No-one is denying that Mick and Anthony Brown did a good job in re-moulding the squad, and yes we were left with a handful of players seeing out bigger contracts, Dean Morgan, Paul McVeigh and Sam Parkin (all now amazingly playing in League 1) however the likes of Robinson, Jackson, Goodall, Currie, Peschisolido(sp?) and Perry were all off loaded either into retirement or to poor unsuspecting clubs!

The players signed, although cheaper were of a much higher quality than the no-hopers and journeymen that were released.

I’m not saying we need to play “Total Football” but in most games we were barely competent, players played out of position, hopeless long ball football to 2 short forwards (Craddock and Gallen).

I didn’t expect us to walk the division by any stretch of the imagination, but I did expect, given the standard of player we have signed, and the budget that we would perform a hell of a lot better than we have done.

With regards to talking to Luton supporters, Mick Harford’s status within the club, as a legend, skews a lot of peoples opinions and they simply cannot be objective about him.

Had we beaten Stevenage, it would have been a total injustice to Stevenage and also merely pro-longing the agony. I had stated previously on Outlaws and also “offline” that my fear with Mick was that the board would leave it too long to remove him and sections of the crowd would turn on him and also start to turn on the new owners, which is exactly what happened after the Stevenage debacle.

With regards to Curbishley, it could be argued by keeping you up, and with his previous managerial record he earned the grace period of terrible football whilst he was reshaping the team?

With Mick I honestly do not think he would have turned things around, during the 18 months he was in charge, we saw no improvement from a tactical point of view, team selections were often comical and in game management non-existant.

Let’s take the Chester game as an example, we are playing at home against a team whose pre-season and start of the season was stalled due to off-field problems and they are playing a mixture of non-league rubbish and youth players. The team selection was shocking, and then to compound matters, when it is 0-0 Mick puts on 2 left backs! depsite having a youth team striker, Jordan Patrick, on the bench (who has been trailed and trialled with Liverpool) and he is left kicking his heels as we grind out a point in one of the worst games of football ever seen. Truth be told Chester could have easily won the game and created more chances than we did.

The players are certainly not entirely blameless, Nicholls discipline is abysmal, already missed 4 games due to a tantrum and crowd incitement from a game last season, get’s sent off V Oxford, then tries to get sent off V Stevenage, however where does the discipline come from? The Manager.

With regards to why the change was not made in the summer, I think the club and the vast majority of supporters, despite the misgivings wanted to give Mick a chance to turn things around, and whilst results were borderline acceptable, performances and actual management were not.

Thanks.

You state that Harford could sign players but my research shows otherwise – see the Times from July 2008 which was certainly written in the middle of pre-season last year. He was also left with players who were simply seeing out their contracts and were a burden on the wage bill. I do know that he cut the wages significantly in line with the need to reduce the financial pressure on the club as a whole – hardly conducive to putting a team out to play attractive football.

However, I do not think anyone came into the season (club, players and fans) with a genuine idea as to how different this league is. I spent alot of time watching games in the BSP last season, as a neutral fan, a blog writer and in a couple of instances as a scout. The approach teams have is very different and I do not think the club realised that. The fact that teams simply do not bounce straight back up was ignored. Oxford United were without a doubt the best team in this league in the last quarter of the season and they have taken this form into this year. That is often the case and the reason why teams start so well. So as a Luton fan can I ask whether you would have liked to have seen a promotion, albeit via the play offs at the end of the season (which after all with a win in the game in hand versus York would have put you firmly in there) or attractive football. I am a West Ham fan and had to endure two seasons of Curbishley inspired crap at Upton Park but we finished 10th in his last full season, above Man City and Spurs – much bigger clubs than us. Ironically he left at a time when he had changed his style of play and we were 5th in the league. What would have happened if you would have won the game versus Stevenage? Would Harford have been sacked/left? I doubt it. I do know he is a very proud man and was Luton to the core – do you think any of his reasonings were misguided in any way or was he doing the best with what he had.

