Welcome To The Play Off Thread...Where Dreams Are Fulfilled And Dashed...

[Super_horns]

Didn’t see the first game but guess there were was contrast in styles so fans might think the ref was too harsh or let a lot go depending on their allegiance!

Even with VAR who knows what decisions might have been made .

Only thing is you would have been waiting around for minutes holding up the game whilst a subjective decision was made that would have been 50/50 .

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

What a performance. Still hasn’t sunk in, man.

Can’t call the final at all. Luton have had our number for years, but anything can happen on the day, especially if we play like we did last night again. Our defence is simply phenomenal. The way in which Robins has managed to cope with losing pretty much all of creative players to injury, find a new way of playing and still succeeding is simply incredible.

See all you Luton boys at Wembley, may the best team win, unbelievable story either way.

 

[oakroader]

 

[oakroader]

Hatters receive just under 37,000 tickets for Championship play-off final at Wembley​

Town heading to home of football later this month



Luton have received 36,493 tickets for the Championship play-off final against Coventry City at Wembley Stadium later this month.
With Town booking their place at the home of football after beating Sunderland 3-2 on aggregate, they have been allocated their seats in the East End of Wembley Stadium, with tickets sold from North Stand round to the South Stand.

 

[Daz_3000]

I know this is going to sound biased, but I've seen lots of neutrals praise Simon Hooper from Tuesday - I can't disagree. I thought he was very fair. I wondered if Tim Robinson was too card happy in the first game, but I couldn't argue too much with what decisions he made. There was a lot of incident in both matches as each team decided to leave everything out on the pitch. It certainly wasn't cagey.

I'd also argue that David Coote was excellent last night too.

Amad Diallo could stay on his feet a bit more often - 4 times in the first 10 minutes he had thrown himself on the floor. The penalty at the SoL was a terrible decision which the referee apologised for after.

Lets be fair here - the last few weeks of the season, refereeing decisions have started to go back in Luton's favour but it's only starting to realign with what has gone on for most of this season.

Tbh that diallo pen at our place was the first favourable decision we have had all season. Every week we’ve bemoaned poor decisions some costing us some not. Tim Robinson has dished out more yellows to us than anyone and we aren’t a dirty team. The ref Gavin Ward was a disgrace every time and gave us nowt and the oppo everything (especially against hull away). Pawson away to Blackburn & Keith Stroud has been a pile of shite as well.

Refereeing in this league is just as bad as league one if not worse. But i dare say every other supporter has the same gripes. On the subject of Diallo being a diver my boro mate told me to mention Carltons dive against them so to stop being hypocrites haha. Best of luck to the Hatters!!

 

[Kenneth E End]

Just for the record, it was not a dive. I was looking straight at it in real time. The Boro fans may still have salt in their eyes about that one.

But apart from the that, may the best team win.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Hatters receive just under 37,000 tickets for Championship play-off final at Wembley​

Town heading to home of football later this month



Luton have received 36,493 tickets for the Championship play-off final against Coventry City at Wembley Stadium later this month.
With Town booking their place at the home of football after beating Sunderland 3-2 on aggregate, they have been allocated their seats in the East End of Wembley Stadium, with tickets sold from North Stand round to the South Stand.

Looks like both teams have sold almost all tickets within about 2 hours.

 

[oakroader]

Ridiculous
6000 season ticket holders buying up to 6 tickets each…36000 potentially gone already…
What chance more made available?

 

[BelizeHatter]

Diallo fell apart from the abuse. Did nothing after so maybe his diving helped us,......maybe we just learned to cope with him as he only ever cut inside show him the line........ He deserved the verbal abuse as do all divers - ours included (yes Eli thats you. Stand up man, youll be better for it).

However not right he got thumped and good to see a lengthy ban has been rightly handed out to the guilty party, but pretty niave and inexperienced to go get the ball in that situation mins after a blatent cheat.

 

[GTFCfish]

Unreal to think that just a few years ago both Luton and Coventry were slumming it in League 2 with rif-raf like us, fantastic achievement by both to be one game away from the promised land.
Whichever team goes up I’ll be delighted for them.
One last point seeing how good Luton were the other night, how the fuck did you manage to lose 3-0 to us in the cup?!

 

[Kenneth E End]

Ridiculous
6000 season ticket holders buying up to 6 tickets each…36000 potentially gone already…
What chance more made available?

It’s been ridiculous. Ticket resale sites are awash with them.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Yeah giving season ticket holders 6 each is a way too much and is definitely going to lead some gouging going on.

