Play-off penalty shoot-out heartbreak to AFC Wimbledon in 2011 was the moment Gary Brabin knew life as Luton boss was about to get even harder.
The 4-3 spot-kick defeat in the Conference Play-off Final at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium meant the beginning of the end for his tenure as Town chief.
The Liverpudlian was sacked the following season and it would be another two years before Luton clawed their way back to the Football League, under John Still.
But Brabin, who is now back at the Hatters as assistant manager to Graeme Jones, believes that if he’d have managed to beat the Dons that day, things might have worked out differently for him.
“I always knew the job would be a little easier if we got promoted after that,” he said of that difficult day in Manchester.
“So, when we missed out on that penalty shoot-out I knew it was going to be a tough job, and it was one that I had to really think long and hard about before I eventually took the job.
“I knew there was a lot of work to be done, I felt during that period that I had to change a lot. There were a lot of players that were probably on the decline in their careers. We had to change things round to move forward and I felt I had made strides in that, with the signings I’d made.
“It was tough when I left but you have to dust yourself down and get on with your own career.”
when we missed out on that penalty shoot-out I knew it was going to be a tough job, and it was one that I had to really think long and hard about before I eventually took the job.
Jason Walker came within the width of the post of sending Luton and Brabin back to the Football League in the dying moments of that play-off showpiece.
The striker then infamously dinked a spot-kick weakly at Dons keeper Seb Brown as the Hatters lost 4-3 from 12 yards to consign the club to a third, painful year in the non-league.
Asked if he ever wondered what life would’ve been like if Walker had just put his laces through that penalty, Brabin said: “Even good and bad, I’m not one of those people that dwells on things that have gone on. Things happen for a reason and we all have to deal with disappointment in our lives and I’m one of them gets up, fists myself down and gets on with it.
“I like to think I’m a positive person and it’s no good looking back. I was part of the process. I look at the history of the club and take more of an interest in football club when you’ve been part of it. Even before I come (back) to the club, when I’ve seen the football club get promoted back into the Football Lague, I was so delighted that the people I knew personally.
“And I watched them getting promoted into Division One, I was delighted. I text (Luton chief executive) Gary Sweet and all the people who was part of the club because I was delighted and I thought that was the very least they deserve to be.
“My first game as Blackpool assistant manager was against Luton, which had a lot of feeling. There has been a lot of genuine support, without being over the top. It’s a club that obviously means something to me.
“I had my first child when I lived here, so for her to come back, it seems quite weird for me and my wife bringing my daughter back to where she lived. There is a lot of little personal things as well but, overall, I’m delighted to come back.
“I’m not spending too much time dwelling in the past. I’m in during the day today work. I want to help Graeme, who is my manager but also my friend, as well as people who are friends here at the club, achieve more success.”