He has been undone by the players this year as well. Discipline on the pitch has cost points – would the Oxford game had finished 2-0 if Nichols stayed on?

I still cannot understand that if the club wanted a change why not do it during the summer when a new man could have had a chance to mould his own team.

I spoke to quite a few fans about this after three games this season and their view was certainly not that he should go. In fact I struggled to find one post on the message board after the win against Cambridge that was not gushing with praise for him – 72 hours later he was gone….that is what doesn’t add up.

Luton supporters have had a dreadful 3 years, going from the championship play-off positions in October 2006 to The Conference, 3 relegations on the trot.

Under Kevin Blackwell, we endured terrible football from an old aged team picking up a final pay-day, recruited by Blackwell, who, when the going got tough, tucked his tail between his legs and ran away.

Last season under Mick Harford was, in the main, exactly the same, apart from the age of the players, obviously winning the JPT was a great day out, but there are lingering doubts as to whether we would have won the Final if Mick was able to select his then first choice team.

You state in your article

“So Harford had to start with a young squad, a thirty point penalty and because the club were in Administration, no way to sign anyone new.”

This isn’t actually true, the 30 point penalty aside we were able to sign players, in fact we signed
Kevin Nicholls, Claude Gnakpa, Michael Spillane, Chris Martin, George Pilkington, Ian Roper, Asa Hall, Rossi Jarvis, Conrad Logan, Harry Worley, Wayne Andrews, Tom Craddock, Marc Pugh plus others either before or during the season.

We then went out and played some of the most uninspiring, insipid football ever witnessed at Luton Town, and at no point made even the slightest indication that we had a chance of over turning the 30 point deduction, whilst other teams used their deductions as a rallying point and catalyst, we seemed to use it as an excuse for failure.

So we come to this season, and you state the Mansfield, Wrexham and Oxford are not small names yet they have struggled to return to the league, the difference is, they were the worst team in the football league when they went down, and were not relegated by points deductions.

This summer Mick Harford then signed, Liam Hatch, Alan White, Shane Blackett, Mark Tyler, Callum Reynolds, Andy Burgess, Adam Newton, and was able to retain all the contracted players he wanted to from the existing squad. He subesquently signed Fred Murray from Grays and George Donnelly from Plymouth (although never gave Donnelly a kick before his loan expired).

As you can see the names listed are all decent lower league/conference players, many with decent conference experience.

Although many supports were not pleased with Mick’s management from 08/09 the majority thought it was ok that he be given the chance to take Luton back up, without deductions etc, etc.

So the season begins, and we are absolute garbage, bearing in mind the sqaud size and budget Luton have, the team could barely string 2 passes together and we struggled to break down or create chances against some awful teams.

The football on show has continued to be as poor as the previous season and the team selections, formations and substitutions have been nothing short of bewildering. There were occasions where the team played well, 40 odd minuted V Mansfield, 35 Minutes V Crawley, and 45 minutes V Cambridge, apart from that it’s been pretty dire.

All we could see was Oxford getting further and further away, Luton playing hopeless, unattractive football, and a manager seemingly unable to do anything about it.

As for the Stevenage/Tamworth comparison again you are miles off.

V Stevenage we played a 4-4-2 with Asa Hall a central midfielder upfront then switched to 4-5-1 with Tom Craddock upfront on his own, and played long ball Dave Bassett style football, despite having 2 forwards on the bench.

V Tamworth we played 2 strikers up front (Hatch and Wright) and 4 in midfield, not a traditional 4-4-2 but it was a start, the goalkeeper was throwing the ball out to the full backs on occasion and the players attempted to play some decent football at times. Tamworth came back into the game slightly in the 2nd half as Hatch, Wright, Ed AA, and Nicholls tired but it was a hell of a let better than against Stevenage.

Mick Harford is a Luton legend, but he was not doing a good job as manager and the change had to be made.

If you want any clarification regarding future articles, email me on the email address provided or contact one of the supporters groups.

Cheers