Luton Town completed their journey from non-league to Premier League as they beat Coventry City 6-5 on penalties to win the Championship play-off final at Wembley.
Gustavo Hamer equalised for Coventry to cancel out a first-half strike from Jordan Clark as the game finished in a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes
Having last been in English football’s top flight in 1992, the year the Premier League began, Luton have waited 31 years to take their place at the top table.
But they were still in the fifth tier only nine years ago after a decade of financial hardship.
And, in becoming the first side to go all the way from the top tier to non-league and back, it completed a remarkable achievement for Luton boss Rob Edwards, who began this season as manager of the Hatters’ fierce local rivals Watford.
Just a year on from managing Forest Green to the League Two title, Edwards won his second successive promotion.
He left Forest Green to take on the Watford job at the end of last season, but was then sacked in late September.
He then returned to management in November when Nathan Jones walked out on Luton for a second time – and Edwards has now masterminded the completion of one of football’s great journeys.
For starters it would help fund the building of the new stadium that is central to Luton’s plans and seen as the key to securing their future – although that is not likely to be ready for another three years and they will first have to spend as estimated £10m renovating their comparatively dilapidated back-street Kenilworth Road home.
They will still have the smallest ground capacity in the top flight next season, but it is all still a far cry from when they dropped out of the Football League in 2009, before taking five seasons to get back in 2014, eventually under John Still.
