Nathan Jones says his high-flying Hatters side is a “different animal” from the one that went to Watford two years ago and waited for the Hornets to “punch them on the chin”.
Town travel to their arch-rivals for the first clash in front of a crowd for 16 years and aiming for a better result than their 1-0 defeat at Vicarage Road during the Covid-hit campaign.
Then there were no fans allowed into the stadia and in a match that barely resembled the first derby in 14 years, as lacklustre Luton were downed by a 35th-minute Joao Pedro goal, moments after James Collins had hit the woodwork.
Jones said: “I’d like it to be different on every single level, so we were passive on the day.
“We’re a different animal now. We’re not a different group, as we had a good group then, but now we’re really, really athletic and potent, we’re in a better place than what we were when we went there.
“We were just waiting for Watford to punch us on the chin, we had a glorious opportunity with James Collins in the first half that we should have capitalised on and we didn’t, but we never really looked like a side that could really win the game and I envisage it being different this year.”
The Hatters reclaimed the bragging rights, after beating the Hornets 1-0 at Kenilworth Road in April last year – temporarily delaying Watford’s promotion to the Premier League – but it has been 28 years since a Vicarage Road victory.
Luton arguably go into the derby as slight favourites, as they are sitting in the play-offs, four points and ten places better off than Watford. They also have the joint-best Championship away record in 2022 and are on a seven-game unbeaten streak that has just claimed the scalps of leaders Queens Park Rangers and promotion favourites Norwich City.
Watford, however, are adjusting to their 17th manager – Slavan Bilic – in ten years and a run of form that has seen them suffer three defeats in the last five including a 3-0 malling against Millwall in midweek when they’d shipped all three by half time.
But Jones said:
“We know it’s going to be a tough game. Both games (in 2020/21) were 1-0, so it shows that the rivalry is tight and even though they got promoted that year, we were right in both games, because the margins were so small.
“We’re better now. We have a better team, a better squad, more aggressive, more potent so I’m hoping that the away result is different from two years ago.”
Luton will have Gabriel Osho available, though there are doubts over Fred Onyedinma, while Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu is suffering some stiffness after returning from a long spell on the sidelines.