Belgrade derby? It was more like a weapons-grade rivalry!

MIKE WALTERS... INSIDE FOOTBALL.. & OUTSIDE THE BOX LUTON

VLADIMIR IVIC spent six years in a cauldron of rivalry that makes El Clasico look like a picnic and the Old Firm derby a tap dance.

Across Belgrade’s great divide, Ivic’s older brother Ilija played up front for Red Star while Watford’s no-nonsense head coach was a prolific attacking midfielder for Partizan.

They never actually played against each other, which is perhaps just as well.

“Sometimes, it falls to younger brothers to show their elders the way,” said Ivic. “My brother chose one team, I chose to play for the right one.”

With that sibling taunt, Ivic – whose weapon-strength glare could melt a polar icecap from outer space – almost broke into a smile. Almost, but not quite.

The hard-line Serbian was known to let the mask slip at his previous club, Maccabi Tel Aviv, only when they won back-toback titles. And Watford’s first

M1 derby with Luton since 2006 is too serious for Ivic to let his spaghetti western gunslinger’s icy stare dissolve into frivolity.

He was “ashamed” of his inexperienced line-up’s Carabao Cup defeat at Newport in midweek and there is a dark undercurrent to today’s game. Police requested an early kick-off to deter social inadequates from generating disorder in Watford town centre – even though the game is behind closed doors and will not be shown on TV in pubs. And outside Vicarage Road, the statue of Hornets godfather Graham Taylor has even been boarded up to prevent visiting pond-life desecrating it.

If football has come to this, heaven help us.

But when Ivic, 43, has lived through the Eternal derby’s worst excesses, tinpot hatred in the Home Counties is not going to make him blink.

In 1999, a teenage Red Star fan was killed by a rocket fired by Partizan ultras. And 16 years later, the Eternal derby took an eternity to finish when play was held up for 45 minutes in a symphony of flares, stun grenades, flying seats and riot police.

“This is my first experience of Watford against Luton but it will be a different experience,” he said. “There will be no fans in the stadium but my players all know how much it means to the supporters. “I have had this kind of game many times in my past and I know how important it is to win. I know about the traditions of the club, about what type of game this is.

“Of course I understand that it’s different for the fans. If they

Championship: 12.30pm

win, they will be proud, and we will give our best for sure to make our fans happy and proud.”

Ivic is satisfied his cosmopolitan squad of 18 different nationalities understands the tribal niceties.

Club captain Troy Deeney could make his first appearance of the season after a knee operation and £45million-rated winger Ismaila Sarr has told the coach he wants to play – despite interest from Liverpool and Aston Villa.

But Ivic must also solve the paradox of Watford being unbeaten over the border at Kenilworth Road since 1993... but without a home win against Luton for 33 years.

The Partizan hard core who idolised Ivic in the Eternal derby are known as ‘ Grobari’ – or gravediggers.

But he is in no mood to turn his first taste of the M1 derby into a funeral.

Partizan v Red Star makes El Clasico look like a picnic