After the misery of trying to explain what happened at Millwall in midweek, head coach Slaven Bilic was virtually purring with pride and delight as he discussed today’s magnificent 4-0 derby win over Luton.

Bilic had said before the game that he, his staff and the players knew that far more than three points were at stake, and the way Watford approached the game from the whistle reiterated that.

The Hornets never let Luton settle, they looked to attack at every opportunity and the threat from long balls and set pieces was negated.

“It was a derby game, and not only a great three points but also a great performance from start to finish,” said Bilic.

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“We wanted to get out and score, after we scored we were on the front foot again. We scored a second, straight back on the front foot and let’s score again. We should have and could have scored more goals. It was a fantastic performance.

“We didn’t just match them in every area, we beat them. Collectively it was a great display of togetherness.

“Individually, our front guys – they showed us what we knew. They have quality and they were absolutely amazing today and destroyed them, especially in the one v ones or two against two.”

As well as his immense satisfaction, Bilic also shared that he had told his players that he was also angry that they don’t deliver the same level of performance in every game – most notably at Millwall just a few days earlier.

“I said to the guys after the game that I am extremely proud and happy. Hats off to you, well done,” he said.

“But on the other hand I’m also angry because we can’t have days off in this league. There are no free lunches in the Championship.

“We’re going to lose games but it can’t be without us giving everything. Against Millwall, we found out how football works. If you drop five per cent - in attitude, winning second balls, getting on the front foot - then the chances of you getting something out of the game don’t decrease by five per cent, they drop by 55%!

“Today has to be our standard that we set. That has to be our aim.

“So I said to the players in the dressing room that this was a great experience and it’s great for confidence, so stick this game into your minds. Know what you had to do to achieve it. Don’t just think about the goals or the dribbles, think about everything you had to do to get us into the position to win like we did.”

Bilic likened the atmosphere of today’s games to some much higher-profile derbies he has played in.

“I think I know English football, and my whole life I have been connected to English football. I didn’t know how big today was though,” he admitted.

“I thought it was like a typical local derby, but it’s much more than that. The players had a meeting last night without the staff to discuss it.

”To me the atmosphere was like when I played in Everton/Liverpool or West Ham/Spurs. It was so noisy. You could feel it. And it was great.”

Taking the lead so early on and then never letting their grip on the game slip showed the players had learned from a chastening experience at The Den.

“The way we started the game and the early goal was the players’ response to Wednesday night, that’s for sure,” said Bilic.

“In the games against Norwich and Luton, two very different teams but in similar positions, we had two similar first halves. Very similar first 10 minutes. That has to be the standard for us.”

With six games under his belt as head coach, Bilic said he still wants and needs to work more on the players fitness.

“Make no mistake regarding fitness levels, we are still not there,” he admitted.

“We’re not where we would like to be. We need the World Cup break to work on that a bit. But we now we have five games where we might lack a bit so we have to compensate with attitude, togetherness, mentality.

“Don’t forget today we were without Imran Louza, who is instrumental in the way we want to play. You cannot replace him but today we looked like we didn’t miss him. We will though.

“We are so unlucky with injuries and perhaps that is linked to the fitness. But Imran was just very unlucky.”

The second goal of the game came from a corner routine that the squad worked on yesterday, although Bilic admitted they had spent more time looking at how to defend set plays to counter the expected Luton threat.

“The second goal was a corner routine we had worked on,” he said.

“To be fair, we practised more how we defend set plays. Every time Millwall had a corner, a free kick or a throw in, we sent out a mayday. So yesterday in training we worked on defending set pieces.

“But we also did some offensive set plays and that second goal was from the training ground.”

Luton manager Nathan Jones put Watford’s third and fourth goals down to defensive errors, but Bilic felt otherwise: Keinan Davis hurried the keeper into an error for the third goal while Edo Kayembe’s quick thinking allowed him to steal the ball to help set up the fourth.

“In every goal there will be an error from the other team, but we forced them to make mistakes,” said Bilic.

“If we weren’t there in those positions they wouldn’t have made those mistakes and we wouldn’t have scored.”