"A Season To Remember: Reflections, Triumphs, and Dreams Fulfilled"

Hi everyone,

How do you write an end of season message to you all after a season and end of season we have experienced? To encapsulate in a few words is nigh on impossible, so I will not even try. I will, however, say it's been emotional.

Let us all hope that our captain, Tommy Lockyer, our player of the season, returns to perfect health after being taken to hospital in the play off final, we send him our love and very best wishes.

The three games that will probably mean more than any of the others to sum up our season that many of us will be W*tford and Sunderland at home and the playoff final.

These three games meant differing things but showed a support at the top of its game. The noise generated on 1st April from the terraces had not been witnessed for a very long time. It was incredible, full of raw emotion, a crescendo of noise that only derby games can bring a real shock and awe. I don't think many of us expected a repeat let alone surpass that atmosphere but we were about to see something very special occur when Sunderland, with a 2-1 lead from the first play-off semi final leg, arrived at the Kenny, cock sure of themselves they were going all the way to Wembley and into the Premiership. So confident that their supporters were many had booked hotels in London in anticipation of their coronation and take over Trafalgar Square.

However, no one told their players who were unaware what an evening match under the lights is like in a cramped stadium like ours.

The atmosphere surpassed the 1st April victory and visibly shook their players, and that was just in the warm-up. We had not done very well in previous play off games, but this game everyone of our support were completely up for it and there was no way we were going to lose it by just standing there wanting to be entertained, far from it, we were going to be a part of this game. The scenes at the end of the game will remain until the stars don’t shine for everyone inside the ground, when the second goal went in, they must have heard the roar on the far side of the moon.

Of course, Wembley is something completely different to our piece of heaven. LLSC committee members had decided to organise blocks inside the ground for over 1000 members and also the pre match meet at The Sports Bar in Farringdon for some 500. This was no mean feat and an achievement of organisation from both LLSC and the ticket office in Luton. There was no way we were going to match the atmosphere of W*tford or Sunderland, however, the vivid colour of orange along with the thousands upon thousands of flags made it a truly special place for the time we were encamped there. Jordan Clark’s 29th-minute strike sent the Luton end into absolute scenes.

Was this really happening? Was this going to happen? Of course not, Coventry equalised through Hamer on 66 minutes. Extra time came and went and then penalties. All of the pens that went in were struck brilliantly except one, and for once it wasn't us who would have that gut wrenching feeling, one that I still suffer from that was the semi final of the FA Cup v Everton, no sir it was us who went into an absolute collective meltdown, a complete mixture of utter disbelief, excitement and madness. This was pent up raw emotional for those who had been on that long road we had collectively travelled down. All the bad days of MK, Gurney, Tomlins, Pinkney, Mitchell,-30, Ford, Hutchings and Capital and Regional gone, banished to the trash can of history, today was redemption and a statement. The club they tried to kill risen phoenix like under the brilliant stewardship of 2020 had arrived at the summit of the footballing pyramid. Did we dare to dream down in Soho Square all those years ago that one day into the future we would be in the best league in world football with a brand new stadium within touching distance, not in massive amounts of debt and with probably the best up and coming manager in the country? At the time we were so close to being liquidated, dreaming was out of the question. It was about surviving. Well, we have survived and have become a model for others to follow.

A new chapter of our history has arrived, embrace it, cherish it, for what we are living through is sporting history right now. It will never happen again.

FORZA LTFC

FORZA LLSC

FORZA 2020

Stronger Together!

Kevin Rouse

Chairman

Loyal Luton Supporters Club