The Knowledge | Luton - how the Hatters played a huge part in our early history

As we prepare to face Luton Town in a pre-season friendly at Kenilworth Road on Saturday (3pm) - live on SPURSPLAY - we can turn the clock back over 130 years to a rivalry that spanned five-successive seasons in the FA Cup.

The first, recorded senior competitive game in our history was an FA Cup tie against West Herts on 13 October, 1894.

We won that first qualifying round match 3-2 and went on to beat Wolverton and Clapton before facing Luton in the fourth qualifying round on 15 December, 1894.

After a 2-2 draw at home, the team - pictured at the top of the page - were beaten 4-0 in the replay - meaning Luton consigned us to our first senior competitive defeat.

We'd bump into the Hatters - formed in 1885 - a few times in our early FA Cup runs. In fact, we played them five seasons on the trot!

We gained revenge for that first loss a year later with a 2-1 win in the first qualifying round as we reached the first round of the competition for the first time, only to lose out to Stoke.

Luton got us back again in the third qualifying round in 1896/97 and beat us again in the second qualifying round in 1897/98 but it was our turn in 1898/99, this time victory in a second replay in the third qualifying round on our way to the third round for the first time.

Of course, this was all building up to 1900/01 and one of the all-time great football achievements as we lifted the famous trophy as a non-league team from the Southern League - and, 125 years on, we remain the only team to achieve that feat. There was no Luton in sight as we beat Preston, Bury, Reading, West Brom and then Sheffield United in the final.

First of 611!

Gary Mabbutt proudly wore our Lilywhite shirt in 611 competitive fixtures - the first was against Luton Town in the old First Division back in 1982.

It started with a flourish as Mabbsy scored on his competitive debut against newly-promoted Luton, managed by his future boss, David Pleat, at the Lane on 28 August, 1982. With just three minutes on the clock, Glenn Hoddle clipped in a free-kick and Mabbsy planted home a header to open his Spurs account. Micky Hazard added the second in 2-0 win. It was the start of a glorious 16-year playing career at the Club, captain for 11, the highlight lifting the FA Cup as skipper at Wembley in 1991.

Signed in the summer of 1982 from Bristol Rovers, Mabbsy had an incredible first few months as a Spur. It wasn't long before he scored twice, from left-back, for England Under-21s against Denmark and he was then called up for his full international debut against West Germany at Wembley, aged 21, on 13 October, 1982.

Speaking to us back in 2015, Mabbsy recalled that 'whirlwind' start to life at Spurs. "We went on our pre-season tour to Norway and during the tour, a couple of players got injured, Keith Burkinshaw brought me into the middle of midfield and I then stayed in the team for the next 16 years!

"My debut for Spurs was the Charity Shield at Wembley against Liverpool and a week later, the first league game of the season at home to Luton and you can imagine, all the Spurs fans are used to seeing all these million-pound signings and big internationals and suddenly there was this young lad they’d never heard of from Bristol Rovers coming in for a bargain basement £105,000! I’m sure they were wondering who the heck this was but I came out against Luton, fantastic atmosphere and in the first five minutes we got a free-kick, Glenn Hoddle took it, put it on my head and I scored and from that moment, the Spurs fans warmed towards me and we’ve had the most amazing relationship since."

31 years - then Micky secures record start

Luton were relegated from the old First Division in the final season of the old structure of English football in 1991/92. We played out a goalless draw at Kenilworth Road in March, 1992.

The Premier League arrived in 1992/93 and it was 31 years before were back at Kenilworth Road for a competitive fixture following the Hatters' promotion to the Premier League in 2023. Micky van de Ven struck late to secure a 1-0 win and with six wins and two draws from our first eight matches, the 20 points surpassed our previous best after eight games, 2018/19, when we took 18 points from our opening eight, winning six and losing two.

We're unbeaten in 11 league games against Luton (W7 D4) since our last league loss, a 2-0 away defeat in November, 1987.