DONE DEAL: Luton Town struck gold with £200k transfer from Crawley

The rise and rise of Luton Town has been one of the feel good stories in English football in recent years, with the Hatters returning to the top table after their fall from grace.

With four seasons of non-league football under their belt, Town returned to the Football League in 2014, and continued to look upwards as they went in search of a return to past glories.

The pathway to the top wasn’t a straight forward one though, with the bottom rung of the EFL proving a tricky proposition to overcome. That was, until James Collins entered the fray.

The bustling forward made the £200,000 move to Kenilworth Road from Crawley Town in the summer of 2017, and kickstarted a period of exponential growth for the Bedfordshire side, with back-to-back promotions the result of his industrious displays in the final third.

James Collins helps Luton Town earn promotion to the Championship

It has been the fairytale story that has captured the imagination of many a football fan over the past 12 months, as Luton Town returned to the top flight just nine years after winning the National League title.

You will have all heard the one about Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, with the midfielder playing in all five tiers with the team, but without Collins’ influential displays those records would have been nothing but a pipedream.

Having netted 20 goals in 45 matches for the Red Devils in the season before, the striker had already established himself as one of the Football League’s most talented marksman, and within 66 minutes of his Town debut everyone in Kenilworth Road could see exactly why.

It took the striker just over an hour to secure a hat-trick on his competitive debut for the club, as Yeovil Town suffered the ignominy of an 8-2 defeat on the opening day of the season, with Collins taking the match ball home as a memento of his first match in orange and white.

After being given the time and space to pick his spot for the opening two strikes, the frontman bounded in the third from range to round off his own personal scoring for the day, and give Town fans a taste of what was to come over the next four years.

That opening day laid the groundwork for the remainder of the season for both player and club, as Town trundled along at the top of the table, while Collins continued to convert the chances his side created.

This was a Hatters team under the tutelage of Nathan Jones for the first time, with the Welshman really starting to find his groove at Kenilworth Road, and Luton reaping the rewards as a result, with their 94 league goals 15 more than the next-best side.

Only Accrington Stanley stopped them from winning the title that season, but no one would stand in their way during the following campaign, as they took League One by storm to earn successive promotions and a return to the Championship.

Once again, Collins was on top form throughout the third tier campaign, with the striker’s aggression and technical ability proving too much to handle for many an opposing defender, as he bullied his fair share of centre backs into submission with his endless enthusiasm and contribution to buildup play.

But, as ever, the front man came alive when the ball was in the penalty area, as he secured a personal best tally of 25 league goals despite the step up in division, with two more hat-tricks to his name against Plymouth Argyle and Peterborough United.

With the pressure on at the end of the season, you need your big names to stand up and be counted, and that’s exactly what Collins did at the end of the 18/19 campaign as the hunt for promotion continued, with five goals in as many games helping to secure second tier football for his side.

James Collins helps Luton Town consolidate in The Championship after League One promotion

Having never played above the third tier in his career, it could have been easy for Luton to dismiss Collins heading into their Championship campaign, but at 28 years old, he had matured into a top operator, with Jones getting every sinew out of his key attacking outlet.

Even as he faced off against the very best that the EFL had to offer, the forward was giving as good as he got, with a late equaliser in their curtain-raising 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough sending an early warning out to the rest of the division.

Not that they heeded it though, with the Ireland international netting finding the net five times before the end of September, as the Hatters faced off against sides that had not long before been in the Premier League, and continued to hold their own.

Collins was one of the few players who had gone on the journey from League Two to the Championship with Luton – alongside the likes of Mpanzu, Luke Berry and Elliott Lee – and that bond between fans and players alike had never been closer as the club enjoyed their rise through the football pyramid as one.

14 goals in his first campaign in the second tier was followed by ten in the next, with another match ball secured after a hat-trick against Preston North End in December 2020, before saving one of his finest moments until near the end of his time at Kenilworth Road.

There may not have been fans at the Kenny as local rivals Watford came to town for the first time in 15 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Collins still seized the opportunity to take centre stage, as he earned his side all three points with a coolly taken penalty.

Once again, he was the hero, just as he always was.

After leaving the club months later, the forward’s legacy will always be part of Hatters’ folklore, as he kickstarted their journey back to the promised land, and gave Town fans the time of their lives in doing so.