Luton – My Worst Season
Yesterday, prompted by a valued Vital Luton Town reader, we ran an article that was very well received.
Our article – my-favourite-season – saw numerous readers respond to our article to offer their views on what was their favourite season.
If you have yet to read the article, please click on the link and feel free to leave your thoughts.
Today, I thought I would deal with the other end of the emotional spectrum and run an article on what you perceive to be our worst ever season.
To me, there was only one choice – 2008 / 2009.
Riddled with financial problems, the club had been placed into administration and were hit with a draconian punishment that meant survival in the Football League was almost impossible.
The club started the 2008 / 2009 with a 30-point deduction, 10 for going into administration and a further 20 for exiting administration improperly.
If I recall correctly, it was, and still is, the most severe punishment handed out to a club.
But what hurt the most was that the punishment was the result of poor ownership by people no longer at the club and hurt the support far more than those that had committed the offences.
Hindered by such a punishment, the Hatters were to drop into Non-League football, ending an 89-year stay, finishing 15 points behind Grimsby Town, who finished third from bottom.
I can recall, even though such a fate had been anticipated for months, a genuine feeling of despair at dropping out of the Football League, little did I know that it would seem like an eternity before we were to regain our EFL status.
However, while, on the league front, it was a season of utter despair, there was one major highlight.
On 05-April, the Hatters, in a thrilling final played at Wembley Stadium, were to come from behind to beat Scunthorpe United, 3-2, in the Football League Trophy.
Abiding memories of the occasion include more than 40,000 Luton supporters cheering their team on in a crowd of 55,378.
After selling all their allocated tickets, requests for more were denied satisfying crowd segregation regulations.
Ahead of the game, as the Football League chairman, Brian Mawhinney, was introduced to the two teams, the air was filled with a crescendo of booing, in response to the draconian 30-point deduction imposed upon the club.
The stats for that wonderful afternoon are shown below:
Luton: Brill, Asafu-Adjaye, Pilkington, Spillane, Emanuel, Keane, Nicholls, Hall, Jarvis (Parkin 117), Martin, Craddock (Gnakpa 85).
Subs Not Used: Button, Davis, Roper.
Goals: Martin 32, Craddock 70, Gnakpa 95.
For those wishing to review the occasion:
But does my worst season ever coincide with yours, or do you have another season that fits the criteria?
Please feel free to have your say in the comment facility beneath this article.
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Luton – Now That Is Some Career