Too Little Too Late- A review of the season

Maybe in the annuls of time it will go down as an okay season, possibly even a good season if you look at the league table. I was impressed by the bloke on bhappy who worked out it was our 10th best season of all time from a league table perspective.

Comparisons with 2000/1 have, of course, been made. That season we got 39 points from the first 16 games and then went on to get 30 from the remaining 30. The cute pub fact for this season will be that with Adam Johnson playing we won 8 league games out of the 11 he played a part in whilst in the 35 without him we won just 10.

He really was the true player of the season. Not since Rocket Ronnie (Rosenthal, not O'Sullivan for those reading this who got into football post 1997) has a player had such a dramatic and immediate impact on a Watford team.

In the beginning we looked ropey and vulnerable but managed to get results. The memory of Wolves on the opening day was lots of fun. However we all know that two goals in the last 5 minutes dramatically changes your perspective of the game (any-one care to admit they left early that day? In the same way I've often wondered about those who walked out of Bolton at home in 1993/4 and missed Gary Porter's amazing solo rescuing of the 'Orns. Thinking of leaving early kids? Remember Zammo and just say no!)

It may be me but the memory of the first home game of the season against Gillingham in the League Cup was possibly our most convincing display of the entire campaign. We played a team off the park, a team that can be considered equals because it was the Gill's first XI against our second string.

Sheffield United were put to the sword next but this doesn't really count as Bryan Robson was in charge then, a decision of Vialli and Basset like stupidity following the excellent work done by Colin W.

Following that we got found out away at the Walkers, ironic for so many reasons (they sacked their manager afterwards, Gary Megson, they went down...).

The reserve side that had done so well two weeks beforehand then got found out against Southend, and we followed that up with a routine 2-0 win over Ipswich, a team we always seem to beat unconvincingly but without too much effort.

Then in came Adam Johnson and all the worries about playing badly and winning and having been found out were forgotten. Forgotten not just by the supporters, pundits and nation at large but crucially by everyone employed by the football club as well.

Gareth Southgate really didn't help the Manager of the Month curse by recalling (but not using!) his boy wonder and our season fell away, although it took a bloody long time courtesy of every other club in the division trying to match us for inconsistency.

Aidy kept up the mantra of 'it'll be alright on the night' which kind of harked back to the cringe making 'one of these days we'll turn someone over big style' sentiments from the Premiership.

To be fair to him we did eventually turn Portsmouth over in the Prem, but it was a bit late by then.

And to be fair again, once automatic promotion had eluded us, we did eventually secure the playoff place needed to keep us in the hunt courtesy of a pathetic display at Blackpool. One which only improved when we were down to 10 men.

But therein seems to lie the possible solution.

For the last 30 minutes against the 'Pool we were okay. Once we stopped lumping it up to Hendo and started trying to play football we looked quite good.

Then against Hull without the suspended Hendo we played some really nice football. Granted we gave away two stupid goals but Ellington, Jobes and even Priskin-tubing looked good, whilst Ainsworth showed that he has the potential to be lots of fun.

And on Wednesday night was there a neater move all season than the nice one-two play between Big D and the Duke which led to our goal. We can play this nice style of football and still have Doris up front! Okay it all went wrong but finally Aidy seemed to have sussed that lumping it doesn't suit us, is easily defended against and is very very obvious.

So all the predictably optimistic talk on the official site is now of a new beginning and a new way of playing. Given the evidence of the last 210 minutes of the season it's not a brand new way we're after but just more of the same. I never thought I'd say this given how totally miserable the majority of the season has seemed but we really didn't need the season to end when it did. We'd just found that new way of playing and Hull only dealt with it because we gifted them ridiculous goals.

Next season could be all the OS promises and more, but that is very much reliant on Aidy having a good pre-season in the transfer market first.

Show Your Colours

Re: Rookery Blog- No Time for Sulking

Maybe this blog doesn't necessarily reflect the views of the club but its certainly on message.

We've had 'Who are we-Watford' and 'Show Your Colours' said to us by Aidy, Richard Short et al, ad infinitum recently as if we've not been doing our bit.

Thankfully with Aidy's round of applause and comments at the end of Saturday's game he acknowledged that, yes, we've done our bit. The players haven't done theirs.

So surely for Blackpool its time for the 'Show Your Colours' nonsense to stop being aimed at the fans and aimed at the players.

We always show ours. But the same can't be said of the team.

Their performance on Sunday will ultimately decided how season 07/08 is remembered. We will remember a team who finally turned up when it really mattered, or a team who really couldn't lift themselves despite the efforts of Aidy and the fans.

Its up to them.

I'll be at Bloomfield Road, I hope the right team will show up too.

