I know I could be partly accused of actually writing a blog about football parking but as I've said previously, unless you go on the coaches or a non-existent football train then it is a very big part of your day. I think I've also made the point that I can't imagine any other local amenity being subject to the same conditions. The local council accepting a planning proposal from Tesco but then saying 'oh by the way, no-one is allowed to park with 2 miles of the store unless they've pre-registered or are prepared to pay a whopping £10'. The excuse at Coventry is environmental. I wonder what it'll change to when cars are eventually all green. I mention Tesco deliberately because there is an enormous one next to the Ricoh Arena with free parking for two hours. They have security people at the car park entry asking you 'Football or Shopping'. I was aware of this having been to the Ricoh before. My tips if you want to get away with parking in the Tesco are saying 'shopping' obviously but also to go in civvies with no obvious football paraphernalia on show.
One thing I wasn't expecting was then to be checked on the way out whether or not I'd been to the football. Luckily I'd actually got lunch from Tesco and so had a carrier bag with me which I was able to show as evidence to avoid a £50 fine, whilst subtly throwing the programme on the floor.
The Ricoh is the most commercial of all the new grounds. I know this is a bit like saying one type of apple is more apple-y than the others but the Ricoh really tries to squeeze every last penny out of the experience. A big fuss was being made of the fact Take That will perform there in the summer and you couldn't miss the plugs for local band The Enemy who were played both before the start and at half time. The whole experience leaves you feeling slightly grubby.
I shall skip mention of the first half as it was tedious in the extreme apart from a Lloyd Doyley shot which went just wide. The half conjured reminders of our pre-season friendly with MK Dons. You certainly wouldn't have known we still needed a point to be safe.
The second half began in a similar vein and the upper choir of Watford supporters entertained by going through a retro chants montage from the 1999/2000 season. How is it that the majority of singers always sit together? Do they block buy a huge amount of seats or is it just luck. Today they were all housed in a seperate section high in the stand when the rest of us were all seated in the lower part of the 'Jewson' Stand.
Coventry fans either don't get on with each other or like a bit of room to spread out because there is no large concentration of them in any area of the ground. They don't seem to have decided yet which stand is going to house the hard-core of fans and as a result there doesn't appear to be any hard-core. Just a scattering of dis-interested people across a sea of sky blue seats who only come to life for the minute after their team scores. Our best chant of the day was "They're here, they're there, they're every ****ing where, empty seats, empty seats'. The ground was unfortunately built for a Premiership existence and feels cavernous when hosting Championship football. It was probably less than 50% full.
We looked unlikely to get anything out of the game even before Robbie Simpson hit a brilliant free kick past Loach to make it 2-0. Our saviour (as with Man U later in the day) was a penalty (although this one really was) when Priskin was brought crashing to the ground. Despite the crowds shouts for Lloydinho to take it Tommy Smith lined it up and after seeing his initial shot saved managed to bundle the ball home at the second time of asking.Suddenly there was hope. I think it more started from the crowd than the players as we got going with 'Hoist Up the Watford Flag'. The players piled the pressure on and won two corners in quick succession. For the second one Raziak leapt above everyone else to head superbly into the Coventry net.
We then survived the hacking down of Jenkins, which ended his participation, and the subsequent arrival of Danny Rose to go ahead through an unlikely cheeky back heel from Priskin. Coventry huffed and puffed and tried to find a way back into it but Daniel Fox ended any hope by elbowing Tamas for a straight red. We never looked in danger after that despite the 5 minutes injury time the ref added on.
It was our second double of the season (the other being Charlton) and safety has been achieved. So much for us all thinking after the Sheff United game that we were going down under Brendan. It took a good while but he has achieved his first major goal as Watford manager. It will be good fun indeed if he now achieves the next one that sees us becoming a 'Top 30' club.
