Club

Match Preview | Watford (A)

The Hatters will look to continue their perfect start to the Sky Bet Championship campaign when they take on local rivals Watford tomorrow afternoon.

watford-v-luton.jpg

Town have secured two wins from their first two league matches and will hope to secure the bragging rights over the Hornets in the first meeting between the two teams in 14 years.

You can follow the game from Vicarage Road live on iFollow Hatters by purchasing a £10 match pass, which you can do by clicking the image at the foot of the page.

Nathan Jones said:

(Please note these quotes are taken from Nathan’s press conference on Thursday, click here to hear the entire interview)

On Watford’s strength: “It’s a Premier League squad as it’s been in the Premier League for many years, it only came down, we are talking six to eight weeks ago, so there’s not been that much significant change in the squad for them not to be a Premier league squad, I would imagine their wage bill and budget is Premier League, so they are Premier League squad.

“But this is the Championship and you're facing sides like this all the time, it will be wonderful occasion, a very difficult game, for lots of reasons, but every week is difficult and the games we’ve got coming up now, we've had Barnsley, had Derby, had Reading, had Man United, these are all different but very tough games.

On possibly matching Watford’s system: “We’ve played against back threes, played against back fours, we have to counteract all that we come up against, we’ll do our tactical prep, I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do because I don’t think it will be just us five or six listening to this, so let's just see, we’ll be tactically prepared, we worked very much on our tactical side, how to be effective in what we do and how to try and combat that as well as try to exploit other people’s weaknesses, so that’s what we’ll try and do.

Who?

The Hornets suffered relegation from the Premier League last season after a five-year stay in the top flight.

They were recently runners-up in the FA Cup but they lost 6-0 to Manchester City in 2019.

The manager – Vladimir Ivic

Vladimir was announced as Watford’s fourth permanent boss in the last year before the season begun and arrived at Vicarage Road on a one-year deal.

Ivic, 43, led Maccabi Tel Aviv to consecutive league titles in Israel prior to stepping down at the end of the season, and previously managed Greek club PAOK.

Main threat – Joao Pedro

Joao Pedro signed for Watford in January this year, joining from Fluminense on a five-year contract.

The 18-year-old has started both Championship matches thus far, following a handful of appearances last season, and can be used out wide or as a main forward.

When and where?

Kick-off is 12:30pm at Vicarage Road on Saturday 26th September.

Man in the middle

The referee for tomorrow’s game is John Brooks. He refereed the Hatters twice prior to lockdown – Preston North End at home and Leeds United away.

Played before?

The two sides last met in 2006 and the game at Vicarage Road that day finished in a 1-1 draw.

Follow the action

Match passes to watch the 12:30pm kick-off live on iFollow Hatters are available to buy by clicking the image down below.

As this is a weekend away match, unfortunately iFollow codes are not available for season ticket holders, but match passes can be purchased for £10.

If you are experiencing any technical difficulties please read the FAQs story on our website, which contains links and info which should help.

Audio commentary of the match will be available to iFollow subscribers, while BBC Three Counties Radio will also be broadcasting live commentary via Digital Radio, Freeview Channel 720, 103.8, 104.5, 92.1 and 95.5.

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