Pre Match Entertainment- Southampton 0 Watford 3

Having heard lots of reports about how difficult it was to park round by Southampton I considered using their park and ride option but as I was so early I decided to investigate what it was like around the ground (it was only about 1pm when I got there).

The impossible to park reports proved to be wrong and I found some street parking only about a mile away from the ground. I liked the slightly shabby dock areas of Southampton. Those that were undeveloped had an appearance of being from a completely different time. However as with all dock areas it's under going a lot of changes one of which, obviously is the St.Marys Stadium.

It is a nice ground, but at the same time it has to be said it is fairly identikit to Leicester's. The trouble with these new grounds is they are turning football stadiums into equivalent of McDonalds. None of them are quite identical but they all look and feel the same. This said, the facilities were excellent and it was even easy to go to the loo and get some food at half time. Those serving the food could certainly teach the three gormless idiots who serve at the far end of the Upper Rous a few tricks.

Southampton have taken the Richard Short to the next level by having a live TV style presentation when the match isn't on. They had a slightly irritating bloke presentation but he interacted with the crowd well and to be fair his presentation was flawless. I don't think he'll be confined to the St.Marys for too long.

It was the first ground I've been to for years which still has traditional pre-match entertainment. The caribbean drummers could have come straight from early 80's Vicarage Road. I was half expecting them to be followed up by fighting dinosaurs. Instead we had Hampshire's version of Katherine Jenkins (good voice, not as a good looking) singing Auld Lang Sine.

Aidy had chosen to ditch Ellington again and went with the traditional pairing of Darius and Marlon up front. Shittu was preferred to Jackson at the back thank goodness. Otherwise the team was the same as the QPR disaster.

Both sides huffed and puffed during most of the first half. We looked better than them but I still felt that if we'd conceded that probably would've been that and we would fall apart. However Southampton looked the same and so it proved with Damian knocking in the vital goal just before the break. I paid homage at half time to BSaD and had chose a twix as my lucky half time chocolate. This worked well as Marlon powered in a great free kick after 10 minutes of the second half and Darius added a third to ensure that we could all enjoy the chants of cheerio as the St.Marys rapidly emptied from the hour mark onwards.

So another away day three points but we still look like a fragile side that makes or breaks a game on whoever scores first. In the Adam Johnson era we were fine because his skill and crossing ensured this was usually us but without him we are just one of many Championship huffers whose confidence is so fragile that the first goal is vital to our success or failure. Luckily even West Brom suffer occasionally from this so we are now joint top. However does anyone really want us to go up? Yes the money will be nice for the club, but it will be a season of depression for the fans.

Mooching and Bovril- Watford 2 Queens Park Rangers 4

What a thoroughly depressing afternoons viewing this made. I arrived at the ground ridiculously early and enjoyed mooching round the Rookery Store and then having a warming cup of bovril watching all the comings and goings by the stairs at the end of the Rous Stand. I can honestly say I enjoyed this more that the actual game.

It boded ill that Aidy had finally decided to dispense with Marlon and put in Ellington. Things happen when Marlon is on the pitch. Even if he doesn't score he can create chances for others (despite him sometimes being greedy) and I'd rather have him there than on the bench. Ellington meanwhile just looks like he is desperate to score that first goal and as a result is totally ineffective helping the team. In midfield he'd gone for Francis and Williamson and left John Joe on the bench meaning we'd neutralised our midfield without the opposition having to do anything. In defence Jackson was yet again chosen ahead of Shittu. Ainsworth was warming the bench again. Let him start!

The start was one of the most ludricous I've ever seen. Ellington and Henderson kicked off and Stewart was waiting to boot it into touch down the QPR end as is the standard Watford kick off. However they all kind of looked at each other which allowed the QPR striker to steal it, possibly illegally if no Watford player had touched the ball, but there should be no sympathy for us. If you cann't even kick off properly you don't deserve anything.

To be fair after that we did okay for the first 12 minutes and looked much better than them. In fact QPR looked awful and I anticipated that this was the afternoon we would finally take someone apart as Aidy had promised a while ago. (Thinking back, he promised this last season and it never happened). However in their first venture into our penalty area someone tripped or fell over (I couldn't honestly say and haven't seen The Championship yet) and the ref pointed to the spot. 1-0 QPR. Again we mucked up the kick off and then we just fell apart a little like we did at the Walkers back in August. We didn't do anything wrong or anything right really. QPR just got lucky with another 2 goals and it was half time and we were 3-0 down.

Aidy brought on big Shits at half time which was welcome and we managed to nap one back which looked like an own goal to me but was given to Francis. For a while it looked like we were back in it and I started remembering the famous 4-3 win over Bolton some 14 years ago.

