Ex-Town manager applauds promotion from non-league to Premier League.
Former Luton manager David Pleat believes the Hatters’ promotion to the Premier League just a decade after joining the Conference should be remembered as the club’s finest success in its nearly 130-year history.
Town were relegated from the Football League in 2009 following a 30-point deduction imposed by the FA and Football League, and it took five years for them to fight their way back, but once they did, under John Still, they made rapid progress to reach the top flight under Rob Edwards, a division they had last played in during the 1991-92 season. Luton won promotion to the top tier of English football in 1982, with Pleat at the helm, as he was the architect of the club’s most successful period in history, bringing in players such as Ricky Hill, Brian Stein, and Brian Horton, who are regarded as among the best to have ever graced Kenilworth Road. However, the 79-year-old, who has published his autobiography called ‘Just One More Goal’ thought that paled into insignificance when looking at what the club has done since, saying: “I think Luton’s greatest achievement, make no mistake, it’s not being in the Simod Cup final, it’s not winning against Arsenal
The biggest achievement of Luton, after the harshest possible points deduction in any club’s history, was to return from non-league football to the Premier League. “That is quite an amazing accolade and the present group of directors have done so well to put the club back on an even keel, on a good financial footing, so that when they go to Power Court, the town can be proud of them, and once they get into Power Court, they will no longer hopefully have to sell their best players to survive, as that’s always been the Luton story.” Although Town couldn’t quite stay up last season, Pleat, who was at Kenilworth Road on occasion to watch the club compete against the very best clubs in English football, felt there was some misfortune in their relegation, adding: “I watched them a few times last season; they were very unlucky last season. “Last-minute goals, narrow defeats, very unlucky.”
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