Watford boss Chris Wilder admits the 'best team won' as Luton secure bragging rights with derby day win

Watford boss Chris Wilder admitted that the ‘best team won’ after Luton took the honours in yesterday’s fantastic 2-0 derby day success at Kenilworth Road.

The Hatters hit the ground running at a red-hot Kenilworth Road, taking the lead just before the half hour mark through Gabe Osho’s astute finish from Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s cross.

They were then in control for the majority of the second period, as the Hornets’ only effort on goal came when Imran Louza’s 20-yard effort was easy for Town stopper Ethan Horvath.

Luton went on to add a second in stoppage time thanks to Allan Campbell’s close range finish which sent the home supporters into a state of mass hysteria for the closing stages, and no doubt celebrating long into the night.

Speaking about the result which saw the Hornets fall to 11th in the table and now 12 points behind their rivals, with their play-off hopes dwindling as well, Wilder, who is the third manager of the season at Vicarage Road, following now Luton boss Rob Edwards and Slaven Bilic, said: “Best team won, that’s why they're 12 points clear of where we are, that’s why they’ll be fighting for something at the end of the season.

"If it’s going to be this between now and the end of the season, then it’s going to be mid-table obscurity really, so no complaints about the result.

"I’ve tried to build teams and there’s a really good team being built here (at Luton) by the previous manager, Rob’s a smart manager and he’s not changed too many things and they’ve got it going forward and we’re just stop-start.

“At times I see some really good things and at times I see some stuff that are head shaking moments.

"When I took the job and I looked it and looked at the players, I thought there's some really good players there individually, but trying to bring them together as a team is the hardest thing.

"When the moments where were needed to step up to the plate and work as a team and play as a team then we didn’t, we just went individual and ultimately the best team on the day and the best team have got it all to play for for the remaining seven games of the season.

“Everyone has to be a team, Liverpool, Man City, I was pretty critical to the players.

"I’m an honest manager, if you’ve seen how my dealings with the media are, it’s upfront, it’s there, as there’s no hiding place, there wasn’t today.

"The first time our supporters have attended the game for 17 years and this is a big game and it just seemed a bigger game for them.

“For me knowing what a local derby is all about and this is a proper derby, the players who played for the opposition, did their job, played as a team and got the win that they deserved.”

Having only been appointed on March 7, Wilder has now taken just four points from a possible 12 and like the many, many others who have gone into the hotseat before him, is now realising just what the challenge is ahead.

He added: “It might be a bit of a cultural reset for the club, but this is Championship football.

"That is a Championship game out there, a little bit more, because of the edge, because of the local rivalry, but you've got to do a lot of things physically and mentally, before even the tactical and technical part even come into play.

"Tactically it was a game of two shapes against each other, their 5-3-2 against our 5-3-2.

"But their front two were better than our front, their midfield three were better than our midfield three, their wingbacks were better than our wingbacks and their back three were better than our back three.

"So they’d won individual battles all over the pitch which allows them to dictate the game and allows them to go and get the result they want.

"It was a step back today when a proper Championship game is decided by the better team and all those at the top of the division, they stick to the plan.

"We’ve drifted from it, we went individual and the biggest disappointment is when you have so many so called talented players, the amount of times we turn the ball over is incredible.

"We could never build a head of steam, we could never dominate, we could never dictate the game.

"We never had an unbelievable foothold in the game as every time we got it our decision making was terrible and our execution of really not under pressure passes in possession got turned over.

"It just allowed the opposition to counter and do what they wanted to do to us.”