One of English football’s greatest treasures is tucked away on a nondescript road in Bedfordshire.
A pedestrian could easily walk past Oak Road’s terraced, red-brick Victorian houses and completely miss the entrances for away fans attending Luton Town’s Kenilworth Road stadium.
This season the dark blue wooden doors with their orange frames painted in the club’s colours will for the first time welcome fans from across the Premier League.
Supporters walking from the train station will first navigate the extraordinarily thin alleyway that stretches along one length of the stadium, past garden fences that have seen better days and will turn left past Smash Bun & Grill, then join the crowds visiting the top-flight’s smallest stadium.
Entry to the 10,356-capacity Kenilworth Road is via a short tunnel to blue metal staircases that spiral up and into the Oak Road Stand. Fans describe queuing as like waiting to get into someone’s house.
The club’s unexpected promotion, via the Championship play-offs, has sparked curious fascination. On a weekday afternoon in football’s off-season, people from Norway to North Yorkshire turn up to snap a selfie in front of the entrances.
Not long after Luton beat Coventry City on penalties at Wembley the club shared a picture of one of the Oak Road entrances on Twitter. “Luton Town have just won the Championship play-off final. This is the entrance to our stadium. Incredible to think this ground will be in the Premier League next season,” the caption read, including a mind-blown emoji.
It has been viewed more than 15 million times. By contrast, Luton Town have 174,000 followers on the platform.
That same day, 10-year-old Kang was shown the photo by his father while they ate dinner in a restaurant in London. He told his dad, “It looks like a backyard!”
Kang arrives here now with his mum, Grace, for a closer look. Grace, 48, explains how that night they rode the train home to Harpenden and found themselves with lots of Luton fans – “the orange men”, as Grace calls them – who had been at Wembley for the final and shared pictures.
“We will try to get tickets to come here,” Grace says. “I Googled the gate here and was thinking it’s really interesting, all the houses nearby and then the gate is suddenly here and other people are still living here. Even up stairs of the stand, how they can manage like that!”
How do people find living next to one of the strangest entrances to a football stadium? The verdicts are mixed.
There are pairs of doors to the left of both entrance arches, one leading to a house with a small garden, the other to an upstairs flat where people actually live above the turnstiles. Lucky, 39, has lived in one of the upstairs flats for over a decade.
“I’m not disturbed when they play,” she tells me. “There are a lot of police here. Everyone is very friendly. Sometimes when it’s a game it’s so nice. I like all the people.”
However, on match days Oak Road is cordoned off and residents are forced to move their cars. Lucky has two sons, 19 and 22, and it causes problems.
“Some of the staff have been rude to my children,” she says. “Not the police, but the staff. Very rude!’
Oh, and she has one more bone of contention. “The club is spending all that money on the stadium,” she says of the £10m renovation to meet the Premier League’s broadcasting requirements. “They could spend some money on my front steps. Look at them. Does it look nice? No. Please talk to the people at Luton. It wouldn’t cost much money. That’s my priority!”
Abdul Ali grew up in one of the downstairs houses and lives there with his family. He recalls footballs smashing into their windows until they complained to the club and netting and corrugated iron was put up.
Other residents report having rubbish thrown in their gardens, eggs thrown at houses, alcohol sprayed on windows and bottles and cans left on doorsteps.
It appears the antisocial behaviour has worsened over time, mirroring the decline in behaviour at football matches across the country.
The two entrances, separated by four houses, are almost indistinguishable but for a few subtle differences. Away from match-days, they provide a handy alcove to store black wheelie bins. They have weeds sprouting in unusual places, peeling paint, cobwebs. They have rough edges, rusting nails and well-worn signs.
Faded fan stickers cling resolutely to the navy signage that stretches along the top. South London Hatters. Dresden. Queens Park Rangers. Nottingham Red and White army. Nul Vijf Zeven Nul – Dutch, meaning “Zero Five Seven Zero”. Betis mierda – the Spanish translation of which is “Betis shit”. Some rather ominous images of faces hidden by balaclavas and goggles.
On the right-hand side of the other entrance is a wooden gate, leading to one of the gardens that backs onto the stadium, daubed with “BEWARE OF DOG!” This provides access to Gate 8 and the Bobbers Club door, named because once upon a time it cost a bob for entry – roughly 5p in today’s money.
That gives some sense of how far back in time these gates go. Despite several attempts to relocate, Kenilworth Road has been Luton’s home since 1905.