However then we outdid ourselves in the stupid depart. Aidy brought on John Joe, and gave him a note to bring on as well. It was a confusing sub as he took off Jordan Stewart. He handed the note to Tommy Smith who looked like his was having trouble reading the gaffers writing. He attempted to reorganise the troops and no one in yellow looked like they knew what was going on. Whilst this was going on a gap the size of Watford opened up in our defence and QPR duly took advantage to ensure we wouldn't get back in the game, 4-1.

There was time for Shittu, who acted as a kind of defending attacker, to get one back but we were never going to make up the difference. The worst thing to be said about the whole game is that the 4-2 scoreline actual flatters us more than it does QPR and they were one of the worst teams I've seen this season. The fact we are still second is a miracle of biblical proportions.

At the final whistle there was much shouting of 'Sort it out Aidy' and similar and a lot of booing. Walking away from the ground I wondered how much longer AB will be our manager. After all Graham Simspon was ruthless in axing Lewington after stating publicly that if Ray left it would be because he wanted to rather than being asked to. Yet despite getting us to the Carling Cup Semi Finals two months previously Simpson obviously felt our Championship status was in danger and acted accordingly. I wonder if he now feels that what had looked like our fairly certain Premiership status for 08/09 is fast going down the plug hole whether he will act to try and save it whilst its still in our own hands.

Who would he get in? Billy Davies springs to mind unless he gets the Scotland job. John Ward, although Carlisle aren't doing as well as they were. GT? He was at the game yesterday apparently. Although it all must have been de ja vu for him. Kenny Jacket seems to be sorting out Millwall. Another unheard of Aidy type character?

All this was totally overshadowed a bit later by the terrible news that Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell died after collapsing in their 5-3 win at home to Dundee United. R.I.P Phil. My thoughts are with your family and the Motherwell fans who must be feeling that same terrible helplessness we felt 4 years ago.

The Most Important Half Time in Our History- Watford 0 Plymouth Argyle 1

Today the match was very much secondary to the action involving Al Bangura who is still threatened with deportation after losing his appeal to seek asylum.

It was probably the most important half time in the clubs history (not often you get to say that) as the worlds media awaited the appearance of Al who was going to do a lap of honour, Graham Simpson our chairman and Claire Ward MP for Watford, who were both going to say a few words.

Graham, in my mind, always sounds terribly pompous when he speaks. I know he is an actor cum travel agent but he doesn't really do our image much good. Worse though was to follow when he introduced Claire Ward who got booed by the Rookery end. I know any politican has to be expect this from a football crowd but she is the main person spearheading Al's campaign to stay so it was a little embarrassing to say the least.

Far more successful was the lap of honour for the main reason that the Plymouth fans applauded Al along with the rest of us which was very sporting of them. I don't know why Ian Holloway chose to walk out on Plymouth when their fans are so decent and so many of them had made the long trip up from Devon. Al was then moved enough to make a speech in-between his tears which the TV cameras all picked up on. I think it all went well and watching on Sky a good case was made for him to stay and it looked like he had all of our support.

Far less successful from the afternoons point of view was the match itself which we looked in control of for the first 10 minutes or so, but we gradually let them come back into it. We had no attacking prowess to speak of despite Marlon playing and it was no surprise to anyone when, with about two minutes remaining Argyle scored to win 1-0. We are no longer top, neither do we deserve to be having been complete pants since the end of October.

Bogey Letters- Watford 1 Bristol City 2

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.

Two points very much lost- Watford 2 Colchester United 2

Home to Colchester. It started really well with Adam Johnson scoring after 2 minutes and we looked like we'd thrash them as we had endless chances in the first 10 minutes or so. However, normal service was resumed and it became scrappy for the rest of the first half until a nice move by Colchester resulted in them hitting the post and then following up by hitting it past Richard Lee.

The second half had barely got going when Colchester scored a second from another nice move and suddenly we were in danger of getting nothing from a game we should have wrapped up in the first 10 minutes. Adam Johnson won a penalty which Marlon missed and things were getting desperate. Marlon suddenly had a determined look on his face and eventually forced the ball in with an overhead kick from a corner. We battled hard in the last 10 minutes and Darius had a great chance which the keeper was lucky to save but nothing doing. Two points very much lost.

Stewards- Norwich City 1 Watford 3

Another day off work. Took Dad to see Watford play Norwich away. Got to Norwich about 5 and drove round the city a couple of times trying to work out the best place to park for both the football and somewhere to eat. We struck gold by finding a multi storey a handy distance between both.

