Luton Town fan’s view: Let’s not dismiss the cup competitions

 Hatters fan and columnist Dave Mackie thinks supporters shouldn’t dismiss the cup competitions too quickly.

I can’t have been the only Hatter who took some time-out from office duties on Tuesday morning to see who we were paired with in the first round of the Capital One Cup – or the League Cup in old money.

If the football season is a dodgy, worn out car, the League Cup draw represents the engine struggling to kick into gear again after a turn of the key.

After lying dormant for a few weeks, the confirmation of a fixture in the new season is the first sign that football is on its way back.

I have been entertained by the Women’s World Cup so far this summer but the international game – both the men’s and women’s variants – has never quite done it for me and it is the club season I wait for.

So to have a game in the diary – Bristol City at home – was a nice feeling and that excitement increased tenfold with the announcement of the league fixtures the following morning.

Sadly, many people seem to react to a cup draw with a negative comment about how the competition is a distraction and that we are better off out of it.

Yes, the league is obviously our number one priority but for me the idea that a decent cup run can’t go hand in hand with league success is wrong.

Of course we are never going to win the competition – although nobody expected us to back in 1988 and League Two Bradford reached the final in 2013 – but the cups can provide fans with some of their best memories and that is a reason they should be taken seriously.

When we are long retired and talking to our grandchildren about our favourite Hatters memories the cups are likely to dominate those discussions.

Talk of those days against the likes of Norwich and Liverpool, and of course Arsenal at Wembley, is why you are a football fan in the first place.

The league season is the bread and butter and what defines a club over the course of many years but the fact of the matter is many league occasions are soon forgotten.

That can’t be said about those special cup clashes and our opponents this year, Bristol City, are one of many clubs who have proven that you can have both league form and cup joy after winning the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy as well as League One last term.

The Robins are evidence that you can have your cake and eat it and I actually believe that the momentum and positive boost winning cup matches can bring can then be carried over into league form. I’m sure you can throw plenty of examples of cup runs derailing league form at me, but maybe that’s all in the mind and too much of a convenient excuse to throw the towel in.

Why not have both – a good league position and a few memories from the cup – and avoid the possibility of a defeat in a cup game being a cause of a long term slump in form.

In the Capital One Cup in particular, the chance to be a part of something special can come about very quickly.

With Premier League teams coming in as early as round two, and the very big hitters entering the round after, the incentives are there for all to see.

A plumb home tie against a big boy could mean television coverage and extra cash for important things like the transfer kitty.

It can all work so nicely together so let’s embrace the cups for the opportunity they present, although that may be easier said than done in the League Cup this year with the difficult tie we have!

Luckily, in John Still we have a manager who respects the game immensely and I’m sure he’ll take the cups seriously.

Let’s hope we will create some more memories with him at the helm.