sport news Fairytale of Luton in play-off final against Coventry but it's not magic for ... trends now
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There was only one regret for Luton Town legend Brian Stein watching his former side reach Saturday’s Championship play-off final against Coventry City.
He’d rather have been at Kenilworth Road to see it live than staying at home with a cup of tea in front of the television.
Luton’s fairytale rise from non-league to the brink of the Premier League in nine years – the same time it took Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang in the 1980s — has captured the nation’s imagination, but the estrangement between Stein and the club is a sad postscript to all the joy.
The middle of three footballing brothers, Stein scored the most famous goal in the club’s history when his 90th-minute winner against Arsenal in the 1988 League Cup final earned the Hatters their only major trophy.
However, he says a spell as assistant-manager with the club later soured their relationship. After helping Mike Newell win promotion to the Championship, they both left the club in 2007; Newell sacked and Stein then put on gardening leave having taken charge of one match as interim. Now 65, he says things haven’t been the same since, siting disagreement over the terms of his departure.
Mark Stein (right) hugs his brother Brian (left) after the latter scored twice against Arsenal in the Littlewoods Cup Final in 1988
Luton Town manager Rob Edwards (centre) is on the cusp of guiding the side to the Premier League
