For a club adrift at the bottom of Coca-Cola League Two, 16 points behind their nearest rivals and 21 points from safety, a pitch invasion would normally be angry, militant and with demands being made for heads on platters. But nothing is remotely normal at Luton Town.

So here is the story of Tuesday night, one of the most joyful pitch invasions known to man. Or, certainly, the most joyful known to Luton since David Pleat, the tan shoes and the great escape of 1983.

Escape back then meant survival in the top division. Survival now has very different connotations, which is why Luton folk were on the pitch on Tuesday, dancing for the good times and taking pictures of each others’ can-you-believe-it smiles on their mobile phones after a penalty shoot-out victory over Brighton & Hove Albion had earned a place in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final against Scunthorpe United at Wembley on April 5.

Their frustration had been corked up for many seasons, but certainly the past two: successive relegations, financial irregularities exposed, a third case of company insolvency and then that whopping double whammy from the FA and Football League, the 30-point deduction.

The wisdom of kicking a club already on their knees is debatable, although not at Kenilworth Road, where no one sees anything to be debated in the near-certain journey to non-League. This has been a season of suspended despair, the eternal chase of a lost cause.

In the club programme they display the League Two table with an orange line showing where Luton would be — seventeenth — without the points deduction. And around the ground you see the statement banners: “Wanted for attempted murder — the football authorities — 30 points reward” or “The FA and FL — killing small clubs since 1992”.

Indeed, Luton did nearly die. When Nick Owen, the television presenter, fronted a consortium that took over last year, they found that the accounts were a bloodbath. They looked at the sales of £12 million-worth of players and wondered where the money had gone. They found a League Two club still paying Championship wages. They swallowed hard, flogged off more players, made others redundant and managed to reduce the annual players’ salary bill from £5.2 million to £1.5 million.

This was a glimmer of good news, some financial responsibility. The new team found they could cut the electricity bill by 65 per cent, the cost of stationery by 75 per cent. This is the plan called “2020” — suggestive of clear vision and a place back in the Championship by that year.

Thus, from losing £400,000 a month, they lost £50,000 in January — brilliant if you are the accountant. For the fans, it means a succession of on-loan players passing through. For Mick Harford, the manager, it has meant that continuity and team building have been a unique challenge.

But football fans are resilient. The people of Luton lost Vauxhall in 2001, they were not going to lose their football club so fast. Even with the 30-point hammering, they have the second-highest average attendance in League Two. The team seemed durable, too. As Lewis Price, the goalkeeper just arrived on loan from Derby County, said: “It sounds strange but the lads are very upbeat, they still think they can get out of the trouble.”

Results would suggest otherwise. Luton have not won since December. The only glimmer of light has been the grandeur of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in which, after a goalless draw in the first leg against Brighton, they were one game from Wembley.

On Monday evening, Harford gathered the team and showed them a highlights tape of Luton’s win over Arsenal in the 1988 Littlewoods Cup final, in which he played. He also called in John Faulkner, the former Luton player and coach, now a motivational speaker, who talked about sport, stress and the big occasion: Matthew Pinsent in the Olympics, Colin Montgomerie in the Ryder Cup.

For Luton on Tuesday, it seems to have worked. They went 1-0 up when a comedic defensive gaffe allowed Tom Craddock to sidefoot home, were pegged back to 1-1, could make no use of a red card to Dave Livermore, of Brighton, and found themselves in a shoot-out.

That was when Price became an overnight hero. He saved two penalties, Luton won the shoot-out 4-3 — and Price has no idea if he will get to Wembley because his loan will be over by then. Such complications were lost on the army of delirious Hatters who engulfed him on the pitch. As Owen said: “This is an exhilarating moment beyond compare.” He also said he hoped that the moment would be the catalyst for Luton’s League survival. Harford said the same. And, yes, the fans as well. There is a splendid delusion at large in Luton.

The sums? They tell us that relegation will cost about £750,000 and that Wembley may recoup as much as £650,000. What a season. What an extraordinary way to blow a hundred grand.