Jones ready for a 'wonderful occasion' as Luton head to arch rivals Watford

Luton boss Nathan Jones is preparing for a ‘wonderful occasion’ when his side go up against arch foes Watford for the first time in almost 15 years today.

The Hatters head to Vicarage Road to resume a fierce rivalry against their Hertfordshire opponents, having not played each other since April 2006.

In that time, Town have been down to the Conference and back, while Watford have spent the last decade in the top two tiers of English football.

After being relegated from the top flight term, then Jones knows that the hosts still possess a squad capable of taking on the elite, saying: "It’s a Premier League squad as it’s been in the Premier League for many years.

"It only came down, we are talking six to eight weeks ago, so there’s not been that much significant change in the squad for them not to be a Premier League squad.

"I would imagine their wage bill and budget is Premier League, so they are Premier League squad, but this is the Championship and you're facing sides like this all the time.

"It will be wonderful occasion, a very difficult game, for lots of reasons, but every week is difficult.

"The games we’ve got coming up now, we've had Barnsley, had Derby, had Reading, had Man United, these are all different but very tough games

“It’s a derby though and a lot of things go out of the window.

"The great thing is, that not too long ago, Watford were playing Premier League football and a game like this could only be envisaged in a cup.

"Now we’re on an even keel and that’s what we have to make sure we remember.

"We’re back at the same level now, so it shows how far we’ve come.

"Yes, this is a massive, massive game, it is so important for the fans, but these games are every week now and that’s what we have to remember, what we’ve achieved here, what the club has achieved.

"These are not now pie-in-the-sky games, this is a week-in, week-out thing for us.

"Although it adds more spice because of the derby, it’s three points up for grabs and it’ll be exactly the same three points in the league.”

Dispute the difference in values between the squad, there's no chance of Jones setting up his charges to go for a draw, particularly as he has masterminded victories at Swansea, Huddersfield, Hull, Barnsley and Reading since returning as manager.

He said: “We will have to see, right now would we settle for a point? No.

"There is still three points up for grabs so until that is not feasible, we won’t be settling for that.

"You can’t second guess what you’re going to get or not, but I would like three.

"At the minute we have a point so lets see if we can get three.

“We’ll do our tactical prep, I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do because I don’t think it will be just us five or six listening to this, so let's just see.

"We’ll be tactically prepared, we worked very much on our tactical side, how to be effective in what we do and how to try and combat that as well as try to exploit other people’s weaknesses.

"So that’s what we’ll try and do."

Watford are under new management once more this season, Serbian Vladimir Ivić the latest brought by Italian owner Gino Pozzo.

The 43-year-old has previously been in charge of PAOK and Maccabi Tel Aviv, as Jones continued: "He's not someone I’ve come up against, but he’s obviously got good pedigree.

"Watford sign a few managers but they've got good pedigree, that's the philosophy there.

"I know how they play, they’re a good side, they’re difficult to play against, and we have to consider that.

"I don't know him personally, but it’s always good to test yourself against different nationalities, different cultures, different philosophies that come from that cultural background, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Although Jones might know the Hornets boss too well, he is more then aware of one of their summer signings, Brighton forward Glen Murray.

The 36-year-old headed to Vicararge Road on loan for the season as Jones said: "I know Glen really well.

"Last time he scored against me on my debut as a manager, two in 11 minutes, so I believe he won’t repeat that.

"He’s been a great servant for Brighton and he’ll go there with a pedigree.

"He’s someone we’ll have to watch, but we have players as well that cause people problems, so we’re more worried about us.

"But Glen’s been a fantastic player and especially for Brighton, where he’s a real hero down there.”

Today’s game is Luton's fifth in 15 days and they face one more ahead of the international break, against Wycombe at Kenilworth Road next weekend.

With two wins from two in the Championship so far, Jones is looking to make sure they finish their opening blast of fixtures in a good position, already sitting third ahead of today's contest.

He added: "It is a tough start, we've got two away games and then your home games.

"Derby were a good side, but we’d like to finish the month in a good position.

"We’ve got ourselves in a nice position, but we’d like to rubber stamp that as there's one more game then an international break.

"It’s a weird one as we want to finish the month strong and then there’s a game straight away after that with the Wycombe game.

"So we would like to finish strongly going into the international break."