Latics v Luton - Previous and Connections

With Luton Town visiting the DW Stadium this afternoon, in what is a crunch game down in the basement area of the Championship, I thought it was a good idea to look back at previous encounters between the Latics and the Hatters and some of the connections between the clubs.

Previous - We have played each other on 15 occasions, with a record of five wins each and five draws.

The first meeting between the two clubs was in August 1978 when the Latics, in their first season as a Football League club, were drawn to play 2^nd Division Luton in the League Cup, the Hatters were managed at that time by David Pleat.

The first leg at Kenilworth Road ended 2-0 to Luton, with the 2^nd leg at Springfield Park finishing 0-1 also to Luton. We had to wait until 1999 for our first victory, a 0-4 away win in what was then League 2.

Date	Competition
29 Aug 1978	League Cup	Luton 2:0 Latics
22 Sep 1978	League Cup	Latics 0:1 Luton
06 Oct 1987	League Cup	Luton 4:2 Latics
18 Oct 1987	League Division 2	Latics 1:1 Latics
24 Feb 1988	League Division 2	Luton 1:1 Latics
31 Aug 1998	League Division 2	Latics 1:2 Luton
23 Jan 1999	League Division 2	Luton 0:4 Latics
02 Oct 1999	League Division 2	Latics 2:1 Luton
24 Apr 2000	League Division 2	Luton 1:1 Latics
19 Aug 2000	League Division 2	Latics 2:1 Luton
30 Dec 2000	League Division 2	Luton 0:2 Latics
26 Oct 2001	League Division 2	Luton 1:1 Latics
07 Dec 2001	FA Cup (2)	Latics 3:0 Luton
15 Mar 2002	League Division 2	Latics 1:1 Luton
07 Dec 2019	Championship	Luton 2:1 Latics

Connections – Former Latics player and Assistant Manager Graeme Jones is the current Luton boss, Jonesy is a legend at the ‘tics, his goalscoring exploits as a ram-raiding centre forward during our title winning promotion season back in the 1996/97 season are legendary, also his partnership with Roberto Martinez that led the Latics to lift the FA Cup in 2013 and also play some of, if not the best football ever played by a Wigan Athletic side.

“He’s one of our own” Callum McManaman, always a crowd favourite at the Latics, came through the ranks, was named Man of the Match in the 2013 FA Cup final against Manchester City – can’t stop mentioning this – and scored some vital goals for down the years.

Former player Mike Newell was sold to Luton back in 1987 for what was then a princely sum of £80,000, he also had a four year spell as Luton boss – famously saying about his lack of coaching qualifications, “I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me how to put cones out”.

Another former Latics who went on to enjoy a good spell at Luton was midfielder Kevin Nicholls, sold to the Hatters in 2001 for £150,000 he went on to make 175 appearances and skippered the club as they won the League 2 Championship in 2005.

And of course there is Mr Wigan Athletic himself, the legend that is,the one and only Emmerson Boyce.

Our FA Cup skipper, lifted the cup at Wembley, made over 260 appearances for the Latics in the Premier League, Europa League, Championship and both domestic cup competitions in his nine seasons at the DW Stadium.

Luton were Boycey’s first League club and I was there at Kenilworth Road to see Jason De Vos out jump a young Boycey to head Latics level back in October 2001.

 

Why not take a look at our Latics v Luton Meet The Ref article