Match Reports

Hatters humble the Hornets

Goals from Clark, Morris and Brown seal a beautiful victory at the Old Girl

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Come the end of this one-sided derby, the Town players and staff took in the deserved acclaim of their 10,000 supporters as Kenilworth Road bounced to a fine tune of three points and three goals against their old enemies.

It showed unity and togetherness after a 90 minutes in which the Hatters thoroughly earned to make it three home wins in a row in this fixture and seal their biggest win in this derby since two goals apiece from Brian Stein and David Moss secured a 4-1 victory here back in 1981.

Pre-match was all about whether the teams ‘knew’ what it meant. From the get go, both Town players and fans played their part in what would turn out to be an unforgettable afternoon.

Derbies hinge on small moments. Small, early moments in the match, especially. And 150 seconds into this, once the players had emerged to a cacophony of noise that gave you goosebumps, hearts were in mouths. The ball bounced off debutant Tom Holmes’ boot 50 yards from his own goal. Looping over the head of Thomas Kaminski, the spin, thankfully, favoured the Town and the ball bounced wide.

Any jitters on or off the pitch would be soon cast aside, however, as the Hatters began to drive forward with intent and hustle and harry the lives out of the Hornets.

No sooner had Reece Burke raised the decibel level after testing Daniel Bachmann with a rasping low drive on seven minutes, the Town were in front. Alfie Doughty’s left-wing corner was half-cleared by the visitors and Holmes hammered the ball back goalwards. As well as those small moments in derbies, you also need a bit of luck. Jordan Clark stuck out a leg inside the six-yard box to divert the ball beyond Bachmann and Kenilworth Road erupted.

It was blood and thunder stuff on a slick playing surface which benefited from a pre-match deluge with Clark soon in the book for a late sliding tackle on Edo Kayembe. A chance then came Tahith Chong’s way on the 20-minute mark, only for his drive to fly over the bar.

Moments later a hectic passage of play had ‘derby’ written all over it when Bachmann gifted the Hatters the ball only for Elijah Adebayo, Clark and Chong to all pass up a shooting chance. Watford sprung immediately on the counter and only a fantastic last-ditch tackle from Mark McGuinness denied the Hornets from levelling.

But going forward it was like the Town of old, with Carlton Morris and Adebayo tormenting the Watford defence at almost every opportunity. The pair combined seven minutes before the break with Ryan Porteous on hand to clear the danger with Adebayo lurking, inches away from making it 2-0.

Leading by one at the break, the start of the second half saw the Hatters forced into what would be a string of substitutions in a spell that saw four Town men needed to be withdrawn. Holmes was the first, making way for Daiki Hashioka – the Japan international making his first appearance of the season.

But the Hatters needn’t have worried. Less than two minutes into the second period it was two. Doughty’s corner did the damage, curling invitingly from the right to the back post where captain Morris was free to power a downward header past an exposed Bachmann. The skipper’s performance benefitted a game of such magnitude and he would later be showered with man-of-the-match plaudits come the end.

The Old Girl was now in fine voice but on 53 minutes Rob Edwards needed to shuffle his pack once more when Burke needed to be replaced by Joe Johnson.

Up until this point in the contest, Kaminski had largely been a spectator but the Belgian was needed on 55 minutes to deny the visitors, flying to his left to keep out Tom Dele-Bashiru’s low goal-bound effort from the edge of the penalty area. It was a crucial save at a vital time with the Town rearranging things at the back.

The Hatters had Chong and then Tom Krauß taken off with knocks but to their credit Edwards’ side battled with their makeshift defence continuing to frustrate the Hornets.

With the Hatters in control it was almost 3-0 with 21 minutes left when Doughty – now operating in central defence – drove forward and fed Adebayo and his lay off for Brown saw Bachmann save.

And with six minutes left it was almost curtains for the visitors when Adebayo, who had been a menace all afternoon, was thwarted by the legs of Bachmann.

But there was no reprieve for the Hornets two minutes into stoppage time when the Hatters did make it three. Substitute Jacob Brown raced onto Kaminski’s long ball that the Watford defence misjudged and composed himself to slot a calm low finish beyond Bachmann to bring the house down. It was a poignant moment for the forward – his first goal since December last year and his recovery from a serious knee injury.

At that point it was done – with no way back for the Hornets and the Town could toast a famous victory in front of their supporters as the old ground shook in celebration of a 58th win in the history of this derby.

That’s more like it.

See you on Wednesday against Sunderland.

UTFT!

Town: Kaminski, Doughty, Moses, Burke (sub Johnson 53), McGuinness, Holmes (sub Hashioka 46), Krauß (sub Mpanzu 65) Clark, Chong (sub Nakamba 58), Morris (sub Brown 65), Adebayo.

Subs not used: Krul, Woodrow, Taylor, Nelson, Johnson.

Attendance: 11,758, including 1,281 in the away end.

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