Luton Town will play a game of football inside Stadium MK for the first time on Saturday afternoon with more than 6,000 Hatters making the short trip for the lunchtime encounter – and this is the first time I have had to weigh up whether or not to go to the game.
This is a fixture that has been two decades in the making, since the last time the two sides met in Buckinghamshire, with that clash taking place at the National Hockey Stadium, which was Milton Keynes’ first temporary home after they moved Wimbledon out of London and changed their name.
While battles on the pitch between Luton and them have been relatively few and far between, there is a huge historical context to the match, one which stirs emotions for many and had led to a call to boycott the fixture.
For those who are unaware of the history surrounding this fixture, there was a proposal, in the early 1980s from the then Town owner, to relocate the Hatters to MK. It was only scuppered by Town supporters protesting and ensuring such a move could not happen. And that has heightened the strength of feeling for some fans regarding going up the M1 for this contest.
I was unable to make the previous away fixture 22 years ago, so the having to make a decision about going or not is new to me.
This is one of those situations where everyone must make the call they feel comfortable with and nobody should be judged rightly or wrongly for the choice they make.
The decision I have come to is that I will be at the fixture. While the decision probably wasn’t as tough as maybe it might have been 22 years ago, it certainly wasn’t made without absolute respect to everyone who gave up their time to ensure our wonderful club remained in the community that has adored it for more than a century.
I know people who were part of those protests in the 80s, and as a third-generation Hatter I have family members who, at the time, feared that our club would be moved out of the town. However, I believe the best way to honour those people – sadly not all of whom remain with us – is to go and give full support to our club they fought so hard to defend and protect.
Ultimately, whether we like it or not, our opponents on Saturday are established. They are not going anywhere now and while I understand their proximity to us brings about challenges for our club’s hierarchy to contend with, the best way we can help with that is to make our club look as attractive as we can.
If 6,000 plus away fans cheer on Luton, hopefully to three points, it would create a bigger divide in the league table and potentially the pyramid over the next few months, highlighting everything good about our club. That feels the right way, for me, to go about things.
Luton fans are definitely going to turn up. Hopefully Jack Wilshere gets the boys playing like they did last week in the 4-1 victory at Wycombe to make this an away day where we show the world the difference between a club with a natural, great past and one whose history is artificial.
A fans’ view
MK Dons v Luton Town is about much more than three points.
For the first time, the Hatters head to Stadium MK — but the fixture carries decades of history, resentment and a reminder of how close Luton came to leaving its home town.
They Tried To Kill Us Off… host Kevin Harper is “eternally grateful for those that fought so that they didn’t steal our club”, as, in this match preview podcast, the boys discuss the proposed move to Milton Keynes in the 1980s, the protests that helped keep Luton Town in Luton and the later relocation of Wimbledon to Buckinghamshire.
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