FAIR JUDGEMENT

I read Lord Toulson's obituary in the Times and Daily Telegraph today. He was only 70 years old and he died in the operation theatre during a heart operation. I was privileged enough to know Roger, who put two boys into my boarding house at Charterhouse and they were both very keen footballers. Older son Henry was 1st XI captain and Thomas played in lesser teams but was just as enthusiastic as anyone else on a football pitch.

Roger Toulson was a lawyer who went through the many impressive levels of law, being appointed to the Supreme Court in 2013. Apart from linking him to football through his family, they lived at White Hart Lane in a Surrey village and were Spurs supporters, I read that he represented Luton Town FC in 1986 in a conflict over FA Cup ties being played on their artificial pitch. he could see no reason why these matches should not be played. I am sure the legalities were more complex than this!

At the time Luton were in the heady First Division and they laid an artificial pitch which proved to be very unpopular with most of the other English Football League clubs, indeed Luton had beaten Liverpool 1-4 at home in October 1986 but lost 0-2 at Anfield in March.

Many Division one clubs claimed that the pitch gave away teams an unfair disadvantage and to add to their woes, away fans were banned from the Luton stadium, a ruling that got them kicked out of the Littlewoods Cup-known as the League Cup.

For the FA Cup 3rd Round on January 11th, Cup holders Liverpool came to Kenilworth Road and in front of a BBC screened cup tie, could only draw 0-0 on the "plastic" pitch in front of just over 11,000. Manager Kenny Dalglish claimed that the pitch was a disaster and should be ripped up. Tempers ran hot!

The replay was due to be played at Liverpool whose pitch, despite a cold snap,  was in good condition. When the weather changed, the Luton team was stranded on the day of the match at Heathrow, with bad weather preventing flights. Roads were blocked and the police advised against taking a coach to Anfield.

In case of another draw, Luton rejected a neutral venue, so the teams tossed a coin, before the replay, to decide the venue of a third match. Luton won.
On January 26th, Luton then parked the bus at Anfield in front of a frustrated crowd of over 34,000 watching a 0-0 draw.
Dalglish naturally asked why the coin toss could not be done after the second match!

The deciding tie therefore was at Kenilworth Road where 14,500 turned up to see the Hatters "rip" the cup away 3-0, from the Liverpudlians. The Times article below explains what happened.
http://www.lfchistory.net/Images/newspapers/riley/19870128vLuton.pdf

Luton then lost to QPR after a replay ironically a club with an artificial pitch.