1974–75 Luton Town F.C. season

Luton Town
1974–75 season
Chairman	Robert Keens (until 21 December 1974); Len Hawkins (from 21 December 1974)
Manager	Harry Haslam
Football League First Division	20th (relegated)
FA Cup	Third Round
Football League Cup	Third Round
Texaco Cup	Group Stage
Top goalscorer	League: ; Adrian Alston (7); All: ; Adrian Alston (8)
Highest home attendance	23,096 vs Chelsea (First Division, 11 January 1975)
Lowest home attendance	10,073 vs Bristol Rovers (Football League Cup, 11 September 1974)
Average home league attendance	17,396
Home colours	Away colours

The 1974–75 season was the 89th season in the history of Luton Town Football Club. It was Luton Town's 55th consecutive season in the Football League, and their 58th overall. It was also the team's first season in the First Division since 1959–60, and their sixth overall. The season saw Luton narrowly relegated back to Division Two.

This article covers the period from 1 July 1974 to 30 June 1975.

Background

Following promotion from the Fourth Division in 1966–67, Luton consolidated under first Allan Brown, then Alec Stock before rising another division following a successful 1969–70 campaign in which Malcolm Macdonald scored 28 goals. Macdonald scored 31 during 1970–71 as Luton finished sixth in the Second Division, and was sold to Newcastle United at the end of the season to ease the club's financial worries. Harry Haslam replaced Stock in 1972, and along with him came the ambition to return to Division One after a 12-year absence. Luton fans would have to wait two more years for Haslam to deliver the third promotion; in 1973–74 the team finished second in Division Two behind Middlesbrough, and ensured that for 1974–75 Luton would be a top division club once again.

Review

July–September

After failing to progress past the group stage of the Texaco Cup, Luton began the campaign badly. The first victory came in the League Cup, as Luton beat Bristol Rovers on 11 September; in the league, a series of losses and draws prevailed. On the 28th, Luton finally won a league match, beating Carlisle United 3–1. This win lifted Luton out of the relegation places, and up to 17th in the division.

October–December

The team then went 11 matches without a victory, including a run of six straight defeats. Luton crashed out of the League Cup and by mid-December, they were bottom of the league and eight points away from safety. Starting with a 1–0 home win over Derby County, Luton suddenly won three successive matches and reduced the gap to five points.

January–March

A draw with Chelsea meant that Luton came off the foot of the table, but it was followed by defeat in the FA Cup to Birmingham City. A disappointing home loss at the hands of Burnley sent Luton straight back to the bottom of the league, and put them six points behind 19th placed Chelsea. A draw at Sheffield United, followed by a victory over Newcastle United and another draw with Stoke City, saw Luton come within four points of survival. A 3–1 defeat at Everton on 25 February resulted in no further ground being made up.

Two more straight defeats followed, and the gap remained four points. Luton then won three matches on the trot, against Carlisle, Leeds and Arsenal, to be only two points behind Chelsea. The team were brought back down to earth sharply towards the end of March by a 5–0 annihilation at Derby County and a 5–2 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers – these put Luton back down to 21st, though still only three points behind Leicester City in 19th.

April–May

Defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on 5 April sent Luton back to the bottom of the league and increased the gap to five points with only eight left to gain from Luton's final four matches. Luton managed a 2–1 home win over Everton, before beating Leicester 3–0 to be only one point away. A 4–1 victory at Birmingham put Luton level on points with Tottenham, with the North London team ahead on goal average. Manchester City would visit Luton on 26 April for their final match, while Tottenham would have to travel to Highbury to face their rivals Arsenal before entertaining Leeds United two days later. Luton could only draw with Manchester City, while Tottenham were defeated 1–0 at Arsenal; Luton therefore rose out of the relegation zone for the first time since October. However, Tottenham beat Leeds 4–2 on the 28th, and therefore leapfrogged Luton into 19th place. Thus, Luton were sentenced to Division Two football in 1975–76.

Match results

Luton Town results given first.^[3]