In fact the multi storey was right next to the Norwich night spots so we went into a busy Wetherspoons pub for something to eat. The pub was the spot to drink in before football but was very friendly and interesting watching all the Norwich fans congregating before the game. We stayed for a couple of hours as it was warm and interesting and we didn't leave for the ground until nearly 7.

It was even closer than we thought and so we spent another happy half hour having coffee underneath the away section. Having been to a good few away games now there were plenty of people that I recognised. The ground and its staff seemed friendly with a real sense that this was the main attraction in town. It was very busy considering Norwich were bottom of the league (although they have just changed their manager to former Watford boss Glenn Roeder) and we weren't surprised to learn the attendence was over 24,000.

After our coffee we found our seats and were right at the end of the stand on the goal line which suited us quite well really. We were in front of a really nice friendly chatty bloke who reminded me of Mark Dolan (in voice, not looks) and the people around us were true supporters rather than young hooligans.

However this didn't stop the Norwich stewards treating us all ridiculously. There were signs up before hand telling people to remain seated, but of course, no one did, especially during exciting bits. All the Watford fans kept being told to sit down despite the Norwich fans all standing at the same time. This caused people to get wound up and so they start standing up on purpose. It was no surprise during the second half that some people got turfed out, and the whole thing was crazy because no one was doing anything dangerous. It was quite entertaining however!

The tannoy was the loudest I'd ever heard at a football ground and meant you were unable to speak to the person next to you. This was only at certain times however when they tried to get the ground going such as for the 10 minutes before kick off. It didn't sound as desperate as at Coventry but was still a bit pathetic. Worse than Richard Short, although he has got loads better recently.

We started the match really well but it still took us a good half hour to score from a Doyley cross which Henderson tapped in. The second goal came quickly when Mariappa's shot hit the post and came back to hit their keeper on the back before going in. In the second half we looked less bothered so, of course, eventually Norwich scored to make everyone wake up. Luckily Marlon scored late on to secure the points.

Football or Shopping?- Coventry City 0 Watford 3

A day off work to go and see the GB's play Coventry away. Took about an hour and a half to get up the M40. The stadium is placed around a lot of retail parks and it wasn't clear if you were allowed to park in the them or not. I went into Tesco and was met with two officials at the car park gate asking me if I was 'football or shopping'. Seeing how I had no football stuff on me or on the car I risked it by saying shopping and they let me in for free. I parked in a quiet bit well away from the shop and hoped my car wouldn't be clamped when I came back to it. Luckily it wasn't!

The Ricoh is another nice modern ground similar to Leicester. Good access into and out of and easy to walk all the way round. Entering inside I was impressed with how many Watford fans had made the trip. Even so we still fitted comfortably in the area under the stand and the toilet and catering facilties were good and numerous.

Numerous isn't a word that could be used for the Coventry fans. The Ricoh holds around 30,000 and the attendance was about 18,000 of which probably 2,500 were Watford fans. Every side of the ground looked half full with lots of blue seats visable. This lead to two great chants 'Your grounds too big for you' and 'Why don't you all sit together'.

In fact the whole matchday experience at Coventry is a bit sad and desperate. There are daily press reports about how much debt Cov are in and everything about the club comes across as 'we are desperate for money'. Both the manager and chairmans programme notes were asking fans to bring friends and family to games and a common theme throughout the programme was 'lets fill the Ricoh'. Well you could start by not making it so big! Also the stands were just shamefully called 'The Jewson Stand', 'The Coventry Telegraph Stand', 'The something else I can't remember stand' and worst of all 'The Tesco Stand'. Now, okay as I've already pointed out there is a Tesco nearby but the Tesco stand isn't the stand next to Tesco so presumably this is a sponsorship deal. The whole thing was just desperate. I'm glad that as yet we haven't gone down this road. Eventually I guess we will one day but it does make everything a bit sordid.

What made this all much more palatable was the match. We were fantastic and were all over them. Once we got the first goal the match was never in doubt. Adam Johnson tapped home, Marlon then got a second shortly afterwards and to really kill off the game Darius scored just after half time. Coventry were awful. Truly terrible. But we deserve the credit for making them look so bad. We looked like one of those teams from last season who could score at will and were just enjoying playing with the opposition but didn't feel it was fair to make the score too embarrassing.

Needless to say the amount of blue seats got more and more visible during the game and we had great fun echoing 'we are top of the league' and 'Dowie Dowie what's the score' round the empty stadium.

The woman next to me- Watford 1 Hull City 0

We won 1-0 with Marlon getting our goal after 20 minutes. It was a really good game. We deserved to win but it was exciting at the end as Hull tried hard to get a point.

The man behind me wasn't too annoying and the strange woman next to me appeared at the beginning only to disappear before kick off and never return. She usually lasts until half time before disappearing. I do wonder where she goes?