These entrances have watched Luton climb to the top of the pyramid and tumble back down it, and seen promotions and relegations. They have witnessed the club leave the Football League for the first time in 2009, the five wilderness years and the remarkable nine-year rise back to English football’s summit.
“My dad came to watch Middlesbrough here in the ’70s and he always told me about how he had to pass through people’s houses almost to get into the football ground,” says Dan Pick, who arrives for a photo with his family, wife Rachel and children Sam and Sophia.
Dan, from North Yorkshire, is a Middlesbrough fan and non-league lover and has visited more than 200 grounds. They are flying on holiday to Mallorca from Luton Airport the following day and he wanted to add another to his list.
“It’s a football ground that always intrigued me, it’s got great character,” he explains. “The tight terraced housing and the ground plonked in the middle of it all.
“People who pass through these turnstiles can see into the locals’ gardens so they must be quite used to football fans having a nosey.”
Son Sam had also seen the viral picture on the internet. “It’s a bit weird but it’s pretty cool,” he says.
It shares similar intrigue for old and young. Josh, Joel and Bryce – in their early 20s – pull up in a Honda Civic all wearing Mind T-shirts. They are visiting 50 football stadiums in five days to raise money for the mental health charity.
Again, Luton’s promotion put Oak Road on their radar. “We know the history behind the stand, it’s an unusual setting, going into houses,” Josh says. “Them getting promoted to the Premier League as well we thought we’d make it one of them.”
Joel, a Norwich fan, says: “I came here six months ago for the Norwich away game. I went through that stand just there. Couldn’t believe what I saw when I went up the turnstiles.
“It’s special. I go to most Norwich away games. This is by far the strangest one.
“As you go through the turnstiles you’re literally overlooking someone’s back garden. You can see them putting the washing out – it’s really weird! They’re a Premier League side! Fair play to them. It’s different.
“I prefer these smaller – if I don’t offend people – run-down stadiums, compared to your Old Traffords and Etihads. They’re just different. There’s more culture.”
The play-off final win also stirred nostalgia in 24-year-old William and his mum, Robyn, 63, who have driven here for the day. Robyn and husband James lived in Luton for several years and William was born there. They are Luton Town fans.
“It’s my first time coming back to Luton in about 20 years,” William says. “Thought it would only be right to come and see the stand and get a little photo outside, in honour of being promoted to the Premier League.
“The promotion has been a big part of wanting to come back. As a kid being part of Luton, seeing them come up, rise to the top, has been amazing.”
His first game, with mum and dad, was here when he was around seven-years-old. “We brought him here to the wrong gate,” Robyn recalls. “We should’ve gone round to the other side, and we had him sitting with the enemy! They didn’t like us!”
It didn’t put William off? “Absolutely not,” he says.
Finally, the fifth set of visitors within an hour, Lodve Haugland and wife Laila, arrive. They are from Norway and are on holiday in Luton. “I don’t think many people in Norway go to Luton for a week of vacation!” Lodve, 52, says.
But there’s a good reason. “I’m a Hatters fan. I joined the Scandinavian Hatters, the supporters club for Norway, Sweden and Denmark.”
How does a Norwegian end up supporting Luton Town? “When I was a kid, in Norway every Saturday there was one match shown on television. We only had one channel. If you wanted to watch television at that time you had to see. And they showed Luton quite a few times. They were up in the highest league at that time, before the bad years.
“They stuck. I liked the colours, I liked the players – Mark and Brian Stein, Micky Harford, I was completely sold when I saw them beat Oxford seven goals to four.”
He, too, has seen that picture. “It’s unique worldwide. I don’t know any other stadium that has the same. All these houses, and people living practically on the stadium. I love it here.
“If they should be so lucky to stay up this season, we don’t have the highest expectation but we have a hope, my bet is within two years they will start to have flights from Norway to Luton airport.
“Norwegians are crazy for English football. They travel in thousands every weekend from all over Norway. Mainly to London and Manchester.”
He has visited several times for games and wanted to show Laila where he goes when he is away from home. He also took her to the playoff final. “I think I sold it to her!”
He adds: “In the Scandinavian supporters club I think we just turned 200 members, and that’s for three countries. It’s not like Liverpool, who have hundreds of thousands.
“I have to say the people in Luton are absolutely so friendly. My wife said aren’t you scared when you walk around the streets alone, I said never. I haven’t been. But I’m usually drunk as well.”
He laughs deeply, and with that they walk off, Lodve possibly swaying. And the Oak Road entrances await their next visitors.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/IBYs7Ow
Post a Comment