2001/2002 - 12 Steps to Heaven

Peter Holmes was an unlikely candidate for hero of the hour. Signed 20 months before he’d become somewhat of a forgotten man at Kenilworth Road. Still, when Dean Crowe’s 58^th minute shot was blocked by Roger Freestone in the Swansea goal, it was Holmes who was the quickest to react, sending the travelling support into delirium and moving the Hatters in a 2-0 lead that surely…surely…meant it was done.

Only three clubs outside the Premier League - Coventry, Rochdale and Torquay - had been waiting longer than the Hatters' 20 years since a promotion campaign. Not only that, victory would mean a 10th win in a row and a new club record. Heady days indeed.

When Howard added a the third it really WAS all over. Club Chairman Mike Watson-Challis celebrated on the pitch. Marvin Johnson, after becoming the first player to appear in all four tiers for the club, raised his arms triumphantly into the air, his time in the lowest rung of his career now over. The Joe Kinnear summer cull and canny recruitment had paid the richest of dividends – a return straight back to the 3^rd tier.

It had somehow become routine and far too easy for a club well versed in last day drama. There were still four games to go. It was only March.

And just 6 weeks before, the season had hit its lowest point.

Between a memorable 2-0 home win over Plymouth in February, a game of importance heightened not only by both team’s lofty positions in the table but also but Kinnear’s decree earlier in the season that Plymouth were a team of ‘odds and sods,’  Luton had lost by one-goal margins at Darlington and Rochdale. The defeat at Spotland was unlucky but still painful – it moved the hosts to within two points of Town and, coupled with Plymouth’s 1-0 win at home to Mansfield - left the Hatters 10 points adrift of the league leaders.

Next up were Scunthorpe at Kenilworth Road, who were also chasing a place in the top three and automatic promotion. Although topping the charts for away points Luton's home form had been far patchier, and the nerves only increased when the evergreen Peter Beagrie, on top-form throughout, gave Scunthorpe the lead after just 9 minutes.

An equaliser came soon after courtesy of Steve Howard’s 10^th of the season, but with time running out in the game Town somehow found themselves 2-2 and the creaks and stresses of a team low in confidence were showing. The formation was changed. Adrian Forbes showed displeasure at being substituted. Shots were somehow being directed straight at the ‘keeper.

Then, further disaster. Matthew Spring lost possession and, after Peter Beagrie breezed past Emmerson Boyce, he crossed to the far post where Steve Torpey’s header found its way to 18-year-old Matt Sparrow, who volleyed powerfully past Carl Emberson. While the result was perhaps cruel again, it didn’t change the facts. 3 defeats out of 4 and 3^rd in the table, now in a seriously tight race for automatic promotion.

Above: Scunthorpe defend resolutely during their 3-2 win.

It was all such a far cry from the optimism of the start of the season, and from the glorious late summer and autumn, where a little known Frenchman called Jean-Louis Valois had ignited the campaign with a string of long range goals and a swagger and style that really didn’t belong in England’s bottom tier. Now, memories of a decade of decline were back to the fore. Battle-scarred fans who’d watched the team slide from the top to the bottom of English football were watching the inevitable disappointment unfold again. Sunny 5-1 wins against Torquay had turned into dank February losses to Scunthorpe.

Something needed to change.

the run

“There was a real heart-to-heart in the dressing room after the match,” he explained in the following game’s programme notes, “with everyone left in no doubt about the facts of footballing life at Luton Town today – if you can’t do the job the club expects from you, someone else will be brought in who can.”

Supporters didn’t have long to wait to see if the heart-to-heart would have an impact, heading back to Kenilworth Road just three days later. In truth, Kinnear could hardly have wished for kinder oppostion than Bristol Rovers who, despite starting the season as one of the favourites for promotion, had been sliding towards the bottom of the table and an eventual finish second from bottom.

Not that it showed in the first half-hour, when the tepid display prompted the Norwich City supporter who’d accompanied us to the game to say, ‘I’m glad I don’t have to watch this every week.’ Then, Kinnear showed his ruthlessness by hauling off Jean-Louis Valois and moving Matt Taylor into midfield, the swap making an immediate difference as Taylor began raining crosses in on the fragile Rovers defence.

The goals soon followed. The first a few minutes after half-time courtesy of Steve Howard, before a Chris Coyne downward header and a Kevin Nicholls’ penalty wrapped up an ultimately comfortable 3-0 win. Matt Taylor was the deserved Man of the Match, Kinnear’s brave substitution paying off handsomely.

“I was pleased that we sent the fans home happy, but one good display has to be only the start of another long unbeaten run,” Kinnear wrote after the win.

It was about to get even better than that.

Next up came a visit of York City to Kenilworth Road and a personal redemption for Steve Howard. Just 160 days before he’d seemingly brought his nascent Luton career to an end with a petulant display at Bootham Crescent, almost coming to blows with team-mates as he demanded to take, and then missed, a 2^nd penalty. He’d found himself axed from the next game. There would have been few teas from supporters had the match at York been his last for the club.

