Sat Navs- Milton Keynes Dons 2 Watford 1

Left in plenty of time but slight Sat Nav disaster meant I only just made it. I put one too many one’s into the postcode and it took me to some small village just outside MK! As I got nearer and nearer I was thinking it wasn’t very well signposted.

Nice looking ground, better than Leicester, Cov and Soton in the new stakes. Especially like the fact you can easily see the pitch from the concourse. Don’t eat the food though. I had a sausage roll that was clearly left over from last season. The pastry was rock hard and exploded everywhere when I eventually managed to bite into it.

We were awful. Priskin is very very poor, and not many looked bothered. Bit early in the season to boo but thats what happened at the end. Big(ish) crowd of 5,000 including many ‘Orns who obviously couldn’t make last seasons friendly, and had only turned up as they were doing the same ‘ground collecting’ as me.

Locals- Wealdstone 3 Watford XI 1

After a baron spell of months, two matches in two days.

Tonight Grosvenor Vale in deepest Ruislip was the venue, which is the new home of Wealdstone. How permanent isn’t very clear as they do still make overtones of eventually returning to the London Borough of Harrow. But for now, they want to make inroads to the local community. How successful this will be is slightly debatable if the club is then going to move 10 miles up the road in a few more years.

It had friendly feel to it though and I spoke to a nice Irish bloke who was there as his kid was a ballboy. He said how welcoming everyone from Wealdstone was being to those who lived nearby and had given local schools free tickets.

The ‘Stones more than earned their win. Two cracking goals past Scott Loach early on were well deserved. We got one back before half time but then scored a bizarre own goal to ensure the home side got the new ground off and running in the right way.

I worry about us. Loach didn’t look good. In fact only Lloyd Doyley shone for us, and we already know he’s good.

Sat in front of some Watford WAGS’s. They talked a lot about the players hairstyles. It was interesting, annoying and eye opening in equal measure.



Couldn’t see much for most of the first half. Neither could the linesman.



One of the strangest structures I’ve ever seen at a football ground, even by non-league standards. What is it meant to be?



Kids playing on the pitch during half time. You wouldn’t get that at the Vic.

Burying Bad News- Borehamwood 1 Watford 3

Nice to see Ashley Young there watching his bro. Greeting between Ash and Aidy was very warm.

The club decided it was a good time to bury bad news as during the game they put up on the web we’ve sold Doris to Sheff Utd. Just who is going to score us goals this season?


Spot the Henderson. Er, not Darius as he’s up at Bramell Lane.

It Couldn't Have Happened To Nicer People- Chelsea 1 Manchester United 1 (Man U win 6-5 on penalties)

I sat down not expecting much from Man U and Chelsea. Thinking it would resemble an F.A Cup Final and reflecting that games between the top four are more often than not complete pants.

My enjoyment wasn't added by my own stupidity of thinking for the first 20 minutes that the game was only on ITV. I hate Clive Tylsley and David Pleat. It is commentary for old grannies and people that don't usually watch football. He'd be good at Its a Knockout or Gladiators but not anything of importance. Luckily it hit me that messers Tyler and Gray (grrr) were over on Sky and I was soon engrossed in a trance like state in that way only football can induce. How does it make minutes pass by in seconds so you are aware that its about 8pm, and the next time you look at the clock its after 11?

I felt Ronaldo deservedly put United ahead with an excellent header showing that he can do it with other parts of his body too as well as his feet. Then United played some beautiful football creating chances that Tevez should've scored. Had the move where Rooney won the ball near his own corner flag and passed it diagonally the length of the pitch to Ronaldo before Tevez missed gone in it would've been the best goal I'd seen since Owen scored against the Argies 10 years ago (with apologies to Chris Eagles effort which I'd place 3rd).

Lamps then got lucky to put Chelsea level which you couldn't really begrudge him.

Second half was all about Chelsea and Man U were lucky to still be in the game, mainly thanks to their goalpost.

In extra time I felt they cancelled each other out and it was nice of Drogba to end some extra entertainment in getting sent off.

The whole staged scenario of what to do if a player goes down injured and then what to do when the ball comes back in is way way beyond a joke.

