Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Effort- Burnley 3 Watford 2

A very disappointing result after such a promising first half. Well done to Will on poaching his first goals, especially against an opponent of Clark Carlisle's stature. Shame he couldn't have completed his hat-trick.

It sounded like this season in a nutshell. Good positive exciting play with lots of effort, mixed in with misfortune and occasional lapses of remembering important things like the rules and who is actually on our side.

Despite now being worryingly 21st I completely agree with bhappy's Matt Rowson when he says that already this season is MUCH more fun than the last. I think its got something to do with the effort word. I don't care how low we sink as long as everyone tries their bloody hardest. So far, barring a few performances, most of them have and it should go without saying that injury wise we're getting down to raffling out positions on the bench. Therefore I don't think anyone should panic just yet about us treading water one spot above the relegation zone.

Two in, one out

http://www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Preview/0,,10400~1408332,00.html

Nice to know that not content with causing injuries to our own squad we've now started injuring members of other squads too. I'd be worried if I was Mark Tyler.

Welcome back Darren. You were always slightly harshly done by whenever you returned to the Vic. After all, you weren't single handedly to blame for our failure in the Prem back in 99/00 or the capitualtion the following season.

No idea what to expect tonight. Since the 7-4 we've not down terribly well up there but as the last week and a half has proved football really is a funny old game.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Queensbury Rules

We've drawn Swansea in the Carling Cup Fourth Round meaning we'll have two visits to the Liberty in four days.

A light-hearted suggestion so we can avoid two long drives down the M4 is to start running football like boxing where sometimes they fight for more than one title.

For example, we play just one game and whoever wins gets three points and finds themselves in the Quarter Finals of the Carling Cup. If its a draw after 90 minutes both get a point and then play extra time and penalties to find the winner in the cup tie.

It would be especially entertaining towards the end of the season when the usual 'big' four find themselves playing each other in endless FA Cup/Champions League/Premiership encounters.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Kinnear Banned

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7639582.stm

This just gets better and better. Did they know before approaching him that he'd be banned from the touchline for almost the whole time he's agreed to be at the club?

Saturday, September 27, 2008

South Yorkshire Jinx- Sheffield United 2 Watford 1

Two visits to Sheffield, two below par performances. Maybe South Yorkshire is an area to avoid this season. Luckily Rotherham aren't in our division although we do still have to go to Doncaster.

Two Saturday afternoons, two injuries to our keepers. Lucky we aren't in the days before goalkeeper subs otherwise Nigel Callaghan would've been busy and our goal difference might have been worse than it is.

I still think Richard Lee was rather harshly criticised at the end of last season so I hope he does well in what sounds like its going to be an extended run in the team.

JJOT is becoming a bit of a noticeable star. I hope we can hang onto him in Janaury. With youth on his side I'd make him the favourite above Tommy Smith to be the next one to leave alas.

Slightly worrying to see us down to 19th. South Yorkshire jinx aside after the great displays of the last week it does feel rather unfair. But I don't feel too concerned yet. However we could really do with getting something from Burnley and Preston before the next International break.

Friday, September 26, 2008

UEFA ambitions

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/championship/watford/3081631/Watford-manager-Aidy-Boothroyd-urges-FA-to-give-English-managers-more-recognition-Football.html

Interesting to read how far Aidy thought he could get us. Kind of reminds me of Elton's comments to GT 30 years ago.

Interesting also that he's downgraded his expectations significantly. Is this because he knows that financially we are worse off than has been previously admitted? If we do ever get back up to the Prem has it already been decided we'll use the money to pay off any debt and fund the East Stand redevelopment rather than getting anyone in that might keep us up?

