It's football but not as we know it

In the next few weeks the press will bombard us with the latest news and speculation from the Premier League with only an England victory in the Ashes likely to keep Fergie or Benitez off the back pages. But in the relative calm of late July, spare a thought for two clubs which will meet on the first day of the season some four divisions lower in the football pyramid. On August 8th Kingsmeadow will host a match between AFC Wimbledon and Luton Town. In 2005/6 Luton finished in tenth place in the Championship whilst Wimbledon missed out on a third successive promotion when they lost in the playoffs of the Isthmian premier league. In the three years since, Luton have dropped out of the league with three successive relegations whilst Wimbledon have once again completed back-to-back promotions.

Long-suffering supporters of both clubs remember Wembley glory in 1988 with Wimbledon FC beating Liverpool to win the FA Cup and Luton beating Arsenal to win the League Cup.

The turn of the century marked the demise of both clubs as first Wimbledon was controversially relocated from its south London roots to Milton Keynes in 2002. AFC Wimbledon was formed by the fans in protest, and from player trials on Wimbledon common followed by a 4-0 defeat at Sutton in their first game they have now been promoted four times in seven seasons. In the same period Luton Town ran into financial trouble with three separate periods in administration between 2003 and 2009. In this period Luton were four times forced to sell their top scorer whilst also being docked 50 points (20 of these were for financial irregularities).

Like a pair of phoenix each club managed to salvage something from the ashes with Luton winning the Football League trophy in 2009 and Wimbledon setting the record for most league games without defeat at any level in senior league football with an impressive run of 78 games between February 03 and December 04.

 

So when you buy your paper on August 9th skip back a few pages from the frenzied speculation about which multimillionaire has decided that £100k a week is not enough compensation for his efforts and cast your eye on the result between the Wombles and the Hatters. Better still come to quantumofsport.com.

Comments

[Dupin]

Here here - nicely put without being sickly sentimental.

[The Worm]

You are so right, outside of my boys' long trip to Carlisle this is the stand out fixture of the first week. The circumstances of Luton's relegation suggests that they should be challenging for the top spot, but lower league sides are reliant on short term contracts and their potential is hard to predict prior to the season's opening. I gather they have kept some of their squad from last year, including Kevin Nicholls, which you imagine would have been harder had they been relegated on merit. But it is competitive in the conference and Town will not have it all their own way