Town defender left 'speechless' after playing in front of 'loudest' Kenilworth Road atmosphere

Town defender Gabe Osho was lost for words after playing in front of a Kenilworth Road crowd he described as the ‘loudest’ he has ever heard during the Hatters’ wonderful 2-0 victory over fierce rivals Watford on Saturday.

With home support able to attend a derby match for the first time since January 2006, the vast majority of the 10,046 inside the ground were at it from before the opening whistle, creating a wonderful noise to welcome their side on to the field before kick-off.

They maintained that throughout the contest too, as with Luton on top, the decibels levels were raised even more when Osho himself put the hosts in front on 28 minutes, finishing off an excellent team move for his second of the season.

With the Hatters keeping their opponents at arms length during the second period, Allan Campbell then turned home from close range to turn stoppage time into party time for the home faithful, who were witnessing a first win over their most bitter rivals since August 1993, almost 30 years ago.

On what it was like being on the field, Osho said: “Wow, it was amazing, I think it was the loudest I’ve ever witnessed it!

“I was just speechless really, just really happy to have been a part of it and to get the win.”

Discussing how Town used such a frenzied atmosphere in their favour too, Osho continued: “It kind of drives you on, but you don’t want to get too carried away and start making rash decisions.

"You have to lean into it a little bit as it is special and that importance for the fans, it really does egg you on as well.

"So you do have to lean into it, but not get too carried away.”

Manager Rob Edwards was impressed by the way in which his side were able to manage the occasion though, as they didn’t let the meaning of the day cloud their vision or judgement, instead producing a terrific and disciplined performance over the 90 minutes.

He added: “It was a new experience for me, so it was how we tried to go about it during the week.

"We were talking about keeping 11 men on the pitch and not getting carried away, we needed fire at the right times, but then we needed control, controlled aggression, in terms of what’s going on up here (head).

"We needed to try and make good decisions, we knew it would be a bit of a cauldron and if we were winning as well, we knew it was going to be even more so.

"So it’s about not, not playing with emotion as that’s what I want to see, I want our players doing that, but not getting lost in that and making silly decisions, so that was the most pleasing part.

"We felt each other out for the first 10, 12 minutes or so and then I thought we really grew into it and the game seemed to be the majority of it, we had the territory.”