Its not like Aidy to be publicly pessimistic and I think more is being said in this article between the lines than actually in them.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Boothroyd Charged

http://www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10400~1403514,00.html

Unbelieveable. You'd think given the comments by the Assistant Referee's Manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board (who knew such positions or boards even existed) that on this occassion Aidy might have been excused blowing his fuse. Let us not forget it wasn't about the original decision that Aidy went mad about but it was a foul throw that proved too much and understandably so. For remaining composed during the chaos of the original decision I think Aidy should be praised, not punished for the combined events of the afternoon eventually taking their toll.

We still haven't heard what will happen to Attwell or Bannister and I wonder if we ever will? Attwell is going to be the fourth official again at the weekend. He hasn't even had the demotion or resting that Premiership referees seem to get.

Why can't the League, FA or whoever is in charge of such things just act now like they have with Aidy. No-one seems to dispute what happened or who is to blame.

But then this is part of the problem. English football seems to have just too many organisations involved in different bits of the game. In Italy the FIGC organises everything and deals with everything whether its refs, players, clubs or competitions. They don't do things in a half hearted hanging about way either, but meet every Monday after the weekend's fixtures and deal with stuff there and then like imposing suspensions ready for the next match. So much for us thinking Italians are the experts in badly run chaotic organisations! Our football authorities could learn a lot from the FIGC. However I can't see the FA, League, PGMO, PFA and various County FAs's giving up their varying amounts of power anytime soon.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Teenage Kicks- Watford 1 West Ham United 0

Well that was enormous fun.

What a great way to bounce back from all of Saturdays malarky. We finally got a bit of luck courtesy of Mullins. But that shouldn't detract from the fact this was a great performance by a side, particularly at the end, that featured more of our reserve team than that of our opponents.

Zola only made 5 changes from the team that beat Newcastle convincingly at the weekend. Whereas we had trouble filling the bench and included Dale Bennett who no-one around me had heard of, but was excellent when he came on after the goal. You wouldn't have known which side was trying to impress their new boss and which had struggled to put out a full team.

Lee Williamson had his finest display in a yellow shirt. It said a lot that the man behind me who really REALLY hates Williamson and never misses an opportunity to bellow his name in anger, didn't mentioned him once. Ross Jenkins gave his best performance yet and Will Hoskins grows in confidence all the time.

Bang Bang looked a little rusty but is still footballs smallest hard man as he fouled a West Ham player by literally wrapping his body around him in the second half. Jordan Parkes did better than against Darlo but his final touch still lets him down too often. Ainsworth was busy but still has more of the Nordin Wooter about him than the Ashley Young. Lewis came on and did well even though he was half the size of the Hammers defenders.

I wonder if the ref was brought in specially after Saturday as he was brilliant. He wasn't at all fussy and just let the game flow and only got his book out once.

The West Ham fans were impressively vocal as ever in the first half but we more than matched them in the second half creating an atmosphere that really did remind me of those famous Watford cup nights from the 1980's

Even Radio Hornet's Richard and Tim played a blinder in the form of Teenage Kicks which was aired at half time. Shame Richard spoke over half of it but it was still a vast improvement on Easy Lover which was played on Saturday.

The only downside was DeMerit disappearing before the end leaving us with 10 men as we'd already used our subs. It said something about how caught up in the game the crowd were that I don't really think many people noticed. That's not to critisize DeMerit's performance at all because along with Bromby he was a powerhouse at the back. But when required the 10 coped just as well as the 11 had done.

All in all performance of the season so far by everybody.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Its Not Funny!

I've thoroughly enjoyed us being the surprising main story on the BBC Sport website all day, and slightly less surprisingly that we've being talked about on TalkSport ad infinitum. But I've been slightly irritated at the tosh that has been talked by some, especially former refeeres who seem to think the whole thing is quite funny.

Lets go through some of the tosh point by point.

1) Should the game be replayed?

It can have surprised no-one that it hasn't taken long for the league to say no. I think this was made especially easy as we went on record saying we weren't actively seeking this outcome and the only person who was in favour was Steve Coppell. No surprise either way. We'll take the point thanks.

