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 11^th 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 25^th 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.