Luton Town Get a Ray Of Sunshine at League Trophy Final

On a bright Sunday afternoon at Wembley Stadium, the football league’s bottom club, Luton Town took on play off chasing Scunthorpe United for the Johnsone's Paint Trophy.

Luton Town suffered a 30 point deduction at the start of the season and were looking to add a little sunshine to their season. They took an incredible 40,000 fans with them, which set a new record for the amount of tickets sold by one club for a fixture at the new Wembley. 

Luton have had a number of finals at Wembley including the 1988 league cup win against Arsenal, were facing a Scunthorpe side who were contesting their first cup final.

As the Teams were introduced to Football League Chairman Sir Mawhinney, loud echo’s of boo's rung around Wembley as the Luton Fans made their feeling’s known to the man they blame for the predicament the club has found itself in.

The game kicked off with Scunthorpe coming out of the blocks the quickest and on 14 minutes a long Kick from Joe Murphy set Paul Hayes free and he found Gary Hooper in space to drive a low ball beyond stranded Luton Keeper Dean Brill to Make it 1-0 to the Iron.

Luton tried to pull themselves back into the tie with quick pressing play and attempts to hit Scunthorpe on the break. At 32 minutes a quick pass found Tom Craddock on the edge of the Scunthorpe area and he sent a delicate chip to an on-rushing Chris Martin who bent the ball beyond Murphy for the equalizer, 1-1.

Luton seemed to wake up and started to push further forward and dominate the play, but without creating any clear cut chances. Just before the break Tom Craddock was lucky to stay on the pitch after a slapping Iron’s Skipper Cliff Byrne but as none of the officials saw the incident no action was taken.

During half time Luton presented their Under 11’s Team who a month earlier had won the prestigious under 11's European Cup.

The Second half started at quite a pace, with both the Hatters and Irons trying to carve out opportunities with the game going from end to end.

On 70 minutes the Hatters took the lead. A cross from the left hand side saw a poor clearance which fell to Asa Hall who tucked the ball to Tom Craddock to fire a low 20 yard drive into the bottom right hand corner 2-1.

The Iron’s then came alive, bossing play and trying to push the Hatters back into their own half and with time ticking away Scunthorpe kept pushing away.

As time ticked on and the Luton fans thought the Cup was won, up popped Northern Ireland International Grant McCann on the edge of the Luton area in the 88th minute to  blast home a 25 yard curling shot to equalize and take the game into extra time...

The first period was hectic and with players getting tired the game was getting stretched as both sets of players were looking to write themselves into their clubs history.

A couple of Minutes into the first period it was Claude Gnapka who stood up to take the plaudit’s. A long forward ball from Luton found Gnapka and Williams sprinting with both eager to get the touch.

Scunthorpe Keeper Joe Murphy saw the danger and as he raced towards the edge of the 18 yard box both Gnapka and Williams lunged for the ball. The contact from Gnapka and Williams sent the ball upwards and towards an unguarded net to make it 3-2 to Luton Town.

Scunthorpe spent the rest of the extra time period trying to break down a stubborn Luton rearguard and a minute from the end Arsenal youngster Henri Lansbury pounced on a bad clearance to send a shot right across Luton goalmouth but it ended up trickling wide.

Luton had won the cup and this was their day after eight gloomy months of trying to overturn the point deduction the fans finally had something to shout about.

Luton skipper and Man of the Match Kevin Nicholls led his Team mates up the 109 steps of Wembley to the Royal Box to collect the cup. Waiting for Nicholls at the top was Chairman Nick Owen and current Director Steve Foster, the last Luton captain to pick up a cup from Wembley.

The Luton Players basked in the trophy win with the fans of Luton dressed in there Orange and White to make it memorable day. Both Luton and Scunthorpe played their part in an excellent game which was much to be praised.

The referee also deserved some praise, as he allowed the game to flow and seemed too have total control over the fixture and allowed the game to develop.

Scunthorpe will now go back try to cement their place in the League One playoffs and all credit to them they look like a hungry young side and I hope they can return to the Championship.

Luton are now 11 points adrift of safety with 6 games and 18 points to try and rescue their league status, it will be straight back to work for these champions.