1996–97 Luton Town F.C. season

Luton Town
1996–97 season
Chairman	David Kohler
Manager	Lennie Lawrence
Stadium	Kenilworth Road
Second Division	3rd
Play-offs	Semi-finals
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Third round
Football League Trophy	Second round
Top goalscorer	League: Thorpe (28); All: Thorpe (32)
Average home league attendance	6,781

During the 1996–97 English football season, Luton Town F.C. competed in the Football League Second Division.

Season summary

In the 1996-97 season, Luton started just as badly as the last, with three straight defeats. However, the introduction of young forward Andrew Fotiadis saw Luton burst into life, as they shot up the table with a run of eight wins and two draws in eleven games. Tony Thorpe, too, proved to be a revelation, scoring 28 goals to become the division's top scorer. Luton were nearly promoted, but finished in third place, four points off automatic promotion and then lost to Crewe Alexandra in the play-offs.[1]

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Bury	46	24	12	10	62	38	+24	84	Division Champions, promoted
2	Stockport County	46	23	13	10	59	41	+18	82	Promoted
3	Luton Town	46	21	15	10	71	45	+26	78	Participated in play-offs
4	Brentford	46	20	14	12	56	43	+13	74
5	Bristol City	46	21	10	15	69	51	+18	73

Source:
Rules for classification: In the Football League goals scored (GF) takes precedence over goal difference (GD).

Results

Luton Town's score comes first[2]

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

FA Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	16 November 1996	Torquay United	A	1–0	3,450	Hughes
R2	7 December 1996	Boreham Wood	H	2–1	5,332	Marshall (2)
R3	21 January 1997	Bolton Wanderers	H	1–1	7,414	Johnson
R3R	25 January 1997	Bolton Wanderers	A	2–6	9,713	Thorpe (2)

League Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	20 August 1996	Bristol Rovers	H	3–0	2,643	Grant, Thorpe (pen), Oldfield
R1 2nd Leg	3 September 1996	Bristol Rovers	A	1–2 (won 4-2 on agg)	2,320	Oldfield
R2 1st Leg	17 September 1996	Derby County	H	1–0	4,459	James
R2 2nd Leg	24 September 1996	Derby County	A	2–2 (won 3-2 on agg)	13,569	Grant, Thorpe
R3	22 October 1996	Wimbledon	A	1–1	5,043	Hughes
R3R	12 November 1996	Wimbledon	H	1–2 (a.e.t.)	8,076	Blackwell (own goal)

Football League Trophy


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
SR1	10 December 1996	Leyton Orient	H	2–1	1,594
SR2	4 February 1997	Northampton Town	A	0–1	4,201

Squad

[3] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	ENG	Nathan Abbey
—	GK	ENG	Kelvin Davis
—	GK	USA	Ian Feuer
—	DF	SCO	Graham Alexander
—	DF	ENG	Ben Chenery
—	DF	ENG	Steve Davis
—	DF	ENG	Richard Harvey
—	DF	ENG	Julian James
—	DF	ENG	Marvin Johnson
—	DF	ENG	Des Linton
—	DF	ENG	Gavin McGowan (on loan from Arsenal)
—	DF	NIR	Darren Patterson
—	DF	ENG	Trevor Peake
—	DF	ENG	Aaron Skelton
—	DF	ENG	Mitchell Thomas
—	DF	ENG	Matthew Upson


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	DF	ENG	Chris Willmott
—	MF	ENG	Sean Evers
—	MF	BUL	Boncho Genchev
—	MF	WAL	Ceri Hughes
—	MF	ENG	Paul McLaren
—	MF	ENG	David Oldfield
—	MF	ENG	Paul Showler
—	MF	IRL	Gary Waddock
—	FW	ENG	Stuart Douglas
—	FW	ENG	Andrew Fotiadis
—	FW	IRL	Liam George
—	FW	GHA	Kim Grant
—	FW	ENG	Andy Kiwomya (on loan from Bradford City)
—	FW	JAM	Dwight Marshall
—	FW	ENG	John Taylor
—	FW	ENG	Tony Thorpe

References

Fox, Norman (1997-05-15). "Crewe hit back to knock out Luton". The Independent. London: Independent News & Media. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2015-06-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
http://www.11v11.com/teams/luton-town/tab/players/season/1997

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[luton2crewe21997-1] Fox, Norman (1997-05-15). "Crewe hit back to knock out Luton". The Independent. London: Independent News & Media. Retrieved 2009-05-13.

[2] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2015-06-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[3] ttp://www.11v11.com/teams/luton-town/tab/players/season/1997

Luton Town F.C. seasons
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