Championship Play Off Final

[Jeekay56]

Youngsters eh? They were a top flight side when I was first going to Meadow Lane, a losing FA cup finalist side beaten by our neighbours who were down to 10 men for 60 mins (no subs in those days). Watched it on telly, grey on grey (no not Billy Gray, though he did play, in red).

You don't happen to know the capacity of Kenilworth Road back then do you? I'm assuming the current capacity of 10,356 is all seated.

[uysapie]

You don't happen to know the capacity of Kenilworth Road back then do you? I'm assuming the current capacity of 10,356 is all seated.

30,000 in 1959

[Jeekay56]

30,000 in 1959

Blimey it's nowhere near as big as the old Meadow Lane, they must have been standing on each other.

[upthemaggies]

Now that they've been promoted, it's much more likely our fixture at Kenilworth Road in 2017 will turn out to be our last, unless we get them in a cup competition in the very near future. Our record there is abysmal, we've got a better PPG ratio away at Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Newcastle.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Really pleased for Luton Town on getting promoted to the premier league. Their decline from when we both got relegated from the top flight the season before it became the premier league was similar to ours. However they crashed out of the football league before us.

It really does give us hope and inspiration for the future that it is possible to rise from the bottom upwards. For them to do it in nine years is a remarkable achievement.

Even if they come straight back down they will earn enough money to probably build a new stadium which typically has a positive effect on clubs in the long term like it has done with Brighton and Brentford.

Let’s look at Luton’s climb up the mountain;

2008/09 - Relegated to the National League They had five seasons in it.

2013/14 - Promoted back to the EFL.
2014/15 - League 2 (8th)
2015/16 - League 2 (11th)
2016/17 - League 2 (4th) Playoff Semi Final Defeat to Blackpool
2017/18 - League 2 (2nd) Promoted
2018/19 - League 1 (1st) Promoted
2019/20 - Championship (19th)
2020/21 - Championship (12th)
2021/22 - Championship (6th) Playoff Semi Final Defeat to Huddersfield
2022/23 - Championship (3rd) Playoff Final Winners to Coventry

This is what we need now a decade of finishing higher each season than the season before. Although in their second season back in the EFL they dropped down a couple of places but nothing significant in the grand scheme of things.

[Old_pie]

Really pleased for Luton Town on getting promoted to the premier league. Their decline from when we both got relegated from the top flight the season before it became the premier league was similar to ours. However they crashed out of the football league before us.

It really does give us hope and inspiration for the future that it is possible to rise from the bottom upwards. For them to do it in nine years is a remarkable achievement.

Even if they come straight back down they will earn enough money to probably build a new stadium which typically has a positive effect on clubs in the long term like it has done with Brighton and Brentford.

Let’s look at Luton’s climb up the mountain;

2008/09 - Relegated to the National League They had five seasons in it.

2013/14 - Promoted back to the EFL.
2014/15 - League 2 (8th)
2015/16 - League 2 (11th)
2016/17 - League 2 (4th) Playoff Semi Final Defeat to Blackpool
2017/18 - League 2 (2nd) Promoted
2018/19 - League 1 (1st) Promoted
2019/20 - Championship (19th)
2020/21 - Championship (12th)
2021/22 - Championship (6th) Playoff Semi Final Defeat to Huddersfield
2022/23 - Championship (3rd) Playoff Final Winners to Coventry

This is what we need now a decade of finishing higher each season than the season before. Although in their second season back in the EFL they dropped down a couple of places but nothing significant in the grand scheme of things.

Not that a dissimilar story when we were in the quagmire when Dunnett took us over as strugglers in the bottom tier and virtually bust (1966) and took us steadily to the top tier with Sirrel.