Slaven Bilic is warming to the hottest of hot seats in football management with Watford’s latest boss securing a deserved M1 Derby victory that their fans won’t forget in a hurry.
Luton Town were supposed to be the in-form side coming into this clash of Championship rivals. And yet, Nathan Jones’s visitors were positively pummelled at Vicarage Road, their frustrations evident as Gabriel Osho picked up a petulant late red card to cap an awful outing.
A fun statistic doing the rounds shows the number of Watford managers per Prime Minister. David Cameron: nine. Theresa May: three. Boris Johnson: ten. Liz Truss: two, Bilic being the latest.
If Bilic does not want to fall foul of Watford’s trigger-happy owner Gino Pozzo, he knows wins are a must. Managers don’t last long here without showing some consistency.
Bilic’s Watford had lost three of his five games in charge prior to this. But this 4-0 win lifts them to midtable in the Championship as they look to muscle in on the Premier League promotion race.
We were treated to a breathless start and it was initiated by a goal from Watford. A beauty it was, too, as Keinan Davis showed super improvisation to score.
Hassane Kamara’s cross was slightly behind Davis, who did his best impression of a scorpion. He hooked his leg back and the ball goalward to beat Ethan Horvath for 1-0.
The 24-year-old forward on loan from Aston Villa celebrated by shushing the Luton supporters. They came here with a seven-game unbeaten run, but that was now under threat.
Luton responded to conceding as Allan Campbell’s shot narrowly went past the post while goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann was stranded. Bachmann then caught Luke Freeman’s header, before a Watford counter-attack ended with Davis’s effort being pushed wide by Horvath.
This had all happened within the opening 10 minutes. It was end to end; an enthralling derby.
Watford thought they had another goal when Davis turned nicely to lose Luton captain Sonny Bradley. He only had Horvath to beat, but the goalkeeper saved with his legs.
As we entered first-half stoppage time, Watford were taking an age to take in a corner. Luton’s supporters sang: ‘How s*** must you be? Time-wasting at home.’
They’d soon fall silent. Joao Pedro’s corner was taken short and then played to the back post. There, Davis was waiting to head the ball across the six-yard box for William Troost-Ekong to tap in the easiest goal the 29-year-old centre back will ever score.
Luton should have made it 2-1 in the 53rd minute when their corner flew across the gaping goal, but Osho didn’t connect properly and his shot went wide.
The visitors were growing into the game. One goal and they could come back. However, in the 56th minute, Luton’s goalkeeper shot himself in the foot.
The ball had been played back to Horvath. He tried to play out from the back but only passed it straight to Watford’s Pedro, who accepted the gift to make it 3-0.
The body language of Luton’s players showed they were beaten, but it would get worse. In the 80th minute, Watford won the ball high up the pitch. Ismaila Sarr cut inside on to his right foot and scored beyond Horvath to make it 4-0.
Worse still, Osho was shown a straight red card in the 83rd minute for the way he lunged into Ken Sema. It was a needless act of frustration and his manager didn’t look pleased with his player.
An awful day for anyone associated with Luton but a super one for Bilic and Watford.