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

Football League First Division


Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
17 August 1974	Liverpool	Home	1–2	21,216	Butlin
19 August 1974	West Ham United	Away	0–2	23,182	—
24 August 1974	Middlesbrough	Away	1–1	21,478	Butlin
28 August 1974	West Ham United	Home	0–0	16,931	—
31 August 1974	Queens Park Rangers	Home	1–1	18,535	John Ryan
7 September 1974	Leeds United	Away	1–1	26,516	Butlin
14 September 1974	Ipswich Town	Home	1–4	17,577	Alston
21 September 1974	Arsenal	Away	2–2	21,649	Alston, Shanks
24 September 1974	Coventry City	Away	1–2	15,643	Jimmy Ryan (pen)
28 September 1974	Carlisle United	Home	3–1	12,987	Anderson, Alston, Jimmy Ryan (pen)
5 October 1974	Leicester City	Away	0–0	19,024	—
12 October 1974	Birmingham City	Home	1–3	15,097	Hindson
16 October 1974	Middlesbrough	Home	0–1	10,464	—
19 October 1974	Manchester City	Away	0–1	30,649	—
26 October 1974	Tottenham Hotspur	Home	1–1	22,420	Aston
2 November 1974	Newcastle United	Away	0–1	30,141	—
9 November 1974	Sheffield United	Home	0–1	12,670	—
16 November 1974	Stoke City	Away	2–4	20,646	Anderson, Garner
30 November 1974	Burnley	Home	2–3	11,816	Faulkner, Spiring
7 December 1974	Chelsea	Away	0–2	19,009	—
14 December 1974	Liverpool	Away	0–2	35,151	—
21 December 1974	Derby County	Home	1–0	12,862	Jimmy Ryan (pen)
26 December 1974	Ipswich Town	Away	1–0	23,406	R. Futcher
28 December 1974	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Home	3–2	19,642	R. Futcher (3)
11 January 1975	Chelsea	Home	1–1	23,096	Husband
18 January 1975	Burnley	Away	0–1	17,237	—
1 February 1975	Sheffield United	Away	1–1	17,270	Anderson
8 February 1975	Newcastle United	Home	1–0	18,019	R. Futcher
22 February 1975	Stoke City	Home	0–0	19,894	—
25 February 1975	Everton	Away	1–3	35,714	Aston
1 March 1975	Queens Park Rangers	Away	1–2	19,583	Alston
8 March 1975	Coventry City	Home	1–3	14,423	Aston
15 March 1975	Carlisle United	Away	2–1	8,339	Aston, R. Futcher
22 March 1975	Leeds United	Home	2–1	23,048	Aston, Anderson
25 March 1975	Arsenal	Home	2–1	22,120	Jimmy Ryan (pen), R. Futcher
29 March 1975	Derby County	Away	0–5	24,619	—
31 March 1975	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Away	2–5	22,689	Seasman, Jimmy Ryan
5 April 1975	Tottenham Hotspur	Away	1–2	25,796	Alan West
9 April 1975	Everton	Home	2–1	13,437	Anderson (2)
12 April 1975	Leicester City	Home	3–0	18,298	Alston, own goal, Husband
19 April 1975	Birmingham City	Away	4–1	28,755	Jimmy Ryan, Alston (2), Husband
26 April 1975	Manchester City	Home	1–1	20,768	Jimmy Ryan

FA Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Notes
3rd Round	4 January 1975	Birmingham City	Home	0–1	17,543	—

Football League Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Notes
2nd Round	11 September 1974	Bristol Rovers	Home	1–0	10,073	Alston
3rd Round	8 October 1974	Sheffield United	Away	0–2	14,150	—

Texaco Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
Group stage	3 August 1974	Southampton	Home	1–1	unknown	Butlin
Group stage	7 August 1974	West Ham United	Away	2–1	unknown	Anderson, Husband
Group stage	10 August 1974	Orient	Away	2–2	unknown	Butlin, Husband

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts	Qualification or relegation
18	Leicester City	42	12	12	18	46	60	0.767	36
19	Tottenham Hotspur	42	13	8	21	52	63	0.825	34
20	Luton Town (R)	42	11	11	20	47	65	0.723	33	Relegation to the Second Division
21	Chelsea (R)	42	9	15	18	42	72	0.583	33
22	Carlisle United (R)	42	12	5	25	43	59	0.729	29

Source: World Football
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal average; 3) Goals scored
(R) Relegated

Player details

Last match played on 26 April 1975.

Players arranged in order of starts (in all competitions), with the greater number of substitute appearances taking precedence in case of an equal number of started matches.^[3]

Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Texaco Cup		Total
Pos.	Name	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
MF	Alan West	42	1	1	0	2	0	3	0	48	1
MF	Peter Anderson	40	6	1	0	2	0	3	1	46	7
DF	John Ryan	38	1	1	0	2	0	1	0	42	1
FW	Jimmy Husband	33	3	1	0	2	0	3	2	39	5
MF	Jimmy Ryan	30 (1)	7	1	0	1	0	3	0	35 (1)	7
FW	John Faulkner	34	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	35	1
MF	John Aston	32	5	1	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	33 (1)	5
GK	Keith Barber	26	0	0	0	2	0	0 (1)	0	28 (1)	0
DF	Steve Buckley	24	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	26	0
MF	Gordon Hindson	17	1	0	0	2	0	3	0	23	0
DF	Bobby Thomson	17	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	21	0
FW	Adrian Alston	18 (3)	7	0	0	2	1	0	0	20 (3)	8
DF	Paul Futcher	19	0	1	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	20 (1)	0
GK	Graham Horn	16	0	1	0	0	0	3	0	20	0
DF	Don Shanks	15 (1)	1	0	0	2	0	2	0	19 (1)	1
FW	Ron Futcher	16 (1)	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	17 (1)	7
DF	Steve Litt	12	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	16	0
DF	Alan Garner	9	1	0	0	1 (1)	0	3	0	13 (1)	1
FW	Barry Butlin	9	3	0	0	1	0	3	2	13	5
MF	Brian Chambers	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
FW	Peter Spiring	5 (2)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	5 (2)	1
FW	Rodney Fern	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
MF	John Seasman	1 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1 (1)	0
MF	Lil Fuccillo	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0
MF	Andy King	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0
FW	Maitland Pollock	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0
—	own goal	—	1	—	0	—	0	—	0	—	1

References

General

Player and match statistics and league table sourced from: Bailey, Steve (December 1997). The Definitive Luton Town F.C. Soccerdata. ISBN 1-899468-10-2.
Match statistics sourced from: "Luton Town 1974-1975 : Results". Statto. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
Background sourced from: Collings, Timothy (1985). The Luton Town Story 1885–1985. Luton Town F.C. ISBN 0-9510679-0-7.