To pinch the title from a fine song by the legend that is Cher.
As we progress through life, we all learn from our mistakes, hopefully.
When asked if you regret anything many people reply no, but deep down I’m sure that there are many things, on reflection, you might have done differently.
Back in 1959, the Hatters reached their first-ever FA Cup Final when a barnstorming FA Cup run saw them matched against Nottingham Forest under the Twin Towers.
Although the game was before my birth, I often reminisce what it was like.
As we all know, the Hatters were to lose 2-1 with Forest taking a 2-0 lead, going down to 10-men, in an era when there were no substitutes before Luton mounted a comeback that saw Dave Pacey reduce the arrears with Forest then withstanding a Hatter’s barrage that saw Allan Brown head narrowly wide and Billy Bingham hit the side-netting.
The consensus was that if the Hatters had equalised then they’d have gone on to win the FA Cup.
The team that day was:
Ron Baynham, Brendan McNally, Ken Hawkes, John Groves, Syd Owen, Dave Pacey, Billy Bingham, Allan Brown, Bob Morton, George Cummins and Tony Gregory.
The side captained and managed by Syd Owen had one glaring omission, there was no place in the XI for the clubs’ record scorer Gordon Turner.
Turner, the clubs all-time record goal-scorer with 276 goals, had been injured during the FA Cup run and, although fit, Syd Owen opted to stick with the eleven that had got the Hatters to Wembley.
Is it a decision that Owen was to regret or was it one he, even after the defeat, would have made time and time again?
Only one man knows the answer to that but it’s something to ponder over.
Incidentally, the game was broadcast live on Grandstand and was the first time score captions had been used in an FA Cup Final but not without controversy.
For some reason, the BBC chose to describe Nottingham Forest as Notts Forest something that the legendary commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme had to apologise for stating that the caption should have read Nottm Forest!
Strange but true!
Previous article by Mad Hatter
transfer-deadline-day-shock-down-at-kenilworth-road
