Pleat in Hatters frame DAVID PLEAT is in line to clinch a hat-trick by managing troubled Luton for a third time. Pleat, 62, has emerged as front-runner to succeed Mike Newell, who was sacked yesterday by the Championship strugglers following bad results and a rift with chairman Bill Tomlins. Hatters first-team coach Brian Stein is in temporary charge for tomorrow’s home clash with Ipswich. But Pleat is top of Tomlins’ wish-list to return to the club where he started his managerial career nearly 30 years ago. The Luton board want a new man in quickly — and Pleat may even join on a temporary basis until the end of the season to try to save second- bottom Hatters from relegation. Angry players have blasted the board of directors over the cash row which led to Newell’s axing. Newell hit out after Curtis Davies, Kevin Nicholls, Rowan Vine, Carlos Edwards and Steve Howard were sold for a combined £9million. Striker Warren Feeney said: “The players are shocked as you have to look how far Mike Newell has taken the club and the fact he’s made the club a fortune.
