Still insists he was just doing his job as he describes Luton's rise through the leagues as pure 'fiction'

Former Luton boss John Still insisted he did nothing more than the job he was asked of by becoming the man who started Town’s possible rise from the Conference to the Premier League under a decade ago, a potential achievement he feels would only believed if it was written as a work of fiction.

With the Hatters having been relegated out of the Football League in April 2008, given a 30-point deduction from the FA that they could just never recover from, then it spelled the end of their 89-year stint in the top four divisions, one that had seen them win the Littlewoods Cup in 1988.

A trio of managers tried and failed to get Town out of the situation they found themselves in, Richard Money, Gary Brabin and Paul Buckle, all three taking the club in the play-offs, both Brabin and Buckle getting to the finals, only to suffer heartbreaking defeats to AFC Wimbledon, on penalties, and York City.

Then, on February 26, 2013, Luton opted to appoint Still, a manager who had been at Dagenham & Redbridge for almost nine years, leading the unfancied club out of the Conference and also into League One for a season through the play-offs.

With Town ending the 2012-13 campaign down in seventh place, Still set about trying to end the Hatters’ stay in non-league, which had gone on far longer than they would had wanted, as on what his first thoughts were when he took over, he said: “When I came here, I felt there was a bit of desperation in everything they did.

"A bit of desperation in their play, even around the club, I just felt that desperation.

"I think the supporters felt the club had been let down by the FA, they used to sing the songs about it and I think that they were nervous, they were anxious, they were bitter and that could spill on to the pitch sometimes when results didn’t go well.

"But we found a few different things we had brought into it that we felt made a difference to how the supporters felt, and I felt gradually the backing of the team was fantastic.

“I was told actually, if you’re not one-nil up in 20 minutes the crowd turn and things like that, it wasn’t quite like that, but maybe a little bit edgy then.

“Gradually we put a few things in place and it changed and once it changed, the support was unbelievable, it really was.”

Still didn’t have it all his own way though, as in that championship-winning season, Luton began poorly, with just two wins from his opening eight games.

They went to Wrexham and lost 2-0 on September 13, Alex Wall sent off, but that was the start of the change in fortunes for the new boss, as he continued: “I can remember it game by game, seriously I can.

"It wasn’t the best start, but I had the feeling it might be.

"I knew it had to be fine-tuned a little bit, and we lost at Wrexham and I know it sounds silly but that was the day that I knew what I had to change.

"It was right, everything was right, but it was like the jigsaw puzzle, the right bit wasn't in the right area and I just changed something slightly.

"I think we went on a run then of 27 games unbeaten, something like that, and so I can almost see not every game, but most games that we played, different games that we played are still in my head.”

What that alteration was, Still said: “I changed the position of Luke Guttridge.

"I was playing 4-3-3 and one of the reasons I brought Luke Guttridge here was because of his creativity and I just felt that I wasn’t freeing it up enough.

"I just had to change his position to an advanced position and once we did that, everything just sort of clicked into place.

"It’s easy to go, that’s great, you did well there, you knew what you were doing, but I felt it was the thing to do.

"That doesn't mean to say it would have worked, but it did work, it was the change I had to make.”

Luton then set about going a club record 27 games unbeaten and romping to the title with 101 points, finishing well clear of nearest rivals Cambridge United.

With Still’s achievements earning him legendary status in the eyes of anyone of a Luton persuasion, as was shown when he was introduced to the Kenilworth Road faithful recently, the current Southend United director of football is well aware of how important what he did was, but still modestly played down his role, saying: “I’m a funny sort of person, I came here and did my job, that’s how I’ve always been.

"I’ve come here, they wanted me to get promotion and I did it, so I feel like when I left here, I felt like I did my job, someone else is going to pick the baton up and do the next bit and they’ve got to do their job.

“I do hear, over the last few weeks and when I was on holiday, I wasn’t even at my own place in Cyprus, I was somewhere else in Portugal.

"I was in this bar and there was only one other person in there, it was quite late at night and I’d been with someone and thought I’d have a quick one here before I’d go back to where I was staying.

"He looked over the bar and he went, ‘I’m a Luton supporter’ and I thought, here? There’s no-one else here!

"I ended up having another hour with him and he was saying to me, ‘if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in Div One,’ and so I know, I’m not stupid.

"I know I played a part and maybe in my own sort of way, gave them something someone else has picked up on and picked up on and picked up on.

“So yes, I know I’ve played a part, but for me, I’ve played a part that I was brought here to do.

"I’m happy to be a part of an unbelievable story.”

With one of Town's bonafide greats Mick Harford insisting that Still deserved legendary status with what he achieved, Town CEO Gary Sweet certainly agreed, saying: “I think John is a legend at this football club.

"Whilst we started from a cultural point of view, from an operational point of view, business point of view, setting the record straight after that 30 point deduction and setting us on a path to recovery, it was well on a path to recovery before John came in but we needed somebody who would represent that, understand that and unite everybody and John did that impeccably.

"On the pitch he is the one that gave this football club a kick-start, absolutely no doubt about it.

"Off the pitch he represented us certainly differently to the way most other managers have since but brilliantly, fantastically, couldn’t have been better.

"He is such a gentleman, he’s such a humble, kind-hearted man, but with a tough edge and that’s kind of what we are isn’t it.

"If you think about Luton as a town, we’re an industrial town, hardworking, we had a few battles and scuffs along the way, but it’s a welcoming town.

"It's a kind-hearted town, more charity donated in Luton than anywhere else in the UK, kind-hearted town but it’s got its rough corners.

"That is what we are as a football club and people who represent us have got to understand that and probably carry a little bit of that themselves.

"John did nothing better than that, he was magnificent.

"It is great to see him again.”

When Still did eventually leave Luton, it was December 2015 and the Hatters not quite able to make a push for the League Two play-offs that term.

Fast-forward seven-and-a-half years and they are just one game away from the Premier League, as asked if he could have believed it, Still added: “No, it’s one of those things.

"If someone had told you a story of it or you saw it on the TV, that would be fiction, it can’t happen that quick, but it’s fact and it has happened that quick.

"It’s due to the hard work of lots of people at this club, the board of directors need an unbelievable amount of credit to have had that vision that they had when they made 2020, when they made the club again.

"To have done it that quick, it’s not luck, that’s unbelievable hard work, good decision-making by a group of people that have put this club to the forefront of their lives and they deserve every credit for that.”