Last Word on Football brings you a look at what we consider to be the 5 best Luton Town managers in the Bedfordshire club’s long history.
Top 5 Best Luton Town Managers
5. Ray Harford
Ray Harford helped steer the team to their first-ever major trophy – the League Cup in 1988. In a game against Arsenal that is often considered the greatest League Cup final of them all, the Town came back from 2-1 down to win 3-2 thanks to a late Brian Stein winner. Harford also guided the Hatters to another League Cup final at Wembley the following year.
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Before being promoted to manager, Harford was John Moore’s assistant when Luton finished seventh in the First Division in 1986/87 (their highest finish in the top flight to date). Kenny Dalglish was a fan of Harford’s coaching ability.
At Blackburn Rovers, with Dalglish as manager, and with Harford his number two, Rovers won promotion to the Premier League. They then guided the Lancashire club to the Premier League title in 1995.
4. Alec Stock
At Luton, Alec Stock steered the Hatters from the third tier to the old Second Division in 1970. Until Easter in the next season Stock was on course to repeat his feat of successive promotions at Queens Park Rangers – where he’d also won the League Cup when QPR were a Third Division team.
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He built a fine side in his time at the club. Several of his early 1970s squad would be part of the Town side that got promoted to the top flight under Harry Haslam in 1974.
Stock then took over at Fulham and guided a star-studded, though still a Second Division outfit, to the 1975 FA Cup final. Stock had first made his name when a player-manager at non-League Yeovil Town, leading them to a famous FA Cup run in the late 1940s. The Ron Manager character in the comedy sketch show, The Fast Show, was based on Stock.
3. Dally Duncan
Dally Duncan was manager at Luton for over a decade. He was the first Hatters manager to guide them to the top flight of English football, when the Town won promotion at the end of the 1954/55 season. Duncan also made his team competitive at the top level.
A formidable array of talent included captain and Billy Wright’s understudy, Syd Owen. Striker Gordon Turner would become the Town’s record goalscorer, and the versatile Bob Morton would become the record appearance holder for the club. Future manager, Scottish forward Allan Brown, was another key player in this Luton side.
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Duncan left Luton early in the 1958/59 season. So he missed out on leading the Hatters in their first-ever FA Cup final at the end of that campaign. But, in the following term, he made up for it, when guiding Blackburn Rovers to the final. 1960 was also to be Duncan’s last year in football as a manager.
2. Nathan Jones
Nathan Jones and Luton Town seemed a natural fit. At Kenilworth Road, in his first spell, Jones guided the club to promotion from League Two. What was remarkable was that the Hatters had finished runners-up in League Two in 2017/18, but then the following season won League One. Though Jones would leave halfway through this campaign to become Stoke City’s manager, and it was left to caretaker manager Mick Harford to guide the Town to the League One title. Jones and Harford between them oversaw a club-record 28-game unbeaten run.
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After Jones’ return to Kenilworth Road from Stoke in 2020, Luton seemed to have only a slim chance of escaping relegation from the Championship. But Jones galvanised the squad. The Hatters survived and then surprised even Town fans in the next season. Luton had improved enough, under Jones, to reach the play-offs.
When he left to manage Southampton in late 2022, Luton were handily placed in the Championship, and would later win promotion to the Premier League under Rob Edwards. His predecessor proved himself at Kenilworth Road as not only someone who could produce promotion-winning teams, but also squads that could come through adversity.
1. David Pleat
When appointed as Haslam’s successor in 1978, David Pleat‘s appointment underwhelmed many supporters. He was the reserve team coach, with his only previous managerial experience being at non-League Nuneaton Borough. But, in hindsight, Pleat’s appointment was an absolutely inspired choice. It couldn’t, though, have gone unnoticed that the new appointment was good at nurturing young players. This would become a notable part of his legacy.
Pleat brought unknown defender Mal Donaghy to the club, and, under his coaching, forward Brian Stein and midfielder Ricky Hill would thrive and become full England internationals. As later would Paul Walsh and Mick Harford. Pleat was also a key figure in giving Black players opportunities at a time when racism towards Black players was still very prevalent.
Donaghy, Stein and Hill would be the cornerstone of a Town side that reached the League Cup quarter-finals in 1978 and won the Littlewoods Cup a decade later. Pleat’s greatest achievement at Luton was guiding the Hatters to the old Second Division title in 1982. Famously, a year later, he ran onto the pitch at Maine Road as the they beat Manchester City through a late Raddy Antic goal to stay up.
He left the Town in 1986 to manage Tottenham Hotspur to the FA Cup final in his first season. He would return to Kenilworth Road in the 1990s, but couldn’t replicate his earlier success at the club. Though the Hatters did reach an FA Cup semi-final under him in 1994. Pleat had also achieved this in his first spell at Luton in 1985.
