Luton Town - a local's guide

As United reserves prepare for tomorrow night's game against Luton Town, lifelong fan David Alexander gives reds his take on his beloved Hatters.

Talking to Reds Away, David lets us in on closely kept secrets about the best pubs in town, the special Kenilworth Road atmosphere and...walking through front gardens get get there!

The game has been arranged to help funding for our youth set up, which over the years has produced many players who have gone on to become household names, such as John Hartson, Matthew Upson, Curtis Davies and Matthew Taylor.

We are grateful to Sir Alex for agreeing to send a side down.

For many clubs outside of the Premiership millions, nurturing young talent is what keeps them in business.

So for us to get a Manchester United team down to Kenilworth Road, regardless of
the teams strength on the night, promises to be a great evening and full house,
which is of benefit to us for many reasons.

Obviously, the ticket revenue is great and with this going towards our youth set-up, goes a long way to covering the shortfall we miss out on in grants from the Football League now that we have lost our league status for the first time in 89 years.

But also it is great for getting more people watching football live and locally.

The mere mention of Manchester United playing at Luton will result in many kids from the diverse local community coming into the ground, and hopefully result in them getting the football buzz and becoming the Luton Town fans of the future.

One of our owners' cornerstones is its investment in the future of the club and the pricing structure of season tickets reflects this, with discounted family rates and low
junior & youth matchday and season ticket prices.

If this games results in more kids coming more often, then that is fantastic.

Despite what we have been through in the last few years, and indeed decades, with owners that only saw the club as a way of making personal gains, we have still maintained a sense of enjoyment at games.

Three consecutive relegations haven't deterred us and we took a record 40,000 people to Wembley in April when we lifted the Johnstone Paint Trophy.

The atmosphere created at Kenilworth Road by the fans has always been noted by players that have either played their entire careers here, or merely played a few games on loan.

It is far detached from the lack of atmosphere, passion and commitment that is witnessed at many clubs in the top flight, certain areas of London especially!

Getting here is easy by either car, train, coach or even plane.

The ground is about a 15-minute walk from the town centre. Most pubs in town tend to be home fans only, but the following normally accept away fans.

If you come by train, near the station is The Railway, or going the other way towards town The George II and The Great Northern.

In the town centre, Brookes and The Heights don't tend to be attached to home fans, but are a bit further from the ground.

Near the ground is Bedfordshire Yeoman on Dallow Road which is home and away fans' pub and is a five-minute walk to the ground.

Beer isn't served in the away end. There are two food huts at either end of the stand.

You effectively have to walk through front doors and gardens to get to the Oak Road Stand which holds away fans - one of the weirdest entrances to any stadium in the world, I imagine.

We really hope people making the journey down enjoy they visit and the match and thank them for supporting our club.