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VENUE Vicarage Road ATTENDANCE 14,171 REFEREE P Walton (Winwick) MATCH DATE 10 September 2002 KICK OFF TIME 19:45

WATFORD Alec Chamberlain   Lloyd Doyley   Neil Cox   Sean Dyche   Paul Robinson Neal Ardley   Jamie Hand   Jason Norville 65   Micah Hyde   Stephen Glass   Anthony McNamee 53   Dominic Foley   Tommy Smith   SUBS NOT USED Paolo Vernazza   Jerel Ifil   Richard Lee

LUTON TOWN Carl Emberson   Emmerson Boyce   Russell Perrett   David Bayliss   Sol Davis   Ahmet Brkovic   Steve Robinson 72   Matthew Spring   Kevin Nicholls   Paul Hughes   Alan Neilson 81   Steve Howard   Dean Crowe SUBS NOT USED Andrew Fotiadis   Carl Griffiths   Chris Coyne

Match Report	10 September 2002
Watford 1 - 2 Luton Town

WATFORD 1 Dominic Foley '75  LUTON TOWN 2 Matthew Spring '31 Steve Howard '41

SUPER LUTON KNOCK WATFORD OUT IN LOCAL DERBY...

Joe Kinnear's Luton Town inflicted a shock, but fully deserved, 2-1 reverse on Ray Lewington's men in a match ruined by crowd trouble.

"Matthew Spring's 30 yard blockbuster had given the visitors a 1-0 lead"

The Hornets have now failed to beat their local rivals at home for 15 years, and the prospect of reversing that run looked even more unlikely after Matthew Spring's 30 yard blockbuster had given the visitors a 1-0 lead after 31 minutes.

"Steve Howard capitalised on the opportunity, driving a low angled shot beyond the Watford keeper"

Ten minutes later Spring turned provider with a through ball that caught defender Sean Dyche dallying before Steve Howard capitalised on the opportunity, driving a low angled shot beyond the Watford keeper.

After the break, Watford's passing game progressed from bad to worse, and they pumped a seemingly endless string of long balls up the field, in the hope of gaining a foothold.

As it was, they gave their supporters hope with 16 minutes left with Dominic Foley's well crafted goal. The ball was worked to the right side of the pitch and Micah Hyde's clipped cross was met with a well placed header from Foley.

After that the Hornets laid siege to the Luton penalty area, but rarely looked like creating an equaliser, which meant the Hatters held on for a deserved victory.

Kinnear's Comments	10 September 2002
Watford 1-2 Luton Town “I’m not sure if that was the best performance since I’ve been here because we’ve murdered some sides by five goals last season, but tonight this result was all about doing it for the Luton Town supporters. This was for the fans because I know how much it means to them. There were about 5,000 of them and we’ve had the same magnificent support when we went down to Swansea last season. “You won’t see two better goals scored at Vicarage Road all season than the ones we got tonight. They were two magnificent strikes. We had to dig in at the end. They put five or six up front and played high balls in, but we stood up to it. “I thought for an hour we were the better side and when they threw everything at us they never really got past us. We had to deal with a lot of aerial stuff late in the game, but we had to do the same at Cardiff and Brentford and once again the two centre halves - Perrett and Bayliss - were outstanding. “Who do we want in the next round? I think the fringe Premiership clubs come in now and it would be nice to get one of them. Since I’ve been at Luton I’ve never had a home cup draw so maybe it’s our turn to be lucky. “Thorpe wasn’t on the bench because he had a viral infection in his eye. We only found out today. He turned up at training with the club doctor. Otherwise he would have been on the bench tonight. I heard that there was a rumour that he had asked for a transfer. That’s just rubbish. Any player I leave out, I tell straight to his face why. “We’ve sent everyone home happy. Everything’s on the up at the club and we have a real buzz going now.”

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