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Luton Town: The great escapologists could be at it again!

If you think back to the time before football was said to be invented in 1992, you will have a memory full of days when Luton Town would produce the great escape to maintain their top flight status against all the odds. Guess what, they might just be at it again, albeit a division below those heady days.

The Hatters are a club that were just born to survive, whatever the situation, and whatever the odds, no matter how bleak things have looked.

On the pitch Luton are synonymous with amazing last-gasp escapes from relegation, going back as far as that iconic afternoon at Maine Road in May 1983, when the Bedfordshire side came out on top in a winner-takes-all showdown for survival against Manchester City, with Raddy Antic scoring the goal that led to David Pleat jigging across the turf in delight.

The Hatters were at it again to begin the 90s, staying up on the final day of the season in 1990 with an amazing 3-2 win at the Baseball Ground, home of Derby County, and in a strange twist of fate it was the same opponent that were beaten on the last day of the following season, aided by an own goal by club legend Mick Harford.

More recently, the Luton survival has been more about their very existence than league position. Twice they have survived administration in the last 20 years, the entire future under serious threat on both occasions.

This is a club that just do not know how to lay down and die, and if they do know they simply refuse to do so, and they are up to their old tricks once again.

10 points adrift in the Championship just seven days ago, a season of frustration seemingly going nowhere, and with everyone outside of Kenilworth Road having written them off a while back, the Hatters have since picked up two victories to reduce the gap between themselves and safety to just four points.

The battles that Luton are up against this season have been well documented. Financially they are way out of their depth, but under Graeme Jones they are showing that despite belief to the contrary, football isn’t just about what your balance sheet looks like, the old traditions still have their place.

Things like character, spirit, belief and unity can still take a club a long way. The Hatters have never been short of that, and if the scenes that greeted the final whistle of their 1-0 win at Middlesbrough on Saturday are anything to go by, those qualities are in evidence once again.

History has shown us that it is very easy to write Luton Town off, but you do so at your peril. Don’t rule out the escape artists producing another miracle survival act over the next few months.

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