Editing Luton Town F.C. (section)

===Formation and election to the Southern League (1885–1890)===
Luton Town Football Club was formed on 11 April 1885.<ref>{{cite book |first=Timothy |last=Collings |title=The Luton Town Story 1885–1985 |year=1985 |publisher=Luton Town F.C. |location=Luton |isbn=978-0-9510679-0-1 |pages=1–2}}</ref><ref name=Hayes55>{{cite book |first=Dean P. |last=Hayes |title=Completely Top Hatters! |year=2002 |publisher=Book Castle Publishing |location=Dunstable |isbn=978-1-903747-27-8 |page=55}}</ref> Before this there were many clubs in the town, the most prominent of which were Luton Wanderers and Luton Excelsior. A Wanderers player, George Deacon, came up with the idea of a 'Town' club which would include all the best players in Luton. Wanderers secretary Herbert Spratley seized upon Deacon's idea and arranged a secret meeting on 13 January 1885 at the St Matthews school rooms in [[High Town, Luton|High Town]]. The Wanderers committee resolved to rename the club Luton Town—which was not well received by the wider community. The local newspapers referred to the club as 'Luton Town (late Wanderers)'. When George Deacon and John Charles Lomax then arranged a public meeting with the purpose of forming a 'Luton Town Football Club', Spratley protested, saying there was already a Luton Town club; and the atmosphere was tense when the meeting convened in the town hall on 11 April 1885. The meeting, attended by most football lovers in the town, heard about Spratley's secret January meeting and voted down his objections. The motion to form a 'Luton Town Football Club', put forward by G&nbsp;H Small and seconded by E&nbsp;H Lomax, was carried. A club committee was elected by ballot and the team colours were agreed to be pink and dark blue shirts and caps.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chapter Six – 11th April 1885 |url=http://thestrawplaiters.com/chapter-6-11th-april-1885/ |work=Straw Plaiters: Luton Town Football Club in the Victorian era |publisher=Brian Webb |access-date=24 November 2018 |archive-date=22 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122215456/http://thestrawplaiters.com/chapter-6-11th-april-1885/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Luton Town F.C. (1898) (cropped).jpg|thumb|The Luton Town squad of 1897–98, which won the United League title|alt=A formative photograph of an association football team]]

Initially based at Excelsior's [[Dallow Lane]] ground,<ref name=Hayes55/> Luton Town began making payments to certain individual players in 1890. The following year, Luton became the first club in southern England to be fully professional.<ref name=TLTS3>{{cite book |first=Timothy |last=Collings |title=The Luton Town Story 1885–1985 |year=1985 |publisher=Luton Town F.C. |location=Luton |isbn=978-0-9510679-0-1 |pages=3–4}}</ref> The club was a founder member of the [[Southern Football League]] in the 1894–95 season and finished as runners-up in its first two seasons. It then left to help form the [[United League (football)|United League]] and came second in that league's inaugural season before joining [[English Football League|the Football League]] (then based mostly in northern and central England){{ref label|SouthernClubs|A|}} for [[1897–98 Football League|1897–98]],<ref name=FCHD>{{cite web |title=Luton Town |url=https://www.fchd.info/LUTONT.HTM |website=Football Club History Database |publisher=Richard Rundle |access-date=5 May 2019 |archive-date=2 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070702042114/http://www.fchd.info/LUTONT.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref> concurrently moving to a new ground at [[Dunstable Road]].<ref name=Hayes43>{{cite book |first=Dean P. |last=Hayes |title=Completely Top Hatters! |year=2002 |publisher=Book Castle Publishing |location=Dunstable |isbn=978-1-903747-27-8 |page=43}}</ref> The club continued to enter a team to the United League for two more seasons, winning the title in 1897–98.<ref name=FCHD/><ref name=TLTS11>{{cite book |first=Timothy |last=Collings |title=The Luton Town Story 1885–1985 |year=1985 |publisher=Luton Town F.C. |location=Luton |isbn=978-0-9510679-0-1 |pages=11–13}}</ref> Poor attendance, high wages, in addition to the high travel and accommodation costs that resulted from Luton's distance from the northern heartlands of the Football League crippled the club financially;<ref name=TLTS11/> it became too expensive to compete in that league.<ref name=TLTS11/> A return to the Southern League was therefore arranged for the [[1900–01 Southern Football League|1900–01 season]].<ref name=FCHD/><ref name=TLTS11/>