But there is precedent for this sort of thing stemming from the Arsenal v Sheffield United cup game seven years ago when Kanu ran down the wing instead of giving the ball back after an injury. It was a slightly different scenairo and both managers were in favour but really ours warrants more of a replay than that ever did because Overmars did actually score from Kanu's cross. I wonder what the league would've done had Aidy had agreed with Coppell?

2) Should Reading have allowed us to score or should they allow the 'Orns a goal head start when we meet at the Mad Stad?

If teams start doing this for incorrectly given goals then where does it stop? Is there much difference between that and an incorrectly given penalty that leads to a goal, or a free kick on the edge of the box. If the team its awarded to know its been given in error do they then head back into their own half and replicate the foul to even things up after they've scored, and what happens if they don't score. Are they still required to even it up then?

Again there is precedent of teams allowing others to score. Leicester did it last season against Forest in the Carling Cup. Interesting to note how sporting the football league found it that day.

Both the Arsenal and Leicester examples are different ways of dealing with the whole area of organised sportsmanship which goes against the old cliche of play 'til the whistle.

But the reason this became a cliche (as with most) is that its a good one. Because if we don't do it we get some ridiculous examples of organised sportsmanship such as if you see a player on the floor for whatever reason, kick the ball out and then negoitiate between yourselves and the ref as to the restart.

A great example of this was Mariappa on Saturday who went down, got up again and then went down again. And Reading put the ball out. Now, I may not be a paramedic but even I can guess that if you are able to stand up, your injury is unlikely to be life threatening, even if you have to wait a couple of minutes for treatment. Yet they could have gone on to score, or better still we could've got the ball back and gone on to score. Mariappa would've got up eventually or would've just wanted 'til play had stopped.

If the ref deems an injury to be bad enough he has the option to blow up, but everyone seems to have forgotten this. If its not clear who had possesion then he can invite both teams to challenge for the ball. If one team had the ball at the time the ref can just invite them to resume from the drop ball. Simple, and far easier than the I'll throw it to a defender and he'll then kick it up to your keeper and we'll then start playing properly again.

3. Should there be video evidence?

We've now got the technology that within seconds tv viewers know whether its a goal or not. Why restrict this? Just because you won't be able to replicate it across all football right down to parks games? Well I've not seen hawkeye used at my local tennis and cricket clubs but they don't seem bothered. It wouldn't hold up play any more than the referee consulting his linesman.

4. What should happen now?

Full marks to the club for trying to get Eustace rescinded as the scorer. Why should he be saddled with a goal he had nothing to do with. I can't see the league agreeing to award it to Attwell or Bannister but its worth a try just to emphasise the point.

As for Attwell and Bannister, Jay DeMerit made an excellent point on TalkSport that the equivilent act to this is a player hitting another player in the face. In fact I'd say it goes as far as Cantona jumping into the crowd. It shouldn't just be treated lightly and forgotten about.

If at the end of the season we find ourselves missing out on the playoffs by a goal difference of one (hello Wolves) then this stupid decision could cost us around £60million. And there's nothing remotely funny about that.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Attendance 46- Fulham Ladies 0 Watford Ladies 0

After doing a bit of research into the Watford ladies team at the beginning of the season I found out that Fulham play their home games at Burnham which is only about 10 minutes away from my house (its a million million miles away from Fulham however).

Last season I criticised the girls (I hate the term ladies, its the term you'd use for a bowls team) for playing their games at the Herts FA ground which is closer to L***n than it is to Vicarage Road. Full marks to them for resolving this by moving to Northwood but I still hadn't gone along to see them so the fact they were playing almost on my doorstep meant I felt obliged to go.

I had expected a small sized turn out equivalent to a Ryman League match. This, after all, is the Premier League and there were bound to be a few interested souls, along with players friends and families (HAB's maybe?). But the fact you took your seat first, and then a bloke came round and sold you a ticket tells you how many were there. My ticket was number 46 and I was one of the last he approached. It cost me £2 plus £1 for a home-made programme.