Joe Cole's decision to feign (?) cramp after he hadn't been awarded a foul showed just how crazy its got in that the ball was then put out. I don't believe Tevez was not going to give the ball back when the fun then started but he shouldn't have done. If a player is seriously injured provision is made in the rules for the ref to stop the game and a drop ball restart to take place. I think its fair that if the ref has stopped play and one team clearly has the advantage that the other team doesn't contest the drop ball. But if the ball is being contested at the time the ref stops play, or if neither side has clear control or advantage of it, then the drop ball should be fought over in that way we all used to love.

What followed was mainly handbags, but the common consensus on the tv was that you can't go round touching people on the face in front of the ref, which was the only crime Drogba was really guilty of. I admit he didn't do it in a very pleasant way and you'd be hacked off if someone came up to you in the street and did it, but was it really any worse than anything else that went on during the melee?

Extra time ended and we had the fun prospect of penalties in the pour raining in Russia at 1.30am in the morning. It sounds like some bizarre dream, but no, it was really happening.

The first four all went in with no trouble and then came Ronaldo. And you just knew. He looked nervous, in that 'I'm nervous but I'm going to try and look confident' way and when he kissed the ball it was a dead giveaway. Even more stupidly he then tried to do that stopping and starting again thing to make the keeper look silly. No wonder Petr Cech saved. I can't remember many of these that have ever worked. That bloke tried it in Sunderland's playoff and caused Mick McCarthy to have a fit. Arsenal tried that thing where you pass it to another player (obviously not an option in a shootout) and missed. Just blast it in Owen Hargreaves style.

It got tense as Chelsea took a 4-3 lead with one each to go and Nani needed to score to stay in the game, but he slotted home coolly.

Then came John Terry. I will admit I'm not keen on him. I feel the whole rebirth of him as a warrior and Mr.Chelsea was, I think, a bit of a media management exercise done because it became necessary once he was one of England's best central defenders to give him an acceptable image that the big wigs at the FA wouldn't mind having as captain. Why Steve McLaren decided to chose him over Stevie Gerrard god only knows but it says something that McLaren is now commentating for 5 Live on their B-List games rather than being driven around by Brian Barwick. Please Fabio don't make the same mistake.

Any-way Terry made the long walk looking nervous whilst both messers Tyler and Gray got excited as they knew either way this was going to be the big story. Terry ran up and slipped at the vital moment sending the ball wide.

It was one of those fantastic football moments. Pure pantomime.

I do hope that later when Terry was walking past the hotel bar some Americans were in there imitating a man slipping over at the vital moment when taking a penalty. If so, maybe he'll have felt just 0.000001% of how that other group of Americans must have felt when he decided to make imitate airplanes shortly after the 9/11 disaster. To put it in context the only other people I know of that found 9/11 funny were primary school boys of an age not to know any better. Yes, we all make mistakes, but I can't think of anyone I know that would do anything quite so cruel and callous.

The next two went in and then the only survivor from 1999 Ryan Giggs put United 6-5 up.

And then who else but Nicolas Anelka stepped up. Before he took it you suddenly realised that the script had been written Man U's way with the nice twist in the tale that made it look like Ronaldo would be the villain and Terry the hero. But, oh no. Van Der Sar saved and United had done it.

Terry couldn't stop crying, ala, Gazza from Italia 90 and it was funny. Really funny. Ronaldo too shed some tears of relief. Man U made Chelsea feel worse by forming a guard of honour as they went up to get their losers medals. Peter Kenyon went up too (the arrogance of the man is unbelievable) and got his just desserts as the whole of Europe were treated to the 'Peter Kenyon, what a w**ker' chant. The night just kept getting better.

Bobby Charlton led United up the stairs to get their medals, a lovely touch given the recent 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster. Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs lifted the cup and Fergie couldn't stop beaming, not smiling but actually beaming. His reddened cheeks making him look like the Teletubbies baby all grown up at sunset.

It was just brilliant entertainment. A great match even if you didn't know the characters involved. But made even better by having a streak of traditional Hollywood narrative running through it, where, in the end, mostly good things happened to the people you like and mostly the baddies got what was coming to them in the end.

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.