Watford is essentially a one-club town, unless you want to plumb the lowest reaches of the football hierarchy. As such, they do not have a rivalry with another club in the shape of the Merseyside derby or the Manchester equivalent. Watford, despite some confusion among those unfamiliar with the area, is not in London, and so they do not form a London derby with any club, even those in the extreme north of the capital.
So, who are the Hornets’s biggest rivals in football? There is one obvious answer to this question, as we shall see. However, we will also delve a little deeper and uncover other clubs with which Watford have at least a little “beef”. That said, Watford are not a club like Millwall, or Leeds United, that somehow seem to have sparked rivalries with a whole host of slightly random teams, often due to a seemingly innocuous incident. But then, who would want to be like Millwall or Leeds?!
Luton: Watford’s Enemy No. 1
Luton is around 20 miles north of Watford, and so there are clubs that are closer. Barnet is probably the closest major club to Vicarage Road, if by major we mean a side that has regularly been in the top five tiers of English football. Barnet is only around 13 or so miles southeast of Watford, whilst the likes of Brentford, QPR, Chelsea and even north London giants Arsenal and Spurs are all around 20 miles from Watford’s home.
But geographical proximity is not everything and there is no doubt that it is Luton who are the club’s fiercest rivals. The derby between the two may be referred to, rather prosaically, as the Watford-Luton derby, the Beds-Herts derby, or sometimes even the M1 derby. For the uninitiated, England’s main motorway runs through both towns, whilst Luton is in Bedfordshire and Watford in Hertfordshire.
Lengthy History
This is a fixture with a long history, having first been played way back in 1885. For the record, the Hornets won – of course – by a 1-0 scoreline! To grow rivalries typically need some combination of geographic proximity, history, regular fixtures, multiple battles for the same trophies, and key or controversial incidents.
Watford versus Luton ticks many of these boxes, albeit not with the thick, dark ink that a fixture like Ranger versus Celtic might. The pair have faced well over 100 times, which is quite a lot considering both have changed division several times over the years. In the early years of the 20th century they competed regularly in the Southern League and Third Division South.
However, WWII and Luton’s promotion to the Second Division (in 1937) meant that meetings became far less frequent until the 1960s. This period (from the early 1960s onwards) really saw the rivalry develop. There were no major incidents or obvious flash points, but the clubs were simply in the same division on a regular basis. In particular, the 1980s were when this peaked, and when the two were most clearly in direct competition.
Title Chase & Top-Tier Tussles
In the 1981/82 campaign, both Watford and Luton won promotion from the old Division Two into Division One, then the top tier of English football. Watford finished second with 80 points and although Luton won the title with relative ease in the end, on 88 points, the two were involved in a real tussle throughout the campaign.
The rivals then spent six seasons together in the top tier of English football, and these regular meetings, plus the battle to be the best team in the locale, helped the rivalry grow further. In terms of a single incident, many Watford fans still hold a grudge over a game that occurred in 1984 in the First Division. They believe that Luton deliberately goaded and riled their skipper Wilf Rostron in an April meeting between the clubs.
Rostron was dismissed and this meant he missed the FA Cup final, which the Hornets went on to lose against Everton. Watford fans believe things might all have been so different had their captain been on the pitch that day and so, of course, essentially Luton cost them the cup!
Crystal Palace: Next Enemy on the List
There is probably no other team that comes close to matching Luton in terms of the animosity felt by Watford supporters. Indeed, if you asked 1,000 of them who the club’s next-biggest rival was, you may well get several different answers. Included among those would certainly be Crystal Palace though.
This is a relatively recent rivalry, sparked by some high-profile clashes between the pair. They met in the quarter-final of the 2018/19 FA Cup, Watford winning 2-1. They also met in the semis in 2016, this time Palace edging it 2-1. For clubs who do not possess huge cup pedigree, meetings at this level of the competition are big clashes, and with the two occurring so close together, it is no surprise that a rivalry and animosity were the result.
There have also been two big clashes in play-off games between Watford and Palace. In 2013 Palace beat the Hornets in the Championship play-off final at Wembley. That the game was decided in extra time only adds to its impact on the rivalry. Prior to that, the clubs had met in the semis of the 2006 play-offs. Watford progressed to the final (where they beat Leeds) but the second leg featured a mass brawl on the pitch and the Hornets manager being sent off. All conducive to fostering a bit of a rivalry for sure!
QPR & Bournemouth: Secondary Rivalries
For various reasons, QPR and Bournemouth are also (or have been) considered among Watford’s secondary rivalries. These are both also relatively recent and developed due to times spent in the same division and in particular during promotion challenges.