The whole occasion was rather quaint. A man brought his dog with him (not sure if dogs get a concessionary rate). Half way through the first half the lineswoman loudly enquired if anyone knew the Man Utd Chelsea score. The subs came to talk to people they knew in the stand. There was no swearing.

The football, however, was full on blood and guts stuff. I don't want you to get the wrong impression from the quaint word. They may be ladies but this was no bowling match, with both physios required more times than either from Saturday's debacle.

First half was pretty even, with the 'Orns dominating in the second half but never being able to deal the killer blow. The closest we came was in the last couple of minutes when a promising cross gave one of our strikers a clear shot but she hit it straight at the keeper.

Apologies for not being sure of the names of the players but our No.14, a small blonde winger had a great game and our striker No.15 always looked dangerous. Our experienced looking keeper was outstanding and certainly could be the answer if we are struggling to find a safe pair of hands to sit on the bench for Tuesday night.

I'd thoroughly recommend it from a footballing point of view. Just need a few more to turn up to improve the atmosphere.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Top 20- Watford 2 Reading 1 (sic)

Nick Hornby reckons seven things make up a truly great game of football. Goals, outrageously bad referring decisions, a noisy crowd, rain and a greasy surface, opposition misses a penalty, opposition player receives a red card, some kind of 'disgraceful incident'.

Well okay it didn't rain, the penalty wasn't missed and surprisingly no-one other than Aidy got send off (not that it made a great deal of difference).

But even so, this was up there, probably somewhere in the Top 20 greatest I've seen. Not quite to the standard of Kaiserluatern, 8-0 against Sunderland or Arsenal at Highbury in the cup, but probably alongside the 7-2 against Bradford and 3-0 home to Brentford in early 97/98. The only thing it lacked was us winning. But even so, the mightily impressive way this side fought their way back against a team we were never expected to beat, and considering our injuries AND the officials. It was inspiring and uplifting, it was excruciatingly frustrating and annoying, it was almost revenge and justice, it was endlessly entertaining. It was an epic.

The only slight concern I have is that it seems to take an event of that magnitude to get us going.


Sending off Aidy makes a difference of about 3 yards in all.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Fortune Faded

http://www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Preview/0,,10400~1397548,00.html

I don't think I've ever seen a more pessimistic preview on the official site.

Talking about the match with my kids (ages 7 and 5), even they think we'll lose and they are the most optimistic Watford fans I know regularly predicting 5 or 10-nil wins for the Horns.

So why is there a small bit of me (the Greavsie bit that believes football is a funny old game) that reckons we might actually get a result tomorrow?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Wet Pups of South Africa- Watford 1 Plymouth Argyle 2

Beware the balti pies at Vicarage Road. I tried one last night and to my surprise you don't get given a little fork like you do at Nottingham Forest. So you have to try and eat the whole thing without getting any of the pipping hot filling on fingers. I nearly succeeded but just as I was getting down to the critical last few mouthfuls I accidentally squeezed to hard and got 120 degree chicken goo on my little finger. The pain was so intense I forgot where I was for a while and didn't really recover until about 10 minutes in to the game. The experience was similar to that of trying to eat a McDonalds apple pie.

By the time I did come round I was told we had had our one glorious early opportunity. You know the one that seems to happen at every home game where for a few seconds afterwards you think 'wow, we are going to slaughter this lot, we look really good'. And then nothing similar follows it for the next 90 minutes.

True to form thats just what happened and worse still Plymouth (who looked worse than us all evening) then scored a nicely worked goal.

Again I found myself thinking that it is really unfair of the rest of the team to expect Tommy Smith to do everything even though he tries so hard. Similarly the rest of the team must realise that using Lloyd Doyley as an attacking tool is futile. I love Lloyd, I really do. He tries very hard and is a great defender, but he doesn't possess the skills to be a wing-back and gives the ball away far more often than he gives it to someone in a yellow shirt.