Had to get tickets for friends who are not season ticket holders due to kids/work/general life stuff that takes up weekends enough to make it not viable but come regularly including to aways when possible, because of the concern around potentially it selling out before it reaches them.

It does look like they are selling the blocks in stages, so when you log on and see certain blocks looking full i think its due to that rather than a risk of it selling out. But yeah, not that well handled - not sure whose the decision maker on it but looks a rare miss-step from the usually excellent ticket office.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Well yesterday caused panic buying - myself included. I am lucky enough to work from home, but if I was away or travelling or just someone who doesn't get the opportunity to use a computer at work, you could've missed out.

I had to go into the top tier because by 1030 when I got through the queue, all of the lower tier tickets had gone bar the family area which was restricted.

Deliberately holding tickets back was an exceptionally poor decision.

Just had a look at what's available. Probably about 3-4,000 tickets available to buy as of now.

 

[Super_horns]

No surprise to hear of a club not used to handling large ticket allocation struggling.

Suspect it’s a common theme and of course you can probably never rely on the technology or phones to work!

 

[oakroader]

why have cov supporters been reasonably restricted to 2 tickets each unlike our debacle???

 

[SF_]

Funny when Ridsdale goes on about us struggling to compete with the parachute clubs.

Clearly you can if you have a recruitment strategy and an overall plan.

Coventry & Luton have shown up the fat, Yorkshire c*** this season.

 

[Super_horns]

Funny when Ridsdale goes on about us struggling to compete with the parachute clubs.

Clearly you can if you have a recruitment strategy and an overall plan.

Coventry & Luton have shown up the fat, Yorkshire c*** this season.

And Forest/Huddersfield/Luton last season .
Getting into the play offs isn’t a closed shop at all .

 

[SF_]

And Forest/Huddersfield/Luton last season .
Getting into the play offs isn’t a closed shop at all .

Forest spent absolute shit loads on wages, I'm not giving them any credit.

It should be a closed shop mind, clubs like yourself and Stoke have just been laughably incompetent in their first seasons down.

 

[Super_horns]

Forest spent absolute shit loads on wages, I'm not giving them any credit.

It should be a closed shop mind, clubs like yourself and Stoke have just been laughably incompetent in their first seasons down.

Fair point on all points .

Swap Norwich for Stoke in terms last season.

Stoke been rubbish for years now though .

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Thinking ever so slightly ahead, it’s going to be a brutal league next season. Teams coming down could be quite strong, certainly Leeds, Leicester and/or Everton youd expect to go massive to get back to the Premier League quickly. Ipswich/Plymouth look like they will be strong arrivals from League 1. Boro surely going to remain a force with Carrick really building something there and Sunderland look well set to make a further leap too

Surely Watford, Norwich et al cannot be as poor again alongside other clubs looking set to be better too (West Brom with Corberan, Hull and Rosenior etc).

Think adds an additional edge to the P/O Final - there might not be a better opportunity for ourselves or Coventry than right now.

 

[oakroader]

Stockport county through to Wembley play off final…
Definitely the year of the hat…

 

[oakroader]

A good read…

Luton: The club that refused to die in a town that refused to die​

​

Luton Town's Tom Lockyer celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game during the Championship play-off semi-final second leg match at Kenilworth Road, Luton. Picture date: Tuesday May 16, 2023

