Chamberlain recalls being Watford keeper winning at Luton
Imagine being the Watford goalkeeper stood in front of the home fans at Kenilworth Road for 45 minutes when Luton are losing 4-0 – and you used to be a Hatter as well.
That was what Alec Chamberlain experienced on October 4, 1997, when Graham Taylor’s side battered the Hatters on their way to winning what was then Division Two.
The Hornets keeper had spent five years and made more than 150 appearances for Luton between 1988 and 1993, and then had time at Sunderland before joining Watford in 1996.
His return to Kenilworth Road that day coincided with Watford’s biggest-ever derby away win, and while the Hornets were on the way up the Hatters were struggling.
Chamberlain was stood in front of the travelling Watford fans as they raced into a 4-0 lead in a never-to-be-forgotten first half.
However, that meant he was down the other end of the ground for the second half, in front of the main body of home fans.
“The Luton fans were very generous that day in the way they responded when I ran out onto the pitch in the first place,” Chamberlain, who turned 60 in June, recalled.
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“And I got a good reception when I came back out and went in goal in front of the home fans in the second half, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting given the way the first half had gone.
“The game was done by half-time, and I think that took a lot of the energy away from the Luton fans.
