'Painful but we'll be back' - Luton's rise and fall

Matt Bloomfield was unable to keep Luton up following his January arrival

Luton Town's previous relegation was perhaps forgivable.

Last season, the Hatters were far from the only side in recent times to find the jump up from the Championship to the Premier League too big a step to make.

But there will be far less understanding about their second successive relegation a year later, this time to League One, following a disastrous performance and 5-3 defeat at West Bromwich Albion on the final day of the season.

In doing so, Luton became just the fourth club in the Premier League era to experience successive relegations after a season in the top flight, following Swindon, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sunderland.

Supporters began to vent their frustrations as the goals flew in at The Hawthorns and it became evident they were not going to witness the sort of heroic performance required to save themselves from relegation.

In fact, it was the total opposite as they went down with more of a whimper, sparking an unsurprising reaction when their demotion was confirmed at full-time, including boos and some fans questioning whether the players' were fit to wear the shirt.

Boss Matt Bloomfield told BBC Three Counties Radio: "Sorry to our supporters for travelling up and down the country, supporting us this season. We understand their disappointment and anger right now.

"It is totally understandable, the frustration, the disappointment and the anger, because we needed a big performance today and we didn't deliver one. We have to understand there's going be a reaction off the back of it."

Luton fans were left dejected after their team's second successive relegation

'To fall at the final hurdle is painful' - Bloomfield

Three successive wins against Derby County, Bristol City and Coventry City in the second half of April had revived Luton's hopes of staying up.

Before that run they were second bottom. Coming out of it they were outside of the relegation zone by a point with their fate in their hands on the season's last day.

Win, against opponents with nothing to play for in West Brom, and safety was guaranteed.

They could not have picked a worse time, then, to produce a performance like the one delivered at The Hawthorns and for their form to totally desert them.

Luton had lost just once in nine Championship games heading into the final day.

They had also conceded three goals in a game just once since a 3-2 defeat at Oxford United on 21 January and that was a 4-0 defeat at automatically promoted Burnley in March.

No wonder Bloomfield said of their awfully-timed collapse: "I don't know [where that display came from].

"We've been incredibly resilient in the last two months to really shore up at the back and unfortunately today it just wasn't there.

"We've done so well to drag ourselves back into this position and to fall at the final hurdle was particularly painful for everybody involved."

Carlton Morris consoles Jordan Clark after Luton's relegation was confirmed

Bloomfield is the man who has overseen their relegation but the rot had already set in by the time he was appointed in January.

Rob Edwards had, in the club's own words, given "a generation of Luton Town supporters the greatest day of their lives" when he led them to the Premier League via the play-offs against Coventry in 2022-23.

Many more unforgettable occasions followed in their first top-flight season since 1992, even if Luton were ultimately unable to defy the odds and stay up.

With so much credit in the bank, Luton gave Edwards as much time as they could, and far more than other clubs might have, to turn things around when a push for an instant return to the Premier League did not materialise as it had for the two sides they came down with, Burnley and Sheffield United.

Eventually, they had little choice other than to act after accepting their season had "clearly not progressed as anticipated".

That was particularly the case away from home. Luton won just one and lost 11 of their first 13 Championship games on the road this season.

Four successive league defeats proved the final straw, leading to Edwards' reluctant departure by mutual agreement on 9 January.

'This club has to bounce back and we will' - Bloomfield

Luton were 20th in the Championship table at the time of Edwards' departure, just two points above the relegation zone.

Despite that perilous position, Bloomfield was tempted enough by the challenge of succeeding Edwards to leave Wycombe midway through their League One promotion push. They were just two points off top spot when he changed clubs.

While he has been unable to preserve Luton's Championship status, Wycombe have made the League One play-offs, creating the prospect of his former club swapping divisions with his current one once all is said and done in 2024-25.

But as the pain and reality of Luton's relegation began to sink in, defiant Bloomfield's thoughts were instead beginning to turn to steering the club back in the right direction again.

They are no strangers to climbing the leagues. Their one-season stay in the Premier League under Edwards was the culmination of an incredible 10-year rise from the National League.

"This club has to bounce back and we will," Bloomfield said.

"As a football club, we have to stick together because that's what this club is about and we'll find a way."