But this was a different Steve Howard. Fed largely by the crossing and set pieces of Valois, Ahmet Brkovic and Taylor, he’d edged to the top of the club scoring charts, and added another two against the Minstermen in an otherwise fairly non-descript game. With Rochdale’s defeat at Scunthorpe it moved the Hatters seven points clear of 4^th place and with two wins in a row to hopefully bolster confidence.

Above: Steve Howard scores the second off his knee.

Back to back 1-0 away wins at Lincoln and Torquay would follow, with Matt Taylor continuing to impress further up the pitch and Ahmet Brkovic matching him with two stellar performances from the right of midfield. Moving into March things were looking a lot brighter, now ten points ahead of Rochdale in 4^th and with that swagger of the autumn returning to the team.

“I have never wavered from day one in my belief that we will do it, and I have been delighted at the way the players have responded to our demands in recent weeks,” Kinnear wrote in his programme notes for the next match, a Tuesday night visit of Leyton Orient.

“After the poor display when we lost at home to Scunthorpe we have scrapped days off on Sundays, and the hard work has brought the desired results.”

Orient had little to offer in the face of a now buoyant Town, the double over their London visitors secured with a comfortable 3-0 win, the highlight of which possibly being the sight of a Leyton Orient player running off the pitch to escape Kevin Nicholls after a set-to.

Six wins a row was secured the following Saturday during a first ever trip to Rushden and Diamonds. In blustery conditions at Nene Park Matt Taylor was the stand-out performer again, providing both assists in a 2-1 win and adding to the feeling that he was heading to the Premier League, sooner rather than later.

Above: Matt Taylor on another run down the left flank against Rushden and Diamonds.

He scored in the next game, his 10^th of the season, in a routine 3-0 win over Exeter that saw Steve Howard notch two more and Kevin Nicholls dominate the game from midfield. This was getting serious now. Just two more wins would equal the club record of nine straight victories, set by Harry Haslam’s 1977 side, and with mid-table Kidderminster and lowly Halifax next up, it’d have been a brave man to bet against the record tumbling.

More importantly though, the gap to fourth had grown to a huge 14 points and, incredibly, the Hatters were now just two points behind league leaders Plymouth, though the Pilgrims had two games in hand.

Marvin Johnson was only looking in one direction, “We know we have an excellent chance of winning promotion. We also believe we can take the championship.”

That belief increased after another win and clean sheet against a resolute Kidderminster side, before the 9-in-a-row record was equalled with ease in a resounding 5-0 win over a poor Halifax team heading out of the Football League, five different scorers enjoying an afternoon where the Hatters moved to within three points of automatic promotion, and just one game away from being the first in the club’s history to win 10 in a row. It could all be achieved in the next game, at Swansea.

Scunthorpe shut-ins were a distant memory now. We were off to South Wales.

the end

“Some of us looked a bit old-fashioned at the boss after we were beaten at home by Scunthorpe and he announced that his requirement after that was that we needed to win our last 13 games of the season.” Marvin Johnson, in his programme notes.

After the triumphant day at Vetch Field, Easter Monday brought Mansfield to Kenilworth Road. Though promotion had been secured there was still the small matter of a title race, and revenge for a 4-1 hammering at Field Mill earlier in the season. Kenilworth Road was bouncing from the start, right from when the familiar strains of ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ welcomed the promotion winners onto the pitch, and the game itself didn’t disappoint.

Valois – who else? – opened the scoring, and though future Hatter Adam Murray levelled soon after, a Dean Crowe touch to a Valois free kick and a Kevin Nicholls’ penalty soon had Town 3-1 ahead.

It was four before half time, when Matt Taylor again showed the forward running that had become a trademark of the previous few weeks, delivering a ball into the box which was met by a brave diagonal header from top scorer Steve Howard. The big man wasn’t done either, making it 5-3 in the second half when another future Hatter – Kevin Pilkington – could only parry a Valois shot.

Above: Dean Crowe, Kevin Nicholls and Jean-Louis Valois celebrate another goal against Mansfield.

The final whistle brought a standing ovation from the crowd and a lap of honour for the record breaking side. They could now boast most goals, points, away wins and overall wins in a season, as well as the 11 game winning streak, of course.

The memory that sticks with this supporter was that of Mike Watson-Challis making a signal to the crowd that suggested he wanted a double promotion. It was as exciting to see as anything which had gone before. The Town were going up - and up again - hopefully.

Hull, pre-season favourites for promotion but languishing in mid-table, were swept aside 4-0 at a sunny Boothferry Park the following Saturday, aided by a Steve Howard hat-trick. The result meant that, after being 10 points behind Plymouth in February, the Town had moved to the top of the table on goal difference. Could they add the title to their record-breaking season?

It wasn’t to be. Plymouth won the their game in hand and the Town’s record run was stopped at home by 0-0 draw with Macclesfield, who had the 1982 promotion hero David Moss at the helm. The Pilgrims were worthy title winners, finishing on a remarkable 102 points to Luton’s 97, the two sides well clear of Mansfield’s 79 points in third place.

It had all been so straight-forward in the end. What HAD we all been so worried about?