I hope the Luton fans get a better reception here than I did at Kenilworth Road in 1981. My attempts to look inconspicuous in a crowded Town end failed when stood behind a Grimsby fan in a Santa outfit. In February! I think the walk back to the station is the worst I’ve ever had in thirty years. We won 2 0 though. Those were the days though. Both clubs were in with a good shout of promotion to the top flight in a very tight division.

In 2003, I saw Brentford play at Luton and the announcer was giving details of travel to Grimsby on the Tuesday night “if you can stand the smell of fish”. I thought this a bit rich given that Luton is hardly the most salubrious of towns. I relayed this to the ticket office when going up and would like to think it played its part in Town winning 3 2. I was getting a lift over from Donny for this and he turned up late, his wife having used the car longer than anticipated. Given the snow, he’d gone a bit cold on the idea of going but I wasn’t having any of that and we got to BP fifteen minutes late and just in time to see Luton score. However, in the last minute, with a Town free kick and with the scores level, I sang “three two, we’re gonna win three two” which drew looks of pity and advice regarding my mental health. Geddin! It felt like justice. All I’d say to those who want to have a cheap joke at our town is have a look at your own first.

Off the soapbox and getting back to today, Luton had got three wins under their belt, including a three nil score at much fancied Fleetwood when this was written. They missed out on automatic promotion to Stevenage having drawn a fair percentage of games early season which left just too much ground to make up. If Town are to have realistic promotion ambitions, there isn’t that much room for error. The BSP is less forgiving to slow starters than the Football League. Luton also scored goals for fun only towards the end of the last campaign against a moderate return earlier on.

Luton may feel they paid for the sins of other clubs as well as their own but the matter is now closed and I was pleased they beat Scunny in the JPT although only through a dislike of their temporary loftier league position. Luton may be bitter at Town staying up at their expense, but they may now feel some justice has been served and both sets of fans share a common (dis)interest in a previous employee.

This game will be televised and thankfully won’t be creating the disruption that followed when Setanta provided coverage with Thursday and Sunday evening kick offs. Setanta’s collapse also leaves a bad taste like the failure of ITV’s contract which it could be argued has had terrible repercussions for clubs such as Grimsby. Whilst the money will be welcome, we should also be grateful it won’t be distorting budgets as televised football did nearly a decade ago. Whether Sky will continue to pay the enormous sums to keep Premier League prima donnas in flash motors remains to be seen. What is for sure is that some relegated ex Premier clubs will end up having to honour playing contracts they can’t afford and sink down the leagues as did Bolton Wanderers, Swansea City and Wolves (from top to bottom in less than a handful of seasons in the early to mid 1980s. The game overall could also do with something like this happening so we can have some collective sanity once again. The long suffering fans could then have a bigger say in how their clubs are run. Had Portsmouth gone this way, I’ve no doubt their fans would have flocked to a reformed club and enjoyed the journey, much as Aldershot and AFC Wimbledon fans have.

A 3 2 defeat at Luton in 1996 is notorious for the subsequent off the pitch “discussion” but I prefer to remember a last minute 2 1 win at Kenilworth Road in 1994, after we’d sung “Johnny Cockerill’s Black and White Army!” non-stop in the second half. A 4 1 win in 1992/3 with a Paul Groves hat trick provided another good day out. I won’t mention our 7 1 pasting of them in the FA Cup if they don’t mention our 6 0 defeat in 1981 against a very good team (safe journey back to the station though). That was when the Town support did a passable “Singing in the Rain” through a downpour.

I suppose my abiding memory of Luton is David Pleat dancing a jig at Maine Road after their win there condemned Man City to relegation and a 4 1 defeat at BP nearly two years later.

Whilst our own decline has been calamitous, I can’t help sparing a thought (just one!) for Luton and Oxford fans whose teams were in the top flight in the 80s (with Luton staying until the early 90s) and with both winning the League Cup. Despite their histories of playing in the lower leagues, I doubt they could have imagined such a downfall. If anyone had said how things were going to pan out after our double Wembley triumph, even a pessimist would have laughed at the notion. However, Oxford have shown it can be possible to fight back and whilst Luton are outright favourites this year, let’s hope we have something to say about that.