Watford's derby delight was frustrating hint of what could have been

It was perhaps as unexpected as it was wonderful, given that it came just days after a truly awful and embarrassing defeat at Millwall.

It’s quite easily the highlight, the one cherished memory from a season that will be put in the same box as the likes of 1987/88 and 2021/22.

Yes, the 4-0 win over Luton at Vicarage Road in October was a true oasis in a particularly arid season. Unforgettable, joyous, uplifting and so, so satisfying.

But for me, it also left a huge feeling of frustration. Almost a bit of anger.

If those players could play that well and give that performance with that amount of effort for 90 minutes . . . why the bloody hell couldn’t they do it a few more times during the season?

In the week leading up to the game there was a fear among supporters that the squad would throw in another passionless display like the one that had got them booed off at half-time and full-time (by those travelling fans who hadn’t already gone home) at The Den a few days before.

Being a bit closer to the head coach and players, I was more confident that wouldn’t be the case.

Slaven Bilic clearly knew enough about big derby games in England, and he’d made good use of the likes of William Troost-Ekong, Tom Cleverley, Dan Gosling and Dan Bachmann to make sure some of the younger, newer and/or overseas players understood.

Many will remember that Troost-Ekong had spontaneously gathered the players together in their hotel the night before the match to allow the senior players to go back over the significance of the game to the season, to the club and – arguably most pertinently – to the fans.

So personally I was quite comfortable that the players were in no doubt that they needed to show some grit and determination, and they fully understood why.

What none of us knew was how that would manifest itself come kick-off. Before and after that game the Hornets did, on occasion, show some spirit – however, it didn’t often amount to much in terms of performance and results.

And bear in mind, as well as that dreadful night at Millwall only a few days before, other recent results had included the 2-1 home defeat to Swansea where they played Watford off the park, and the pitiful 3-1 surrender at Blackpool where there was more fight among the visiting fans in the stand than there was on the pitch.

Blackpool handed Watford a sound beating early in Slaven Bilic's reign. (Image: PA)

Here we had a group of players who had already cost one head coach his job, and had proved themselves to be far more capable of throwing in an absolute howler of a performance than mustering anything approaching heroic.

But Sunday October 23 was different. There was something in the air and you could sense it walking to the ground.

The mood inside Vicarage Road was different. Perhaps, because it had been a while, I’d forgotten what the atmosphere was like on a derby day.

When the players warmed up both they and the Watford fans seemed to be channelling a different attitude and mindset.

And then three minutes in…

Keinan Davis somehow managed to contort his body to volley Hasane Kamara’s cross into the net after 180 seconds, yet it felt like less such was the pace and verve with which the Hornets started that game.

Keinan Davis put Watford ahead after only three minutes against Luton. (Image: PA)

Davis was virtually unplayable that day. Only once across the rest of the season (Norwich away) can I recall him giving a similarly dominant display.

Against Luton he looked like a man on a mission, and after the game he referenced that their fans had given him stick the season before.

When he dropped deep to win possession, he was then busting a gut to be in the box when the ball came in. That’s where goalscorers have to be. By all means, use your strength and skill to help start moves, but then do your damnedest to be ready to finish it off too – that was a side of his play which just wasn’t so evident on too many occasions.

Watch the corner for the second goal and ask yourself how many times Watford executed anything as well-rehearsed as that during the remainder of the season.

Pedro…Gosling…Pedro…Davis…Troost-Ekong. Luton chased shadows from the moment the ball left the corner quadrant to the moment it hit the roof of the net. A much-practised and then perfectly-executed routine.

Yet, for so much of the season, Watford corners were a thing of ridicule. There would be pity for the opposition defender stationed nearest the corner taker as his body – most often his shins – was at serious risk of being struck by the ball.

William Troost-Ekong scores the second goal in the derby. (Image: PA)

There’s a couple of names in the corner routine for that goal which deserve looking at: Gosling and Troost-Ekong.

Sometimes people overlook, probably understandably, the role that characters with experience play in a squad and a team.

When I was much younger, back in the early 1980s, I couldn’t understand why Graham Taylor signed Pat Rice (who I thought was ancient) from Arsenal and Gerry Armstrong from Spurs. As it turned out, both made significant contributions on the pitch – but looking back now, I’m sure GT brought them in as much for what they added to the training ground and dressing room.

In more recent years, names like John Eustace, Ben Watson and Troy Deeney spring to mind. All players who were still on the pitch for Watford in their 30s, all significant figures in the team, but all leaders whose influence and experience was brought to bear as much away from the field of play as on it.

Both Gosling and Troost-Ekong are in the older and wiser category, and during that Luton game they displayed that. Gosling was flying into tackles all over the place, making runs and getting into Luton faces. He set the tone for the attitude and approach. He led by example.

Of course Troost-Ekong scored and we all know he’s a Watford fan, but his ‘waving goodbye’ s**thousery towards Gabriel Osho when he was sent off is now stuff of legend. Clearly players don’t get a place in the team on their ability to wind up opponents, but my point is both he and Gosling offer more than what is seen for 90 minutes.

