Luton Town stand ready to inject some raucous realism into the Premier League

The Premier League would be well advised to brace itself. Luton Town are coming over the hill and, with one last charge to make, might soon be about to come bursting through the gates. This defiant, spirited little club have places to be and opponents to upset, and they now stand just one game from making their long-awaited return to the elite.

Luton are the uplifting story of English football’s last decade but do not yet know where it all ends. Three promotions in six seasons lifted them from the fifth-tier National League to the Championship and now there is the gilded chance to make a once-implausible leap. Win the play-off final at Wembley on Saturday week, against either Coventry City or Middlesbrough, and the Premier League will have to send out an invite to its most unlikely guest yet.

“We’re one game away from the Premier League,” said Luton manager Rob Edwards. “That sounds surreal but we are. It’s a fact.”

Last night’s 2-0 defeat of visitors Sunderland in an anxious play-off semi-final second leg at Kenilworth Road was a fitting projection of what Luton have become. They trampled over their guests, pressing them into gradual submission. There was physicality, intensity and a zeal Sunderland could not match for a second time in four days. The narrow advantage that Tony Mowbray’s side had earned in a 2-1 win up at the Stadium of Light on Saturday was ruthlessly stripped back by Luton’s will.

The eventual 3-2 aggregate win was deserved and a route to Wembley raucously celebrated.

Not since 1992 — that pivotal year for English football — have Luton been a top-flight side. Thousands ignored pleas to stay off the pitch at full-time and flooded down from the stands to revel in one of the great nights in their 138-year history. Few would begrudge them this moment after all the club has endured over the last 15 years.

Supporters do not forget the injustice of 2008 when the Football Association and Football League saw fit to dock Luton 30 points for financial irregularities, a punishment that led directly to their relegation to non-League football where they drifted for four long seasons. “Thirty points, who gives a fuck? We’re Luton Town and we’re going up,” they sang on repeat last night.

A banner displayed in the main stand is another nod to their recent history of financial ruin. It reads: “Football belongs to the fans, NOT sheikhs, oligarchs, chancers and bank£rs.”

That message feels particularly pertinent for where Luton might be headed. They are something close to an antidote to modern football’s ills, an astutely run operation not reliant on the wealth of its benefactors.

Luton are like nothing else in the Premier League and nor is Kenilworth Road, a stadium that time forgot in a working-class town around 30 miles (50km) north of London. Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium might be marginally bigger in terms of capacity, but Luton’s decaying home, hemmed in by roads and terraced houses, would be an utterly unique stage to welcome the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

An estimated £10million will need to be spent just to bring Kenilworth Road’s facilities up to a level the Premier League deem adequate for broadcasters.

Not until 2025-26 (at the earliest) can Luton hope to move to a proposed new stadium at nearby Power Court but last night’s visit of Sunderland underlined there is life and value in the old place yet.

The size of the place meant little more than 10,000 could pack in, but they made Kenilworth Road hostile in the extreme. Ferocious, at times almost feral. They bayed for the blood of Sunderland and, more often than not, they got it. Luton’s relentless pressing drew roars of appreciation from first minute to last. Blocked clearances were celebrated like goals. “It was really special,” said Edwards. “To see how pleased people were at the end means a lot to me. They’ve been through a lot of dark times.”

If Luton had lost their way in the first leg at the weekend, undone by the brilliance of Amad Diallo and others, the return fixture always felt that little bit different. Luton suffocated Sunderland’s creativity and preyed upon their physical weaknesses. It was a pragmatic bombardment, a gradual dismantling orchestrated by Edwards, who was deemed out of his depth by Watford, Luton’s neighbours and bitter rivals, after only 10 games of this season. Watford went through two more managers on their way to finishing 11th, 17 points below third-placed Luton.

Set pieces were the aces up Luton’s sleeve and brought the two first-half goals that deflated Sunderland.

Centre-backs Gabriel Osho and Tom Lockyer both capitalised on defending that achingly missed a presence typically offered by Danny Batth and Dan Ballard, Sunderland’s two centre-backs who missed this tie injured. The home team might have scored more without last-ditch clearances off the line and it was only that failing that presented the late opportunity for nerves to be frayed. Luton, though, need not have worried.

This was the night Sunderland ran out of road. They had confounded expectations in coming this far a year on from promotion via the League One play-offs, making light of their inexperience and an extensive list of injuries. That first leg victory had promised even more but last night was an altogether different proposition. Sunderland skipped into the bear pit only to come out bloodied and beaten. The onslaught, draining and unyielding, proved too much.

Sunderland can at least look to Luton for inspiration.

Twelve months ago, they were hurting after a 2-1 Championship play-off semi-finals defeat to Huddersfield Town but have recovered to go a step further and reach Wembley. A different manager, with Edwards replacing a Southampton-bound Nathan Jones during November’s World Cup break, but a sharpened resolve.

Sunderland might yet be the same if Mowbray’s post-match comments were an early guide to the summer. Unprompted, he invited a question mark over his future within an hour of the defeat. “Listen, who knows what my future holds,” said the man appointed in late August after last season’s promotion-winner Alex Neil left for fellow Championship side Stoke City. “Modern-day football clubs can do what they want.”

Mowbray would like to stay but a month after Sunderland were linked with 34-year-old Italian coach Francesco Farioli, there is unease. The 12 remaining months on his contract might count for little if change is unfairly sought from on high.

Edwards knows all about that but this was his night. And Luton’s.

Wembley — and perhaps the Premier League — awaits.

(Top photo: Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)