Luton Town’s stadium, built in 1905, did not undergo much change, but the surrounding area was filled with houses, through which visiting fans gained access to the stands. Credits: @Altaf Shah
At Wembley, the cathedral of English football, it was necessary to wait until penalties to decide a third promotion to the Premier League, leaving Luton Town with a win. The club presents quite a curiosity: it has a stadium which is entered through the courtyards of neighboring houses. After a 1–1 draw in regular time, they beat Coventry City 6–5 in a shootout in a “romantic game”.
Luton Town took the lead after 23 minutes with a goal from Jordan Clarke, a goal from Brazilian nationalized Dutchman Gustavo Hammer put the rivals on 21 in the second leg and a series of penalties were perfect for both of the first five goal attempts . , After Daniel Potts converted his team’s sixth and Fanciati Dabo, who was bound to score to prolong the suspense, blasted his shot over the crossbar, the madness broke away from Luton.
Definition of third promotion to the Premier League
More than 70,000 fans, distributed almost in equal parts, took to the main shrine of British football to attend a playoff final as emotional, anticipatory and unpredictable in definition as it was. The ticket was taken by the club that was third in the standings and has a curious story as to access to the stadium. Luton finished last on the closing date of the 1992 tournament, a year of change for English tournaments (including the birth of the Premier League); They lost 2–1 to Notts County, already doomed to relegation, and also lost the league. That experience 31 years ago was the last of the great for Hatters (“Hatters”), a town about 47 kilometers northwest of London that was famous in the 17th century for the production of hats. stood and is known for being one of the four alternative airports to Heathrow, the UK’s main airport.
Because of that defeat, Luton are not part of the group recognized as the founders of the Premier League. Conversely, he may not show minor triumphs in promotion categories, in a long cycle of bad drinks. In 2014 they played in the Conference League, a semi-professional category equivalent to the first Argentine D. Its progressive decline began in 1996 with financial problems and a first relegation to League One (the third tier). Pit seemed to have been saved with a temporary return to the championship in 2005, but the downhill circling from 2007 onwards. A poor campaign that year saw the team return to third place; Next, a 10-point penalty for non-payment of debts resulted in a drop to League Two (the fourth tier), and in 2009 the federation imposed on the club the largest playing penalty in the history of English football: 30 exemption points. The result was relegation to the fifth national tier.
Daniel Potts leads the celebrations for Luton Town, who reached the Premier League with a penalty win over Coventry City at Wembley. – Credit: @ADRIAN DENNIS
The return to the starting point was a difficult test. Five seasons with three losing finals on the way to relegation to League Two, and another four years to climb. On the other hand, the move from League One to the Championship was immediate: in 2019 the Hatters returned to second place. FOUR PROMOTIONS IN NINE YEARS This is the story of disappointments and joys behind the gift of a dream.
Access to the Luton Town Stand
And now Luton Town have returned to the highest British league with a home special. Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet admits it openly: “Our stadium was built in 1905 and hasn’t really changed much in that time.” Kenilworth Road is undoubtedly one of the strangest settings in English football. Even the visiting public has to cross the gardens and backyards of neighboring houses to enter. It has a capacity of 10,000 people, and the club knows it will have to build a grandstand in three months to adapt to the requirements of the premiership. “It will cost us between £8 and 10 million [10 a 12 millones de dólares]A more colossal task than the construction of a new stadium, ”says the leadership. The future venue has already been approved: it will be in the city centre, will seat 23,000, will require an outlay of $120 million and will be completed in a best-case scenario for 2025/26. Season.
Luton Town celebrate promotion to the Premier League for which they have waited 31 years. – Credit: @ADRIAN DENNIS
The third team to rise, joining Burnley and Sheffield United – they did it straight away – began the tournament under the leadership of Nathan Jones, a history of the house, who coached the squad until they left for Southampton on the 19th, and He ended it with Rob Edwards, who had started the league at Watford. But there has hardly been any change in the line of play. Luton are not interested in possession, but are voracious in applying pressure in someone else’s territory when they lose the ball. Their attacks are direct, almost always on the wings, where full-backs Cody Drameh and Alfie Doughty launch crosses in search of the powerful heads of Carlton Morris (1.85m) and Elijah Adebajo (1.93).
Luton Town is the next hero of the premiership, which was not in the bookmakers’ calculations.
