Ex-Luton captain was punched for relegating Man City - then became their manager
Brian Horton got punched in the face after captaining Luton Town to a famous victory at Manchester City that kept the Hatters up and sent the Blues down.
He reckons it would be the shock of the season if current Luton boss Rob Edwards gets to emulate the dance routine that David Pleat performed on the Maine Road pitch to celebrate back in 1983. Horton, 74, was the heartbeat of the Luton team that won 1-0 on the final day of the season thanks to Raddy Antic’s late goal.
Town’s players were attacked at the final whistle by pitch-invading fans, while Horton got chinned by Dennis Tueart when he tried to console the City winger in the tunnel. When the team bus crawled through Moss Side afterwards, Pleat and his squad were forced to take refuge as a hail of missiles came crashing though the windows.
“It was a bit scary,” recalls Horton, who returned to Maine Road a decade later to become City’s manager. When a journalist nicknamed him, ‘Brian Who?’ at his unveiling he responded by saying: “Don’t worry, City’s fans will remember me.”
Horton was sacked after two years, but is still remembered fondly in Manchester for building a team committed to attack rather than the midfielder who helped to send them down. “We were dragged back into the relegation fight in the last week of the season when we conceded five against Everton and all the teams around us won,” recalled Horton.
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“We took some heavy beatings that season. David Pleat never compromised on his principles and very few people thought we could go to Maine Road and win. But when you had a team with Ricky Hill, Brian Stein, Paul Walsh and Mal Donaghy in it, you always had a chance. Raddy got the goal with about five minutes to go and you could feel the atmosphere inside the ground turn nasty.
Brian Horton represented Luton Town as a player and Man City as a manager (Getty Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! Can Luton beat Man City? Comment below.
“At the final whistle, David Pleat famously danced onto the pitch in his beige suit. Then he ran straight over to me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got into the tunnel, I tried to shake Dennis Tueart’s hand and he punched me! Dennis apologised to me later. City had said they would give him a new contract if they stayed up, so I understood his disappointment. Football can do that to you.
“When we got on the team bus after the game we were all ordered to lie on the floor. There were still thousands of City fans protesting outside the ground and they started throwing all sorts at us. I can’t believe it’s 40 years ago - but in that time, both City and Luton have been to hell and back.”
Antic went on to manage Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid before his untimely death at the age of 71 in 2020. Horton made 689 appearances during a career that started at Port Vale and took him to Brighton, Luton and then Hull as player-manager. His managerial career stretched over a further 1,069 games and involved spells at Oxford, Huddersfield, Brighton, Port Vale and Macclesfield Town as well as City.
Horton still lives in the Manchester area and gets regular invitations to watch Pep Guardiola’s team at the Etihad, although he is currently fighting a battle with prostate cancer after an examination arranged by the League Managers' Association led to the diagnosis. Happily, he is winning the fight.
Horton is looking forward to seeing two of his favourite clubs lock horns at Kenilworth Road. Luton have drawn with Liverpool and were only beaten by a last-minute Declan Rice goal on Tuesday night in a 4-3 thriller. City have hit a wall in their bid to land a fourth successive title and after three successive draws, they lost at Aston Villa.
Horton said: “It would be the shock of the season, if Luton won the game - but that’s the beauty of football. City are going to get a culture shock. I’m not sure Pep or (Erling) Haaland will have been to a ground that compares to Kenilworth Road, surrounded by terraced houses like it is.
“They’ll think they’re walking into someone’s front room! They can be sure Rob Edwards and his players won’t be giving them tea and biscuits!”
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