Yet Gosling made just five more appearances after that game due to his ankle injury, and Troost-Ekong featured only nine times before going out on loan to Salernitana in January.

Talking of players who disappeared from the first team brings us to Edo Kayembe.

He actually only featured in five more games after the Luton victory, as what was thought to be a routine calf injury turned out to be one that he just couldn’t shake off.

I was at London Colney a couple of weeks ago, and Kayembe was out on the training pitch with one of the physios, grinding out a long morning shift in an effort to be fully ready for next season.

While he could be inconsistent from week to week, and even within games, the Democratic Republic of Congo international was one of the better performers in the first third of the season.

Edo Kayembe started the season brightly, but then injury ruled him out.

Kayembe made 19 Championship starts before the World Cup break, and showed enough to suggest he’ll be handy to have around – if fit – next season.

Watching the video, he also played a key part in the fourth goal against Luton, pressing and stealing the ball off Tom Lockyer 30 yards out.

That fourth goal also serves of a reminder of the enigma that is Ismaila Sarr.

It does feel churlish to pick fault in a player who contributed 10 goals and six assists in a season where the team as a whole underperformed massively – especially when he is still relatively young at 25.

However, Sarr could and should have been the catalyst for much more. He’s quick, he’s athletic, he scares the hell out of other teams (if you listen to opposition managers at least) and he contributes at the top end of the pitch.

The chances of seeing him again in the yellow of Watford are pretty remote, as surely he will get the move this summer that seemed likely 12 months ago.

Watford fans have seen Sarr at his best, but also at his disinterested worst. His tendency to suddenly come alive around internationals breaks (and then not arrive back on time after them) was a source of frustration.

Ismaila Sarr completes the scoring against Luton (Image: PA)

But to be fair to the quiet and assuming forward, there is little doubt that the club did not help him develop in the way it could have.

He arrived at Vicarage Road as a 21-year-old in summer 2019 and four years later has played for 10 different head coaches (plus a caretaker) in a variety of positions, formations, styles and approaches.

All three coaches I have worked with this season have said that Sarr is hard-working in training, causes no problems and is keen to learn. Just think back to your school days though: if you took your favourite subject at O-Level and A-Level, but had 10 different teachers during that time you would have found it unnecessarily difficult to get good grades.

Sarr needs a move away and a change of scenery to get what can still be a career at the top level back on track.

The video replay I watched of the game wasn’t the club’s own, so the commentary was neutral. At the end, the commentator said “Watford were superb at times”.

That’s the season in a nutshell. Watford were superb. At times. Just not many times.

That day against Luton the Hornets were magnificent, they won 4-0 with such alacrity and puissance that it rendered any number of Nathan Jones’ post-match excuses utterly pointless.

It was a Watford team that, up until that point, had barely managed to dominate large portions of games never mind a full 90 minutes. And while the win over Luton was far from flawless – the visitors had very good chances at 1-0 and 2-0 – such was the magnitude of the performance and final scoreline that it was fair to overlook that.

They followed up with away wins at Wigan and Cardiff, the only time all season long they managed to win consecutive games.

Even allowing for the benefit of hindsight and a good old dollop of negativity, when Watford beat Luton and went on to pick up nine points in three games, could anyone really imagine then that the remaining 28 games would produce just eight wins?

How could a team that performed so well, when it mattered, when the pressure was on, when pride was at stake and reputations could be won or lost, then spend the rest of the season looking like a slug liberally sprinkled with salt?

There were clues in many of the quotes given by Chris Wilder during his 11 games in charge, where spoke of individuality and playuers diverting from the game plan.

A manager of another Championship club (not Rob Edwards) that I know said he and other coaches at clubs in the division regarded Watford as having some of the best individuals, but one of the worst teams.

"Most of them were just playing for themselves," he told me. "Stop the best individuals and you knew Watford would chuck the towel in."

I know many fans will reflect on that October afternoon with immense satisfaction. Don’t get me wrong, I loved every single second of it.

But I find it hard to look at that game and think why wasn’t there more of that? Surely players enjoy winning, enjoy playing well, enjoy the adulation that brings and enjoy being held aloft as heroes?

Things turned sour at Vicarage Road towards the end of the season. (Image: Watford Observer)

They clearly didn’t enjoy the boos, banners and berating they justifiably received from the Vicarage Road crowd in many home games towards the end of the season.

Beating your arch-rivals at home in the manner Watford did would be a highlight in many better seasons than the one just gone, so it’s not as if the 4-0 victory is being over-hyped.

However, the question for those players that remain at the club next season, new head coach Valerien Ismael and those above him in the Vicarage Road food chain is how do the club turn afternoons like that from a very notable exception into a more regular occurrence?

Can the club change? Can they connect again with the fans who celebrated so wildly that day but ended the season so utterly disenfranchised?

That one game showed the power and potential of a united Watford. It’s there. We’ve all seen it.

The fans crave a team that cares as much as they do. They long to feel a part of a club that wants them as much as they want it. They hope to be able to forget the failure of this season because 2023/24 is everything, on and off the pitch, that last 12 months were not.

It is within the club’s gift to make it happen.