YOU park your car on a dirt track in a rundown part of town. An air of neglect is as evident as the dilapidation. Overgrown weeds and stark, utilitarian concrete blocks feature next to weatherworn fences as plentiful detritus amplifies the cheerless vista.
Yet there is hope here. For this unprepossessing landscape is the site for Luton Town’s new ground, Power Court.
Luton is a club making headlines in the rarefied air of the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium at the end of this month, after finishing a notable third in the second tier of English football this May.
A club that rose from non-league damnation a few short years ago.
A club only 90 minutes away from the billionaires who reside in the temple to mammon that is the Premier League.
The Hatters’ outstanding achievements admirably earned without a single penny of those infernal parachute payments that distort and invariably define their division.
Money that allowed Burnley and Sheffield United to breeze back into the top flight.
Easter and the miracle of Jesus may have been and gone — Luton defeated Blackpool 3-1 on Easter Monday to continue their sprint to the play-offs — but the Hatters have risen in a story too, one that is beguiling as it is heart-warming.
Put simply, Luton is a club that refused to die, in a town that has refused to die.
The FA in their wisdom deducted points in the mid-2000s for what they said were financial irregularities. It was the unfortunate catalyst for three relegations in a row that saw the Hatters fall into the non-league maelstrom where many have been sucked deeper, yet to return.
But Luton, backed by its legion of loyal disciples, rose again, back to the promised land of league football, where they were expected to reside quietly, without fuss or rancour, simply grateful to be alive. How wrong their foes were in that assumption.
Monday May 19. Luton Town v Sunderland. Championship play-off semi-final second leg. Kenilworth Road.
You walk up the Bedfordshire town’s main drag ahead of an evening kick-off for the crucial clash with promotion rivals Sunderland at grand old Kenilworth Road.
On your walk to the evocative “Kenny” as true believers call it, along George Street — full of fried chicken joints, slot-machine parlours and pawnbrokers — where people hand out fliers for religion, for junk food products featuring little dietary fibre, for anti-knife crime initiatives, yards from where a police officer was killed in 2007, losing his life in the line of duty after responding to reports of a stabbing.
This is a place faced with the serious issues of serious crime, of drugs, gangs and violence. It is essentially an inner-city borough situated in leafy Bedfordshire. But there is nothing leafy about Luton.
It is a working-class town struggling to adapt to the post-industrial, post-lockdown world. But, like its football team, it is punching above its weight, as the nearby airport resets after the pandemic, while the traditional car industry continues to soldier through its Vauxhall car plant.
Groups of Luton fans across the town gather in beery communion before exiting the Wheelwrights Arms, the Red Lion and the Castle bar, and throatily sing exhortations in favour of their team.
They also sing ruddy songs against rivals Watford — who were previously dispatched 2-0 on Aprils Fool’s Day. Yet the only fools were the Hatters’ yellow rivals for dispensing with the services of boss Rob Edwards earlier in the season.
And when Luton’s previous boss Nathan Jones was lured by the siren song of a struggling top-flight outfit, lasting a matter of weeks before he was promptly sacked by Southampton, Luton took the progressive decision to hire Edwards.
It is no surprise then that the M1 derby which might have to be put on hold. Because, Luton — humble Luton — against all expectations, could gain promotion to the world’s richest league in a matter of days.
Imagine Luton co-existing with the petro-dollar-funded sovereign wealth of Manchester City and Newcastle, the usurious US billionaire owners of Manchester United and Arsenal, not to mention the now disgraced, previously oligarch-funded Chelsea, complete with their worthless £300m spending sprees.
The driver of a police van parked nearby eyes Luton lads warily, but they are simply boisterous supporters, buoyed by early beers ahead of the big match.
You walk past plenty of police clad in bright yellow high-vis jackets in the Bury Park area of town. A Mick Harford thunderbolt away from the “Kenny.”
Police sirens wail and a separate group stops near to a shop offering Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish food. The shop’s frontage is bright orange. The same as EasyJet, the host airline at Luton Airport. And the same colour at Luton Town’s kit.
The noise, the bustle, the sirens, the invasion of football fans into an area full of restaurants offering mouth-watering fare based on Asian street food is incongruous.
Fans walk obliviously through a community, which the club, despite genuine and steadfast efforts, has so failed to penetrate as much as its consistently large attendances would suggest.
You continue your journey.
You notice a crowd has gathered outside what you assume to be a row of houses. It is the Luton ticket office.
It is only then you look up to see the evocative, gunmetal grey steel pylons set against the sky and know you have made it to the Kenny.
The top of this functional but beautiful pylon is crowned by an assortment of geometric lamps towering over the 10,071-capacity stadium, hemmed in by tight residential streets.
No wonder places such as Kenilworth Road are deeply loved by those who care.
These types of stadiums are part of the fabric of English football gradually being swept away in the name of avarice, masquerading as evolution that is, in reality, simply a sad acceleration into corporate blandness and a crushing homogeneity that is as contrived as it is deceptive.
And while they might be tired, faded, quaint, ramshackle and uncomfortable, my word, they are full of character, offering a pulsating vibrancy and an authentic experience, as well as passionate histories complete with priceless memories, handed down across the generations via sepia-tinted stories, soaked in warm nostalgia.
The heart races with delicious excitement merely attempting to imagine this ground in the Premier League.
As kick-off nears, the queues are large, testament to the faith in Edwards’ team. The atmosphere is raw. Raucous. Passionate. And loud. Very loud.
Ninety minutes later, 90 enthralling, ear-bursting minutes later, an imperious Luton team have swept aside their Wearside counterparts 2-0 to win 3-2 on aggregate after first half goals from Gabriel Osho and their resolute defensive kingpin in a formidable back three, Tom Lockyer.
At the final whistle on Monday evening, the Kenny erupts in deep joy.
“The Town are going up,” supporters chorus lustily, as thousands race to embark in a good-natured pitch invasion, complete with orange pyro, knee slides, selfies and songs.
During the pandemic, revised plans for the Power Court stadium were approved, which included more homes and less retail space. The new 23,000-seater stadium will also host a centrally located plaza and a “statement landmark” — a tall building allowing fans to find their way to the stadium — will also be built.
But it won’t be the Kenny. It can’t be. Despite Luton’s resurrection, despite the Hatters’ unfolding miracle, Power Court won’t be Kenilworth Road. And English will die a little more.
Even if, as you head back to your car, on a dirt track in a rundown part of town, the story of Luton will be a story for the ages.
One that, if it comes true next week at Wembley with victory against Coventry City, disciples will retell with awe and no little astonishment for as long as this admirable club exists.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Just looking back at recent history. Coventry would be the first side since 2017 to beat two “seeded” clubs in the play offs. On that occasion it was Huddersfield Town. Aston Villa were the last team to not finish in the top 4 to get promoted.