Priskin showed again that he could really do with some of the Smith and Doyley work ethic especially when challenging for 50/50 balls, as no-one, least of all Priskin himself, believes that he is going to win them. He shows touches of individual brilliance, and these obviously work for him on the international stage, but he just doesn't look like a man who is going to score in the scrapping of the Championship.

By half time the only truly entertaining thing that had happened was the welcoming on the big screen of the 'Wet Pups of South Africa'. Honestly. The mind truly boggled (and is still boggling now) about what the Wet Pups could be. I would've come to the conclusion that the the club had started entertaining touring lap dancing troupes had it not been for the fact they were at the ground in conjunction with a local school (unless schools these days aren't what they were when I went).

You'd think we'd have come out looking desperate to score at the beginning of the second half but that only really happened once DeMerit gave away a penalty for putting his hands in the air and we were 2-0 down.

Hoskins, on for Priskin, looked eager and prepared to have a go in the way that the man he replaced never does and he also outshone Ainsworth who made an appearance late on. Whilst Poom wasn't at fault for any of the goals he certainly had his first dodgy display of the season which must have cheered Richard Lee.

John Joe got one back courtesy of Tommy Smith kicking the ball at him and Hoskins then scored a disallowed goal late on but we'd given ourselves far far too much to do.

So our good start has now become an average one. And it doesn't bode well that we've been beaten by Plymouth who were in the bottom three, and Nottingham Forest who now are. The fact we lost 2-0 to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday and they then lost 6-0 to Reading who we face on Saturday doesn't really inspire either. Starting the next game with Hoskins up front, whether because of Priskin's injury or Aidy wielding the axe would certainly make me feel a bit more hopeful.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Pics of the week


Rather than negotiate with Kevin Keegan Mike Ashley appears to have gone for the simpler option of eating him.



Picture used on the Watford Observer website this week shows relations haven't got any better between the paper and the club.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Who are you?- Sheffield Wednesday 2 Watford 0

It appears our players didn't recognise each other after the international break. Shame, especially after the excellent win over Ipswich. However, although I didn't go, judging by the reports Sheffield Wednesday are a different proposition to the team they've been since they got relegated from the Prem with us. Hopefully things will improve on Tuesday night against a poorly performing Plymouth side. Either that or our good start to the season will begin to fade into mediocrity.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Deja Vu

I stand by what I wrote about international week and the game against Andorra was dire. Kind of like England beating a born in Watford select XI. Who would be in it I wonder? Robbo, Kenny Jackett, Vinnie Jones, um, Tim Lovejoy? ummm, Bradley Walsh?? and 6 others...

However the win against Croatia was hugely enjoyable and the feeling of deja vu from THE game against Germany 7 years ago was palpable, especially with Emile Heskey playing. How much would you've got on him making an England comeback a few years ago?

Friday, September 05, 2008

International Week

Is there anything more dull than an international week, especially when England are up against the might of Andorra. Once I would've been into it but I think I've now gone beyond the x years of hurt that Baddiel and Skinner sung about (42 since '66 or 34 since I was born). Nowadays I just don't really care much about England. Once (or rather if) we get to a major tournament then I'll watch, but even then its in a Tim Henman-esque way of wondering how far we'll go until we lose, rather than believing we stand even a remote chance of winning.

After a hard week I could really do with going to a game tomorrow. I might go and see the girls play Leeds on Sunday but even this has slightly more limited appeal as I don't know the players so shouting and cheering options are far more limited. Of course, the more I go to see the girls the more I'd know them but even so I'm guessing there isn't on mass chanting like at the Vic.

At least Man City, West Ham and Newcastle have provided interesting side shows this week. Once upon a time we'd have been worried that a bigger fish might come in and pinch Aidy but I don't really have those concerns anymore.