff match thread I mentioned how they were rivals at Manchester City and had both played for Cardiff, Man City and Huddersfield Town. Well they both played for Luton as well. Martyn went there in 1995 on loan from Man City and Andy went there from Cardiff in 1984. You may have noticed in the History section that Dibble was on loan from Luton when he came to us and then returned there to play in the 1988 League Cup Final and win a winners medal, saving a penalty and earning himself the Man of the Match award.

Officer Dibble

Not the only goalkeepers to play for us both. At both ends of the 70s, Town had David Lawson and Alan Starling. Lawson was at the beginning of the decade and came from Bradford Park Avenue as deputy to Terry Poole. A broken leg for Terry saw Dave in the first team, in the First Division. He did so well that he ended up being sold to Everton for what was then a record transfer fee for a goalkeeper. By the end of the decade, he had signed for Luton, but only played five times.

Starling flew in to Huddersfield towards the end of the decade from Northampton Town. He won the 1979 Player of the Year award, such was his popularity. A real crowd favourite, he would show his arse on request during matches and won a 4th Division champions medal, despite being replaced by Andy Rankin half way through the 79/80 season. Earlier, he started out as an apprentice at Luton, making 7 first team appearances.

Efe Sodje skippered Town at the Millennium Stadium Play Off victory over Mansfield Town in 2004, but on the photos of the presentation, it's Andy Booth and Peter Jackson picking up the trophy. That's because poor old Efe was in the back of an ambulance with a serious head injury. Nowadays, he's more likely to be found in the back of a Police van. But before all that, he had one season at Luton, playing 9 times.

There have been others to have played for both. Buster Brown played in the 30s, having a couple of seasons in the First division with us. Willie Davie went from St Mirren to Luton and then had six seasons with us in the 50s. Mick Kennedy had a steady rise through the leagues. He played 95 games for us after signing from Halifax Town and reached his pinnacle at Luton Town in 1989, playing for them in their First Division days. Robert Wilson played for Luton in the 80s and us in the 90s, later coming back as an Academy coach. Julian Watts came on loan from Leicester in 1998 and went to Luton in the following year. Simon Davies was part of the famous Man Utd class of 92, came on loan to us in 1996, but wasn't very memorable. He signed for Luton in 1997 before sliding down the leagues with Macclesfield and Rochdale. Kevin Gallen had one disappointing season with us in 2000/01 and later played for Luton between 09 and 11.



Luton in popular culture: The football club is nicknamed The Hatters. And that is because hat making was the chief industry in the town. It began in the 17th century and is said to have reached a peak in the 1930s, when just about everybody wore a hat. Hat making is also known as millinery and that's good enough reason for me to introduce a classic Cocteau Twins track into this match thread, just because it vaguely matches the title.



They also have a Vauxhall Motors factory in the town. It opened in 1907 and as far as I know, it's still there. They've built all sorts of different vehicles over the years, including tanks during the war, which made it a target for the Luftwaffe on several occasions. But the most iconic vehicle built there must be the Bedford Van, as used in the classic ITV series The Beiderbecke Trilogy. We used to have a light blue one of these which me and my mates used to travel to games in. Trouble is, the bloody thing kept breaking down and after having to spend a night in Tebay Services on the M6 after an FA Cup match at Workington, we decided to trade it in.



They have an airport, which featured in popular culture. In the 70s, there was an advert featuring the lovely Lorraine Chase, which had Luton Airport as it's punchline. And it was probably that which spawned this hit record from Cats UK in 1979.



Luton Town's only redeeming feature is that it can't be all that bad if Eric Morecambe was once a director. He moved to the area in the 70s and lived half way between Luton and Watford. So wanting to take his son to a football match, tossed a coin and Luton won. They now have an Eric Morecambe Hospitality Suite at Kenilworth Road. Another famous fan who became a board member is former Breakfast Telly presenter, Nick Owen. He evn became Chairman of the club for a few years.

Other famous people from Luton include 2018 Strictly winner Stacey Dooley, 2015 Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, 2018 I'm a Celebrity runner up Emily Atack and 2011 Ashes winner Monty Panesar, who were all born in the town. And there were some not so nice men born there as well. Britain's most notorious prisoner, Charles Bronson and the odious fascist prick, Tommy Robinson are both from the town.



Musically, we have star of 80s pop, a lover of toast, Mr Paul Young. Here he is with the Fabulous Wealthy Tarts on The Tube in 1983.

'ow to get theere an' wheere to sup:

All together now......

We've not been to Rotherham
Or Birmingham (twice)
Or to the Libert-ay
And now we're missing Luton Town
Luton Town away
Luton Town awaaaaaaay

Other Championship matches this weekend:

Barnsley v Derby County
AFC Bournemouth v Birmingham City
Bristol City v Cardiff City
Coventry City v Watford
Middlesbrough v Brentford
Millwall v Sheffield Wednesday
Preston North End v Rotherham United
Queens Park Rangers v Blackburn Rovers
Stoke City v Reading
Swansea City v Norwich City
Wycombe Wanderers v Nottingham Forest


Recent form - last 6 matches:
Town 1-1 Stoke
Bristol C 2-1 Town
Town 0-1 Millwall
Watford 2-0 Town
Town 2-3 Plymouth (FAC)
Town 1-2 Reading

Blackburn 1-0 Luton
Chelsea 3-1 Luton (FAC)
Brentford 1-0 Luton
Bournemouth 0-1 Luton
Luton 0-2 QPR
Luton 1-0 Reading (FAC)

Town are 15h with 32 points, Luton are in 13th with 33.

Leading scorers:
Terriers:
Josh Koroma (6)
Frazier Campbell (5)
Carel Eiting (3)
Isaac Mbenza (3)
Naby Sarr (3)

Hatters:
James Collins (9)
George Moncur (3)
Jordan Clark (3)


February the 6th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date? Well, not that good really. Won 4, drew 3, lost 10. We haven't won a game since 1965.

