Luton Town struck gold with £200k transfer from Crawley: View
James Collins joined the Hatters in League Two, before firing them all the way to the Championship within two seasons
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.
