what a load of rubbish #6
WE could have picked Adam Boyd, the half million pound misfit, to kick off the new season... but that angle's already been pretty much covered here. Instead we focus on Simon Davies, the Man Utd starlet who was going to lead our charge back up the league ladder - well that was the idea, oh dear!
HE'D played for Manchester United and not looked out of place, he'd played twice for Alex Ferguson in the Champions League and even scored in one of those matches ... now he was signing for Luton Town!
Lennie Lawrence's capture of midfielder Simon Davies from the Red Devils in August 1997 was seen as a real coup. In reality it was £150,000 down the pan.
He started the season in the team, but it didn't take long for even Lennie to realise he had a dud on his hands and the player ended up on the bench for a lot of his Hatters career. Davies made a total of 11 starts and 14 substitute appearances in his first season at Kenilworth Road.
He did manage to somehow score in one match, the third in a 3-0 home win against Plymouth in October 1997 after hauling his sorry arse off the bench.
The 1998-99 season was a disaster though as he was limited to two starts in consecutive matches - where amazingly Luton remained unbeaten with draws at Lincoln and at home to Manchester City.
His most memorable Kenilworth Road moment undoutedly came on May 1, 1999 - but that was in a Macclesfield shirt. A first-half injury to a Macclesfield player saw Davies enter the fray on the half-hour mark. It took just six minutes for him to ram supporters' jibes down their throats, by putting Macclesfield 2-0 up.
A late Gary Doherty strike wasn't enough to overturn the scoreline and so Simon's goal turned out to be the winner. Clearly exurberant after his torrid time with us, he ran from the Kenilworth Road goalmouth all the way down to the rowdies in Main Stand J Block to share his big moment with them.
He had a big grin on his face and to be fair, despite losing, the home crowd saw the funny side and gave him a round of applause.
