SPORTING REALITY

Luton Town Football Club is my hometown club. As a kid, I used to go to Kenilworth Road and have seen Luton play, and beat, teams such as Arsenal and Liverpool. These days, that seems fanciful, but I remember Mike Newell bagging a hat-trick in a 4 1 win over a Liverpool team who were the dominant force of English football at that time. The crazy thing is that wasn't really that much of a shock. Moaning people might complain about the plastic pitch (QPR also had the type of surface which could easily take several layers of skin off your knees after one slide), but the truth is, we had international standard players of the calibre of: Brian and Mark Stein, Paul Walsh, Kerry Dixon, Mal Donaghy, Steve Foster, Ashley Grimes, David Preece, the ever-classy Ricky Hill, and, my personal favourite, big Mick Harford.

 

Nowadays, the struggles are based on what look like a futile struggle to stay in the Championship. Two of last season's best players, James Justin and Jack Stacey have headed for Premier pastures new, and it has been a struggle for the team to adapt to playing at a higher level. That said, a club like Luton deserves to be at least in the Championship. To that end, we have finally got planning permission for our new stadium. This has been a dream for fans of the club since I was a child, with the Kohlerdome having been one such incarnation. With a solid infastructure and excellent fan base, it should not be too long before the Town can establish themselves once again as a bigger club with ambitions of reaching the Premier League.