Really don’t want to tempt fate, but the stats look kinder to Luton. Even just thinking about next weekend is scaring the crap out of me.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Yep this is going to feel like a looooong week I feel.

At once can’t wait for Saturday and also absolutely scared witless by it. Easily the biggest game of my lifetime

 

[oakroader]

Yep this is going to feel like a looooong week I feel.

At once can’t wait for Saturday and also absolutely scared witless by it. Easily the biggest game of my lifetime

I’m with you sumo…
Mind you I felt the same in the lead up to the league cup final in 88…
All the hope and expectation that is a given while supporting our beloved hatters…
I remember Our promotion to the old first division back in the early 70’s was unexpected,like the gooners game was years later…
I reckon our time has come round again against the odds…
It’s David and Goliath revisited…
Keep the faith
Remember…on Saturday morning we will all wake and tell our other halves…
Woke up this morning feeling fine
I’ve got promotion on my mind…
Etc etc etc…

 

[Laker]

Lol why did they give season ticket holders six tickets each? That’s mental. Obviously going to lead to resells and genuine fans missing out. Should have limited it to two and done staged sales in my opinion.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Lol why did they give season ticket holders six tickets each? That’s mental. Obviously going to lead to resells and genuine fans missing out. Should have limited it to two and done staged sales in my opinion.

I actually blame TicketMaster marginally more, but with only a week to turn over 37,000 tickets, you need a system that can cope with it.

It seems that every season ticket holder who wants one will actually get a ticket now considering they will go to the last sale on Tuesday, albeit with about 1-2,000 tickets left.

The way it panned out on Thursday made people panic buy by deliberately holding tickets back.

 

[Caitlyn]

Love Luke. As does everyone. We nabbed an absolute diamond from you there.

Id hope he got a shot and a few games. Then you can have him for a swansong. But remember hes a legend here and more a Hatter than a U now ;-)

Apparently, they don't like him and never rated him? Unless that was coming from the plastic Cambridge following.

 

[Caitlyn]

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

What a performance. Still hasn’t sunk in, man.

Can’t call the final at all. Luton have had our number for years, but anything can happen on the day, especially if we play like we did last night again. Our defence is simply phenomenal. The way in which Robins has managed to cope with losing pretty much all of creative players to injury, find a new way of playing and still succeeding is simply incredible.

See all you Luton boys at Wembley, may the best team win, unbelievable story either way.

And Girls!!!!!!!

I agree, this will be a difficult final to hate the winner on as we've played in the low reaches of the FL for years. And both have had their stories of heart ache.

I would like to wish you well but.....

If you win then I will become an unofficial Coventry city fan.

 

[Laker]

Apparently, they don't like him and never rated him? Unless that was coming from the plastic Cambridge following.

He was/is class, we were just bitter he left us for peanuts to a side in the same division who we’d had a relatively recent rivalry with at the time. And he was the one who negotiated/signed the clause which meant he could leave for peanuts thus fucking us over and he handed in his transfer request a week before the end of the window which gave us no time for a replacement. But no doubting his ability then.

I haven’t seen him play for a couple of years but I’d imagine he’d still be a very good player in League 1. I’d have him back as he’s an excellent player but I’m not bothered if we go elsewhere as there’s a bit of bad blood about how he left us twice.