Luton Town's Miracle

The Fairytale Rise from Non-League to Premier League

Rob Hadgraft

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Paperback

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QTY:

English

Amberley Publishing
15 October 2025

Sports teams & clubs; Football (Soccer, Association football)

For five seasons from 2009 to 2014 Luton Town FC was marooned in non-League football. A club that had earlier enjoyed several spells in the English game's top flight had slumped to this low point due to mismanagement, financial irregularities and crippling points deductions.

After repeated bouts of play-off pain in the Conference, a return to the League was secured in 2014 - the start of an astonishing upward journey that saw Luton soar to the Premier League in only nine years. This book chronicles, month by month, the miraculous progress during those years as this club, with its tiny budget, achieved something unique in football in less than a decade.

A nail-biting penalty shoot-out victory in the 2023 Championship play-off final at Wembley meant Luton won the right to host some of the world's richest clubs, in arguably the world's most competitive league, at their humble, ancient and tiny Kenilworth Road ground.

Rob Hadgraft, a season-ticket holder at Luton for five decades, tells the story that would be widely acknowledged in the media as 'football's greatest fairytale', 'miraculous' and 'against all odds'. He tells it from the viewpoint of a committed follower, mixing humour with the more serious background aspects of the journey.

By: Rob Hadgraft
Imprint: Amberley Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 268g
ISBN: 9781398123298
ISBN 10: 1398123293
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 15 October 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Born in Luton, England, in 1955, Rob Hadgraft spent sixteen years working in regional newspapers as a news and sports reporter and sub-editor, before a spell in public relations in London. Within ten years or so of turning freelance in the year 2000, some sixteen sports books in his name had been published, 11 of them focussing on football club history, plus a series of five acclaimed biographies of famous runners of yesteryear. He has been short-listed for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year award, and is a well-known author, blogger and the Luton Town Supporters' Club's editor.

Reviews for Luton Town's Miracle: The Fairytale Rise from Non-League to Premier League

'The book is told month-by-month, offering a detailed look at the key moments, matches and milestones of the decade that changed everything. It mixes fan perspective, behind-the-scenes context and wry humour, making it a must-read for anyone who lived through the journey — or still finds it hard to believe.' -- The Lutonian, November 2025