Town chief glad 6,000 Hatters will be at MK Dons but respects any who boycott

Although glad to see Luton are set to be cheered on by 6,000 fans at MK Dons tomorrow afternoon, Hatters boss Jack Wilshere was also keen to respect the views of any supporter who decides to stay away from the stadium in protest.

Back in 1983, with the Hatters in financial strife of their own, then-chairman Denis Mortimer attempted to relocate the club to Buckinghamshire, where they would be known as 'MK Hatters', the Football League initially approving the concept. It was met by a huge backlash from supporters, with marches and protests, while thousands signed a petition which saw the plans eventually scrapped.

Fast forward 21 years and there ultimately was a football club in the area, Wimbledon forced to move around 60 miles away from their home in Plough Lane, becoming the MK Dons, a decision that also drew severe criticism from football fans up and down the country.

With the ill-feeling still rife amongst Hatters supporters four decades on, the Loyal Luton Supporters Club called for a boycott of the game by visiting fans, as releasing a statement, they said: “Loyal Luton Supporters Club has always maintained that the principle of opposing anything to do with an organisation that was and has been a clear and present danger to our club.

"Whilst time has passed since the dark days when it looked like the very real prospect of moving from our home 23 miles up the road, Milton Keynes still encroach into our traditional heartlands that some of our support come from, or try and entice future younger players to play for them, they are still a clear and present danger to us as a football club even if the prospect of moving is no longer a threat.

“Bearing all of this in mind, the LLSC committee will not be attending this game and call upon our members, and the wider support, to boycott it altogether. However, there will be many who will want to go to this game, so with this in mind, if you feel that you must go, then we would ask you not to buy any merchandise, food, drinks or programmes. Give them nothing!”

Although there are large number of Town fans not going, Luton will still be cheered on by one of their biggest away crowds in recent history and asked if he was glad that the Hatters will be playing to a packed away end instead of empty seats, Wilshere said: “Yes. A big thing that I’ve learned is listen to everyone and respect everyone and it’s the same on this occasion. I understand the history, I also understand the recent history. Probably some fans weren’t even born at that point, but will have an understanding, so we have to respect everyone’s opinion.

“The fanbase is a massive part of this football club, they are. I grew up in Hitchin and I have conversations with fans all the time. At the minute we’re doing the 5k a day for prostate cancer, we’re running through Luton and we’re speaking to Luton fans, so we have to respect everyone’s opinion, but ultimately understand that we are all one. Hopefully we can have a positive result and then celebrate all together.

“You say it’s unusual (the amount of fans heading to the ground), not here it feels like. I think about some of the away games last year, I’m not sure how many were there last weekend against Wycombe, but they made it feel like we were playing at home. I think about Bolton last year, close to 6,000 there, to say it doesn’t surprise me, it does surprise me all the time when I hear that and people tell me that.

"We’re really grateful, as on a personal level, to try and connect with the fans and build that connection was a big thing when I came here. Credit to the players for doing that and having to go through some tough times, but amazing support and hopefully we can send them home happy. We have to give them something from the start, as much as the fans are there and they support us, we also have to give them something to get behind.”

Although Wilshere himself wasn’t born when Luton’s board were trying to move their club away from Bedfordshire, he has been kept well abreast of past goings on by Town’s current owners, who, including chairman David Wilkinson and chief executive Gary Sweet, are all lifelong Luton fans. He continued: “I’ve got someone who I speak to every single day who understands Luton better than anyone, and tells me about the history and we have a lot of conversations around that that aren’t even football related.

"When you talk about feeling it as a fan, Gary is someone who feels it, he feels it as a fan. I can see it in his eyes when we win, when we lose, and I’m fortunate that I’ve got someone like that and then the people around him, the board members who have all been through that journey with the club. I wasn’t born, but I’ve got people around me who can give me that history.

"One of the big things I love a lot about this club is the history and how passionate the fans are about that, protecting that and keeping that going. My job is to understand that, but also to try and create a future for us, a future for the club where we can have some make our own history and have things to cheer about.”

While Wilshere wasn’t born when the plans to relocate Luton were being fought against, there are members of his squad who wouldn’t have even been around to see the birth of MK Dons either, players such as Jake Richards, Joe Johnson and Callum Marshall, Jamie Donley and Tudor Mendel all under 21. However, Town’s senior players will make sure they are aware just how big an occasion they will be involved in, as the boss added: “I think we’ve got a good balance of that and I would be naive to think that anything that I see on my phone, the players don’t see on their phones as well, so they’ll have an understanding of it.

"We’ve spoken about it a little bit, we’ll speak about it again today, but we’ve also got a good group where Kal (Naismith) is someone who really understands the history of this club. He speaks to a lot of fans, he’s almost like that ambassador role for the squad. He can feed in the information he feels is relevant and he’s also really good at that. We’ve got some young players that wouldn’t know, they just want to play a game, play football. Sometimes I think that is quite a nice thing to have as long as they have an understanding from the senior players that this is an important game. I’ve no doubt that we’ll get that balance right.