I do hate these 5.20pm live on Sky kick offs. I know I get fed up with my Dad for moaning about odd kick off times but even I think this one is silly. When are you meant to eat?? I did have a quick sausage roll at the ground before it started. The slowness of our catering staff in the far end of the Upper Rous has to be seen to be believed. Why it takes three people to get one sausage roll and a bottle of water heaven only knows. Please Graham Simpson. Sort it out! The sausage roll was alright though.
Everyone seemed very positive at the beginning considering we were coming off two straight defeats and for the first ten minutes or so we played quite well. But the loss of our loanee Adam Johnson back to Middlesborough has had a terrible effect on the team. Before he came to us I kept thinking how we really didn't look anything special but somehow kept managed to get results. We were found out a couple of times before Adam came, at Leicester and Southend, and now he has gone we are being found out every game.
The teams went in at half time level which was fair enough although the ref had made some awful decisions including changing who got a throw in because the City players complained without consulting anyone else. Okay, it was only a throw but it was all very odd and he managed to get worse in the second half making numerous mistakes.
During the second half Marlon hit the post but we never really looked like taking the lead and mid way through they scored from a simple cross and header. The crowd got on Watford's back and kind of roared them on at the same time. Aidy brought Darius off for the hopeless Nathan Ellington and the hopeless Mahon off for the brilliant John Joe O'Toole. Despite still being of school age O'Toole got our goal with about five minutes left and everyone went a bit too mad considering if we really are as good as the league suggests Bristol City at home should be a win. We went in search of the winner looking like the only team who would get it. However right at the end we let our guard down and to their surprise as much as ours City played an identical move to that from which they scored the first goal and sure enough they scored again. The boo's sounded around the ground a minute later as the ref blew full time.
Three games in a week, all against teams who begin with a 'B' and three losses. Considering 'B' is the most popular letter for teams to start with in our division this really isn't the one to choose as our bogey letter. Can't we chose 'X' or 'Z' instead?
As has been noted on other Watford web-sites this season is suddenly horribly resembling the 2000/1 season. I wondered this back in August as I noticed that just as 7 years ago we had a nasty looking home fixture against Sheff Weds on a Tuesday night. Back then this was the game we lost to start our run of just 30 points from 30 games. This time we overcame Wednesday in that fixture 2-1 but the similarities have suddenly started nevertheless.
One moment we are clear at the top and getting plaudits from everyone, generally expected by the country at large (and especially all managers in our division) as being THE team in the division that will get automatic promotion. The next moment we can't buy a win and all the hope has evaporated. The atmosphere and crowd yesterday resembled that of a team battling against relegation. Its only taken a week for that mindset to creep in.
Will Aidy still be our manager next season? Will we even make the playoffs? I think the odds have lengthened on both.
