Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Luton Town hit rock bottom – but top Hatters are back

Last week, I had the opportunity to join up with the Hatters Community Trust at an event that summed up the good work being done. They hosted a fantastic tournament for the Every Player Counts Adult PAN Disability team at their former Ely Way training ground as part of the EFL’s Day of Action.

Acting manager Mick Harford joined in with the 40-odd participants from the community, with players Sonny Bradley and James Shea getting involved too.

The location had a certain poignancy. It was 10 years since I was last at Ely Way. On that occasion Harford was in charge in very different circumstances.

Luton had been dealt a 30-point deduction for irregularities involving transfers. The penalty, as is often the case, was for the previous administration’s actions. The club had recently been taken over and it was the worst start for the new board. Harford’s team could not overcome the huge deficit and Luton were demoted to the Conference.

They spent five years in the non-league before finally coming back stronger than ever. John Still brought the club back into the Football League in May 2014. Since then Nathan Jones has taken the club into League One. Halfway through this season Jones departed for Stoke City. Anybody expecting the wheels of this third promotion push to come spinning off would be mistaken.

Luton turned to club legend Harford once more and he was only too happy to step in to the void, temporarily leaving his role as recruitment director to guide the club forward. The Hatters currently sit five points clear at the top of League Two, and nine points ahead of third place.

Harford does not want the job on a permanent basis, though. When we caught up for a chat, to be shown on Soccer Saturday today, he was quick to credit the players with the positive response since Jones departed.

“We were all shocked when Nathan left the job, I never expected to be back in this role,” Harford said. “We haven’t changed much. It did not really need fixing so we thought we wouldn’t change much, apart from bringing a couple of players in during the last transfer window to help us get through to the end of the season.”

Luton beat promotion rivals Doncaster 4-0 at Kenilworth Road last weekend. Given Harford’s role in the recruitment department prior to Jones’s departure, perhaps it is no surprise that the team has continued their good form.

“We’ve built a good squad, we tried to build a squad equipped for League One while we were still in League Two,” Harford continued. “We kicked on since then. But for me, I think it’s all down to the players, one hundred per cent. They’ve got a great spirit, good camaraderie, they look out for each other and they work their socks off.”

Centre-back Bradley agrees. “It’s a really good environment to come into every day. I think it is through the consistency of performances”, he said. “What we do during the week is massively important. Since Nathan left nothing has changed too much, it has been a natural transition. Obviously there was a bit of disappointment when the manager went because we didn’t know how things would go from there, but because we were in a great position we didn’t want to let it go. Mick has been brilliant for us. We enjoy the winning feeling, that’s what we strive for.”

The club’s chairman David Wilkinson came down to support the day of action event. “Since we’ve looked after the club we have spent a lot of time trying to get into the community and I think it is working. We do work with a lot of schools locally too, and it all helps,” he said.

The whole club have been celebrating the news that the go-ahead has been given for a new purpose-built stadium, which has been long overdue. An ongoing problem has been Kenilworth Road’s archaic facilities and limited capacity. They might not seem it when viewed from afar, but this a decent-sized club with the potential to grow. They took the best part of 40,000 fans to the Football League Trophy final back in 2009 as they dropped out of the league. A 23,000-capacity stadium in the centre of town will go a long way to helping them realise their true potential.

“I’ve been a fan for 60 years and it was before then that the new ground was first talked about,” Wilkinson added. “Because it is going to be in the heart of the town it will be in the centre of the community. So hopefully it will pull people together. Town centres are struggling a bit so hopefully it will give a focal point to the town centre which we are all excited about. Five years in the Conference was tough but we actually think it did us some good. It got our feet on the ground and reduced the expectations amongst supporters. Since I’ve been a fan we’ve been all the way to the top, then down to the bottom on three occasions. It’s been an up and down ride, but it’s great now.”

If they do end the season with promotion to the Championship, nobody could deny them their success. Luton have fought a long and arduous fight just to get this far.