Aston Villa joy at Birmingham humiliation - or is it?

Filed in archive Premiership 2007-08 on April 21, 2008

Aston Villa dealt their local rivals Birmingham a devastating blow yesterday by hammering them 5-1 at Villa Park and pushing them deeper into relegation trouble.

On the same day, Newcastle United left their local rivals Sunderland feeling a little nervous with a 2-0 win at St James' Park.

There will have been much celebration around the two grounds as the fans of the home teams enjoyed not just their own success but also the failure of their deadly rivals.

That got me thinking though, will the home sides be really celebrating? I'm a Watford fan. I love them. I have a pathological and totally illogical and inexplicable hatred of Luton Town, just because they happen to be only twenty miles from Watford. Nothing is better than the build up, the atmosphere and winning a local derby.

Since Watford started doing a bit better, relatively, and Luton have hit some difficulties, I have really missed the derby games. OK, there's always idiots wanting to cause trouble, but apart from that, the occasions are fantastic. Many of my best football memories are from Watford against Luton games.

Now, as I say, I have an unjustifiable hatred of Luton, so you'd think I would be delighted by their current relegation plight and financial difficulties. The fact is that I'm not. Their relegation will take them further away from Watford and the chances of experiencing the derby day atmosphere vanish even more. If they went out of business, that would be a disaster.

So whilst Villa fans will be revelling in the joy of thrashing their nearest and most hated rivals, I wonder if just a small part of them is disappointed that they might have contributed towards their relegation and the end of future derby games.

Newcastle fans will love the win against Sunderland, but do they really hope that it helps towards a drop into the Championship?

We all need a team to hate, but it is so much better if that team are in the same league as you.