Cornick: We were well aware how much Watford clash meant to Luton fans

Hatters attacker Harry Cornick didn’t think any of Town’s players under-estimated the importance of Saturday’s derby against arch rivals Watford.

The visitors produced what manager Nathan Jones described afterwards as a 'lacklustre' performance when going down 1-0 to their old foes in a first meeting since April 2006, claiming the contest was more like a pre-season friendly than a derby clash.

Although there was plenty made of the fixture in the build-up, Cornick didn’t think that had an adverse effect on the players, who never came close to replicating the kind of excellent displays they have turned in so far this term.

He said: “Not at all, I think that would have got us up for it.

“We knew it was a massive game, every fan made us aware of it, our manager made us aware of it, Mick (Harford, assistant boss) made us aware of it.

“We knew it was a massive game, it’s just we didn’t quite perform to the best of our ability.

“It was a massive game which meant a lot to us and a lot to the fans that we haven’t performed maybe as well as we should have.

“I thought we had chances, I thought we played okay, but okay is not good enough in the Championship anymore.

“We need to be better than that and we need to be on the front foot more.

"We need to be more confident and we need to believe that we are rightful to be in the place that we are, that we can go away to Watford and win, which I think we could have done today, easily.”

With no supporters at the ground once more due to Covid-19 social distancing measures, what should have been a blood and thunder affair, never really got beyond second gear, with precious little to excite the Town fans watching online.

Cornick wishes it had been played out in front of a full house, as he continued: “It’s hard to say really as with no fans here, it’s always going to feel a bit dull.

“If the fans were here it would have been a great atmosphere, something which I think would have made the derby a lot better.

“Every game is hard I think, our fans are unbelievable, every game we go into, we’re selling out at home and we usually sell out away as well, which is crazy to think.

“It’s a massive miss and especially a day like today, I think the atmosphere would have been electric.

“That was a big miss for us, because a derby you need the fans to get behind you and we missed that today.

"But it’s the same for both teams, so we can’t make excuses, we need the fans to stick with us really.”