the bonus bombshell
By Roger Wash
Following their first appearance in an FA Cup final in 1959
the Town made a dramatic drop through the divisions and by the spring of 1965
were destined to be relegated to Division Four (now League Two).
Manager Bill Harvey had resigned in November 1964 and with
no-one looking to steer this sinking ship it was eventually left to chief scout
George Martin to very reluctantly take up the reigns three months later.
Martin had previously managed the Town, but that was almost
twenty years before, and he had not been in charge of a side since leaving
Aston Villa in 1953. He was by now 64
and looking forward to retirement but the persuasive tongue of Chairman Tom
Hodgson made him take up the position no-one else wanted.
Martin could do little to prevent the club being relegated
but with a clean slate was tasked with earning first time promotion and return
the club to former glories. Using his
contacts he brought in Matt Woods, the dominating centre-half the Town had
missed since the retirement of Syd Owen six years before, tough defender Bobby
Thomson and a certain John Moore.
With striker John O’Rourke fully fit following an injury
ridden 1964-65 campaign, supporters could see a chink of light at the end of
the tunnel with a solid defence at one end of the pitch and a goalscorer at the
other.
The first hint of trouble between the ‘modern day
footballer’ and a manager and Board probably a little out of touch came when
Martin, a renowned disciplinarian, demanded that all players should live in
Luton, or close by. O’Rourke, Ray
Whittaker and Billy Harber commuted from London while Ted Phillips lived in
Colchester.
All four were reluctant to accept this ‘draconian’ measure
but the reasons for the demand were made clear when O’Rourke, Harber and
Whittaker were late for a pre-season friendly at Colchester having made their
own way to Essex. They were each fined
£10, which was a considerable sum in those days, and although they agitated and
complained to the FA the matter was eventually smoothed over as they fell into
line. Phillips was the only one who
continued to dig his heels in and was unceremoniously packed off to Colchester
United.
After six dismal years of turgid football, season 1965-66
turned out to be a breath of fresh air with the forwards, particularly
O’Rourke, banging the goals in for fun and the team always in the mix at the
top of the table.
Following a tough, but unbeaten, Easter the Town remained in
the top six but with either three or four games in hand on the teams above
them. One of those games in hand came at
Chester on 11th May where in torrential rain the players put in a
blistering first half performance and were two goals up at the break. With the rain continuing to fall ‘at almost
tropical intensity’ the referee abandoned the game shortly after the start of
the second period. This abandonment was to have significant implications as we
shall see.
With three games left, four points were needed to be certain
of promotion at the first time of asking.
Barrow were seen off 3-2 in the final match at Kenilworth Road leaving
re-arranged away games at Newport on 25th May and Chester three days
later.
The players had asked as to bonuses for winning promotion
and after a Board discussion it was agreed that £10 would be paid on top of the
normal £4 win bonus. This seemed to
satisfy the players until they found out that an un-named club but probably
Colchester were offering £300 a man.
The Town’s Board reluctantly increased their offer to £50
and then £60 with the players paying their own tax but this was still not
enough for when the party stopped at Chepstow ‘for tea’ on the way to Newport a
major row broke out.
Chairman Tom Hodgson said, “The manager told the players of
the decision but they were not happy and just before the match I went into the dressing
room because it had been said that the chairman was afraid to show his face.”
Hodgson went on, “Matt Woods immediately confronted me to
say that the players were not satisfied and that they wanted £300. I asked them where they thought the money was
coming from and John O’Rourke described the offer of £60 as an insult. Woods then asked when the next Board meeting
was and after I replied that it was not until the following week and that I
could not offer them £300 each he said ‘That’s it’.
Out on the pitch the Town were well beaten 3-1 by a Newport
team with little to play for. Whether
the pre-match ‘discussions’ had anything to do with the defeat where we showed
‘no form, no fight’ according to Martin is anyone’s guess but one wonders that
if £300 had been on offer then the result would have been different.
Woods immediately asked for a free-transfer which was
granted and with Harber, O’Rourke, John Reid as well as Woods ‘unavailable’ for
the final game at Chester it was a makeshift side that took to the field at
Sealand Road in bright sunshine this time.
A good number of Luton supporters travelled to Chester as a
win would have confirmed promotion. A
goal after five minutes from Billy Stark settled the nerves but 19 minutes from
the end, with John Moore down injured, a Chester break ended in an
equaliser. Try as they might the winner
would not come and the Town ended up falling short on goal average.
The repercussions were loud and long with eight players being given free transfers, another five released and O’Rourke being sold to Middlesbrough. George Martin lasted until November 1966 before, tired and disillusioned, he resigned to be replaced by Allan Brown and the start of another era in our rich history.
Above: The local newspaper sensationalises the ‘bombshell’ in a poster which was shown on billboards around the town.