As the Premier League season draws to a nail-biting close at both ends of the table, my hometown club of Luton Town FC is still in with a shout of surviving the drop back to the Championship. The club is one point from safety with four games to play. Staying in the Premier League is vital not just for LTFC but for the town itself.
It is safe to say that Luton doesn’t have the most positive reputation; a running joke is that most people visit Luton to fly right out of it from the international airport. My hometown all too often ranks highly when it comes to lists on the worst places to live in England – the perception of it being run-down, crime-ridden, and flowing with various kinds of extremism, is not an uncommon one. While well-known figures include the TV presenter and former winner of Strictly Come Dancing Stacey Dooley, there are also the likes of Tommy Robinson/Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (the founder of the English Defence League) and Andrew Tate (the ‘Top G’ who has been charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania, allegations he denies). And let’s not forget notorious prisoner Charles Bronson, who was born in Luton (with his aunt and uncle each serving as mayor of the town in the 1960s and 1970s).
Luton also became the butt of jokes in English football after it suffered three successive relegations between 2007 and 2010 and dropped out of the football pyramid – mixing with the likes of Histon, Ebbsfleet Town, and Hayes & Yeading on the non-league circuit. The club was very much on the financial brink.
A major rebuilding phase in the year that followed saw the Hatters – so called because of Luton’s historic connection with the hat manufacturing industry – climb their way back up the leagues. This culminated in last season’s historic promotion to the Premier League through the highly lucrative Championship play-offs. Luton won the play-off final in spectacular fashion on penalties against Coventry at Wembley. No longer a laughing stock, the club’s fairytale story restored an overwhelming sense of local pride – a newfound confidence in a town that has been through its fair share in terms of industrial decline, community tensions, and cultural ridicule.
It may sound remarkably clichéd, but LTFC is more than just a football club. It strives to improve lives not only in the town, but also the county of Bedfordshire and parts of North Hertfordshire through its registered-charity community trust. Luton, much like many inner-city areas in London and other urban parts of England, has witnessed the tragic loss of young lives because of knife crime. The community trust organises a variety of projects designed to improve the lives of marginalised and disadvantaged groups – especially younger men at risk of offending or already involved in gang-related activity.
The community trust also does its bit to help integrate Luton’s diverse communities. This is especially important as the town was, in the early stages of the post-9/11 era, home to the anti-military ‘Butchers of Basra’ Islamist demonstrations and the subsequent formation of the far-right EDL. Demonstrating the bonding potential of sport, the initiatives provided by Luton have helped foster trust and mutual respect between white working-class lads and their male peers of South Asian Muslim origin. The Community Trust also tries to engage with stigmatised members of the local community, including those suffering from mental health issues, homelessness and disability. It’s safe to say that Luton confounds most people’s views of what Premier League football teams are like.
Irrespective of what happens this season, I have already experienced something I could have only dreamed of: the Hatters spending a season in the top tier of English football. There have been some depressing lows – the recent 5-1 home defeat to a resurgent Brentford, losing 3-1 at home to Sheffield United, and collapsing to a 4-3 loss at Bournemouth after being 3-0 up at half-time. But along with the impressive league performances against Liverpool, Man City, and Arsenal at home, the four-day period across January and February where they bagged eight goals in two games against Brighton (4-0 win at home) and Newcastle (a spectacular 4-4 draw at St. James’ Park) – two clubs that competed in Europe this season – was truly special.
For all its flaws, Luton will always be home and the Hatters is a treasured civic asset which has stood the test of time. My local sense of belonging has never been stronger.
Luton’s motto reads ‘Scientiæ et labori detur’ – skill and industry. The club’s players must demonstrate these qualities in their final four league games to give themselves a fighting chance of Premier League survival. But regardless, they have well and truly done Luton proud.
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