Some of us have never had it so good! A certain vintage have, sure, and I was even alive for Town’s halcyon decade in the top flight, but you’ve never heard about the baby genius whose first words were to recite the 1981/82 Second Division title-winning team… because it didn’t happen.
For my living memory, the class of 2023 is as good as it’s been – and that’s saying something for the last nine years we’ve enjoyed.
I’ll take your John Stills, Mick Harfords, Nathan Joneses, back-to-back promotions, 27-games-unbeaten-League-One-winning teams, last-day Great Escapes, and I’ll bank those in Strike It Lucky 90s gameshow style. Those memories are ours, safe, whatever happens.
But, for the level Luton are playing at, with their 12-game unbeaten streak and a Championship play-off place already certain with three games to go, Rob Edwards’ side is the best I’ve had the privilege of watching and writing about.
Thankfully, this football club has provided us plenty of chances to debate our definition of the best of times.
As a cub reporter, I thought I’d struggle to top when I popped my Kenilworth Road press box cherry. Wrong. Even if the 2006 2-0 Championship victory over Queens Park Rangers came journalistically gift-wrapped in controversial sub-plots, with the aftermath of Mike Newell’s bung-gate revelations and, similar noises from then Rangers boss Ian Holloway. His was also a typically bonkers press conference flanked by his wife in an ankle-length fur coat.
I caught the bug, of course, but then a few years later I was stood in the same room with Big Mick after the crushing confirmation that Town’s 89-year stay in the Football League was over. That’s the rollercoaster.
Not only are the Hatters now back where they belong, but luck’s got nothing to do with it. The Carlton Morris-inspired point at Reading that reeled in the play-offs was the culmination of a proper football club continually living up to their ‘progress’ mantra.
While it cannot be overstated how big an achievement it was to have matched last term’s 75 points with three games to go, they bettered that on Monday night with comeback goals from Tom Lockyer and Morris to beat Middlesbrough 2-1 and keep a chokehold on third place in the first of what we now all hope will be a super six games to see dreams come true. Monday night’s clash could even turn out to be a dress rehearsal for the biggest game in Town’s history. Well, since the last one, anyway.
A record-breaking return to the top-flight from non-league? Yes please! One last chance for this glorious old stadium to shake it with the ‘big boys’ and rile pampered Premier League prima donnas, piled in through the back gardens of Oak Road? Even better! I’ve got just the vein for the tantalising pure proper football snark of it all.
Cherish these days because some of us have never had it so good. But if we’ve learned anything, it’s that the best of times can always get better.
This article was originally written for and published in the Luton Town v Middlesbrough match day programme’s The Last Word column and has been adapted to reflect the result.
