Imran Louza, Tom Ince and Edo Kayembe celebrate Watford's second goal against LutonRex Features

Edo Kayembe's goal was his eighth of the season for Watford

Paul Grunill
BBC Sport England

Watford ended a dismal run of five successive home defeats with a comfortable win over relegation-haunted Luton Town in the M1 derby at Vicarage Road.

Tom Dele-Bashiru put them ahead from the penalty spot after Mamadou Doumbia was brought down and Edo Kayembe doubled the advantage with a simple tap-in.

Luton, who had won only one of their 26 previous away games across two seasons, failed to produce a meaningful effort on target in the opening half, with boss Matt Bloomfield still searching for his first success since taking charge in mid-January.

Their squad was revamped in the winter transfer window, but with some players new to English football and others stepping up from League One like Bloomfield himself, he was banking on a fast gel, which has yet to happen.

The victory lifts Watford to ninth in the Championship, three points outside the play-off places, while Luton remain bottom and five points from safety with just 12 games left to play.

It took the Hatters 10 years and four promotions to make the journey from non-league to Premier League, but they are now in serious danger of falling back two levels in successive campaigns following last year's exit from the top flight.

They had centre-forward Carlton Morris back in the team, having recovered from illness, while Watford brought in Tom Ince for the injured Moussa Sissoko and Jeremy Ngakia at right-back - opting to keep Vakoun Bayo on the bench on his return from a three-match suspension.

Ngakia received an early yellow card for a poor early challenge on Lasse Nordas, which might have been red from a less generous referee than Andrew Kitchen, as Luton looked the more assertive team in the opening 10 minutes.

But they but fell behind when Mads Andersen tried to shepherd the ball back to goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski, who brought down Doumbia in the box as he slid out to collect.

Dele-Bashiru found the bottom corner from the spot for his fourth goal of the season and Imran Louza had a chance to make it two after creating space for himself on the edge of the box, but his left-foot effort was straight at Kaminski.

The second soon arrived, though, as Giorgi Chakvetadze left Andersen in his wake on the left and skipped round a despairing challenge by Amari'i Bell before slipping the ball across to Kayembe who could not - and did not - miss from two yards.

The pressure was all on Bloomfield, who left a promotion push with Wycombe, to come up with something special to lift his team but Watford continued to carry the greater threat with Georgia attacking midfielder Chakvetadze creating uncertainty almost every time he had the ball at his feet.

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield and his players applaud their fans following defeat at WatfordRex Features

Matt Bloomfield's wait goes on for his first victory as Luton Town boss

Andersen's tame header on to the roof of the net was as close as Luton - 3-0 winners when the two sides met at Kenilworth Road earlier in the season - came to a reply before the break and he was then booked for stepping across Ince as he surged forward.

It was time for a rethink and Bloomfield sent on Jacob Brown and Shandon Baptiste at the start of the second half as well as giving an English Football League (EFL) debut to Congo centre-back Christ Makosso, but unmarked Isaiah Jones wasted a chance to reduce the deficit when he volleyed wide after Morris shrugged off the attentions of Kevin Keben to provide the cross.

Luton have not won a league game at Vicarage Road since 1994 and although they enjoyed more possession with Watford content to protect their lead and offer only sporadic forays forward, they lacked the quality to prise open the home defence.

Morris went off after 83 minutes, having failed to score for the 10th game in a row in all competitions, and Chakvetadze forced a good late save from Kaminski as Watford secured their first home league win since 26 December.

'Not easy playing in derbies' - reaction

Watford boss Tom Cleverley told BBC Three Counties Radio:

"It's not easy playing in these derbies, or preparing for them like they're a normal game because they're not, so to get on the front foot like we did and to have the character to play the way we wanted to was important.

"Mamadou Doumbia has brought chasing lost causes to our team, being willing to run, to stretch defences, maybe he's not had direct assists or goals, but he's having a big part to play in pretty much every goal we're scoring at the minute.

"There's a certain stage where you've got to manage the game and go from front foot to a bit more protective and we maybe did that a little bit too early - but when we did have to manage the game and see out a bit of pressure, we stood up to it.

"Take the local rivalry out of it, it was an important game for us to get three points in, in terms of our league position."

Luton Town manager Matt Bloomfield told BBC Look East:

"The players are obviously extremely disappointed with the result and really disappointed not to give our supporters something to cheer about because they turned up in incredible numbers and backed us.

"For the first five or six minutes I thought we were OK and played in Watford's half, took the sting out of them early on, then we gave the penalty away and the second goal was again loose from us - and at 2-0 down it rocked us, understandably so.

"We made changes at half-time, gave ourselves a foothold and grew back into the game and if we'd turned one of those opportunities into a goal, you never know what will happen from there.

"The boys are still fighting, they still passed, they probed, they still created chances, but we need to take one of those opportunities at 0-0, not 2-0 down."

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