1915: Glossop (h) Div 2, lost 0-1
1926: Manchester City (a) Div 1, WON 5-1 (George Brown 3, Roy Goodall pen, Billy Smith)
1932: Bolton Wanderers (a) Div 1, WON 2-1 (Dave Mangnall, Charlie Luke)
1937: Leeds United (a) Div 1, lost 1-2 (Frank Chivers)
1943: Middlesbrough (a) Wartime League North, WON 2-1 (Billy Price, Robert Barclay)
1954: Sheffield United (h) Div 1, drew 2-2 (Bryan Frear 2)
1960: Aston Villa (a) Div 2, lost 0-4
1961: Barnsley (a) FA Cup 4th round replay, lost 0-1
1965: Swindon Town (h) Div 2, WON 2-1 (Tony Leighton, Jimmy Nicholson)
1968: Arsenal (h) League Cup semi final 2nd leg, lost 1-3 (Tony Leighton)
1971: Everton (a) Div 1, lost 1-2 (Frank Worthington)
1973: Queens Park Rangers (a) Div 2, lost 1-3 (Alan Gowling)
1982: Wimbledon (a) Div 3, lost 0-2
1993: Bolton Wanderers (h) Div Two (3rd tier), drew 1-1 (Kieran O'Regan pen)
1999: Port Vale (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-2
2010: Carlisle United (h) League One (3rd tier), drew 1-1 (Anthony Pilkington)
2016: Preston North End (a) Championship, lost 1-2 (Nahki Wells)


The game in 1915 against Glossop was our last ever game with them. They finished bottom of the league and failed to get re-elected.

The win at Man City in 1926 took us to the top of the league, where we stayed for the rest of the season to complete the hat trick of League titles, the first ever club to achieve that feat.

Dave Mangnall scored at Bolton in 1932. This was his 5th game in a row in which he scored and would go on to claim a club record 9 consecutive scoring league games and 11 in all competitions.

Frank Chivers, who scored against Leeds in 1937, played a couple of seasons for us. He died in tragic circumstances aged 32, in 1942. But not as you might expect a young man to die during war time. He was killed in a mining accident at Barnborough Main Colliery in Barnsley.

The Cup defeat at Barnsley in 1961 was in the round after one of the most famous Town matches of the era. That was the one where we beat the famous Wolves team at Leeds Road in what was the first game under the new floodlights at Leeds Road.

The 1968 game against Arsenal was the only time we ever reached the semi finals of the League Cup. We lost the 1st leg 2-3 and Tony Leighton scored in the 2nd leg to level the aggregate scores up. But then Arsenal took control and won 6-3.

Kieran O'Regan, who scored a penalty in the 1993 match, was our regular penalty taker. A couple of seasons earlier, he had scored a penalty against Bury at Leeds Road when he was the stand in goalkeeper after Lee Martin had been sent off, back in the days when there were only two subs and nobody ever had a spare keeper on the bench.

Quiz time:

1. Name the Luton player who scored ten goals in a match against Bristol Rovers.
   
2. In which year did Luton win the League Cup?
   
3. Who scored for Town in the 1-1 draw against Luton this season?
   
4. Which team beat Luton in the 1959 FA Cup Final?
   
5. Which team beat Luton in the 1989 League Cup Final?
   

Luton related anagrams:

1. Wink Once 
   
2. Teeth Trash
   
3. Robina North
   
4. Jenna Ashton
   
5. UN Dong Terror
   

[ritchiebaby]

1. Nick Owen

Piss Artist James Collins has now dragged himself out of the gutter and found his level. He couldn't hack it at Hibs and his pathetic form was a main reason for Hibs' relegation in 2013/14. Thankfully, because of that, we managed to get rid of him and save a fortune.

[jjamez]

Koroma out for a couple more months according to senor coberan.

[ritchiebaby]

2. The Hatters

Come on everyone, where are you, you can't let me win the Anagram Quiz!

[Lord Snooty]

Hmm! Bad news indeed about Koroma.

On the other hand. Stearman has started training again and Schindler could be back training next week.

And Jonny the Hogg is available for Saturday.

---

[WakeyTerrier]

This is one weekend I am grateful that we have a worldwide pandemic.

Luton is the only place in this country I've been to that makes Dewsbury look wonderful. Crap Town, Crap away end, Crap pubs and a bugger to get to by train.

[ritchiebaby]

3. Brian Horton

[jjamez]

Colour me stumped on the annie grams snoots

---

4 Nathan jones

[theo_luddite]

They've had roadworks on the M1 by Luton since they first built the M1. Eventually, it might be wide enough to flatten the whole town.

I had the joy of flying out of Luton once - the day Town played Arsenal in the Cup. I went to the Arsenal match and then flew to some fogbound place in Poland.

The prick on security insisted on me taking my belt off to go through the metal detector, even though it was a cloth belt with plastic clips and a right pain in the arse to thread out of the belt loops on my trousers. Yet I could keep my watch with a metal wrist strap and my metal framed glasses on. Go figure - didn't set any alarm off. Paradise - for thick b@rstewards.

Been to both Vauxhall plants many a time in the past - oh the joys of supplying the UK Automotive Industry. The guys in the office at Luton knew exactly which plane was flying over their heads at any time of day - I think it was the only thing some of them knew to be fair. Mostly Luton vans (there's a surprise) and Rascals going down the production line when I ever saw it moving.

[Lord Snooty]

Hogg and Holmes in for Aarons and Vallejo.

---

---

Just watching the lads warming up thinking, who the heck's that number 20.
It's Sorba Thomas. Forgot all about him.