IT is 10 years ago to the day (4th October) that the Hornets produced a vintage first half performance to blow away our local rivals.

Four strikes within the opening 30 minutes was enough to see off Lennie Lawrence's side as the Golden Boys showed the sort of form which made sure they finished top of the pile in May 1998.

Under the guidance of Graham Taylor the 'Orns won the league (now League One) while the Hatters ended up in 17th position.

Australian midfielder Richard Johnson opened the scoring after just five minutes and Dai Thomas made it two with 19 minutes on the clock. Two strikes from Northern Ireland midfielder Peter Kennedy finished the rout within the first half an hour.

In goal for the Hornets that day was Alec Chamberlain who is now in charge of looking after the current crop of goalkeepers at Vicarage Road.

When asked about the victory it immediately brought a smile to his face, he takes up the story. "Because of my connections with Luton from earlier on in my career there was a little bit of extra pressure and of course it's a local derby.

"I wanted to do well but in the back of my mind I was a little bit worried about the sort of reception I was going to get - but I have to say the Luton fans were great and I got a good reception.

"The game went as well as any one could go really! It was a dream game to play in and their crowd was incensed at half time. To go and beat your local rivals 4-0 is superb - we saw the game out and did a professional job in the second half.

"It was great for the local bragging rights for a few years - the away end was packed out and the Watford fans were going absolutely berserk. I remember all the way home back to the ground there was just yellow everywhere - it was an important day that the supporters took a lot of pleasure from. From our point of view on the field everything clicked into place so it was a great day.

"We made a great start that season and then Bristol City came back at us. We were going so well and it was tight come Easter. We had to win away at Fulham on the last day and Bristol City were at Preston. We managed to beat Fulham which was a great achievement as they had Kevin Keegan in charge at the time. We ended up as Champions - it was the start of good things for us really."

Once again we would like to hear from you on another great win. Were you there? Or couldn't you get a ticket as part of the support that day and do you recall listening out for the score?

Send in your memories of the win and we'll publish a selection of them here at www.watfordfc.com - please send them to themediateam@watfordfc.com with 'Luton memories' as the subject header. We look forward to hearing from you.

Watford: Chamberlain, Gibbs, Kennedy, Page, Millen, Mooney, Slater, Palmer, Thomas, Johnson, Rosenthal (Noel-Williams 81).

Subs not used: Easton, Robinson.

Luton: Davis, McGowan (James 35), Harvey, Waddock, Small, White, Gray, McLaren, Oldfield, Thorpe, Davies (Douglas 35).

Subs not used: Spring.

Booked: McGowen, McLaren, Thorpe.

Attendance: 9,041

Referee: T Helibron (Newton Aycliffe)

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