This team. This season. This club. All disappointing, all a bit of a mess and all encapsulated in one sorry and painfully predictable afternoon at Kenilworth Road.

The home side won 2-0 and look bound for the play-offs. The truth is, they didn’t really have to do too much to earn the three points.

They rose to the occasion, were lifted by the crowd and atmosphere, and looked up for it from the first whistle to the last.

Watford, on the other hand, did none of those things.

If you can’t be inspired by a local derby in a rousing if hostile atmosphere with your season hanging by a thread, then you probably never will.

And therein lies the problem. All season long there have been a collection of sub-standard performances that have floundered on an apparent lack of drive and desire.

Every now and then the odd diamond has been found in the dirt – ironically, the 4-0 win over Luton in October was one of them.

But on the whole this has been a season that is heading towards being as much of a disaster as last term – and who thought that might be possible?

When Rob Edwards was rightly milking the applause at the end, there was a thought of ‘what might have been’.

We’ll never know, as the man hailed as the change of direction and culture at the club was out of the door after 10 league games.

Quite where Watford go from here, who knows. Mathematically they aren’t out of the hunt for a play-off place, but on the performance served up here even Rachel Riley and Carol Vorderman would find it hard to make a case for hope.

It’s not Chris Wilder’s fault, just as it wasn’t Slaven Bilic’s fault or Edwards when he was in charge.

The pervading culture in the playing squad for some time has been one of no accountability. They play, they win, lose or draw – if they don’t do enough winning, the head coach leaves and another one comes in.

But for the squad, there’s no reprisals, no fear of what might be heading their way.

Wilder was a mixture of fury and bewilderment after the game, and said he felt the fans’ reaction at the end was very fair and understandable.

Trouble is, until someone higher up the Vicarage Road food chain decides things cannot go on as they are, there has to be a reset and the club cannot carry on hiring and firing coaches, will anything change for the better?

There was one change to the starting line-up as Choudhury returned to the starting line-up after his suspension.

Bacuna dropped to the bench where he was joined by the fit-again Sarr.

The early exchanges of the game were frantic and more about the noise and atmosphere than any good football.

However, when things settled it was clearly Luton who were responding to the occasion and in the 21st minute it took a fine save from Bachmann to deny Campbell after hit let fly from eight yards after a corner wasn’t cleared.

Watford were offering nothing going forward and Luton, while not creating much, looked the more likely to score.

And so it proved in the 28th minute when Osho – who was sent off in the game at Vicarage Road – swept home a cross from the right to put the home side ahead.

Three minutes before the break Bachmann excelled again, diving to his right to palm away a 20-yard effort from Morris.

There were few chances in the first half, and Watford didn’t have a short worthy of the name. Luton had enjoyed the occasion and surfed on the atmosphere – Watford did little more than dip their toes in the water.

The second half started slightly more brightly and Ngakia headed a Sema cross wide before ouza hit a low shot which Horvath held.

However, they slowly regressed and started ringing the changes with Ferreira, Sarr and Assombalonga replacing Ngakia, Hoedt and Davis.

However, the game headed back to the pattern of the first half with Luton on top and Watfird struggling to find a way forward.

Bachmann was quick off his line to deny Adebayo before clever skill from Pedro got him into the box but his cross was gathered by Horvath.

The Watford keeper dropped smartly on an angled shot from Adebayo with 10 minutes to go but in the 90th minute he was beaten.

A ball into the box wasn’t cleared, Campbell nudged it to one side of a tackle and slipped it past Bachmann.

Cue wild scenes of jubilation among the fans and understandably so. They well worth the win and will have harder days at the office than this.

The game resembled a sparring session with a boxer and his trainer. One person involved threw punches and broke a sweat, the other was just in the ring.

Tellingly, at the end of the game, many Watford players headed straight down the tunnel. Those who did head to the away fans were given short shrift and were greeted by a mixture of angry gestures, boos and general fury.

That journey home would be about as miserable as it could possibly be, though it’s likely the pain will be felt far more on the army of supporters buses than in the team coach.

Watford: Bachmann; Porteous, Cathcart, Hoedt (Sarr 64); Ngakia (Ferreira 64), Choudhury, Louza, Kone (Asprilla 76), Sema; Davis (Assombalonga 68), Pedro. Subs: Hamer, Bacuna, Kabasele