Never a truer word?- Crystal Palace 0 Watford 0

"Palace’s ground is a shit hole"

Not the words of a Watford supporter, but actually the turnstile operator in mid conversation with his colleague as I happened to hand over my ticket. I grinned and realising the irony he said ‘You heard it hear first’. I was too polite to point out that actually I’d heard it 100 times from a 100 different people and had already been once before so I didn’t need telling. I’m sure Simon Jordan would be chuffed to bits to know that is how his staff greet the away fans.

Actually I think its a little unfair. I like old fashioned football grounds and Selhurst certainly is that. Just as with the East Stand, wandering around the Arthur Wait Stand you kind of feel like there’s a chance you might end up somewhere you’re not meant to. No chance of such a thing happening at Stadium:MK or even the Rous Stand.

Getting to and from Selhurst is another matter entirely and for its sheer impossibility deserves the tag shit hole. On Google Maps and my TomTom it looks like a pleasant hours drive. I left home (High Wycombe, if you are wondering) at about 12.40pm went down the M40 and was quickly in West London. The slog round to South East London then took forever, eventually getting me to a parking space about a mile away from Selhurst at 2.25pm. Coming back I decided to go round the M25 but sat in a traffic jam south of Coulsdon for a good half an hour getting home at 7.15pm. I’ve got to and from Leicester quicker.

Judging by todays performance in previous posts I may have been a bit harsh on the ‘Orns. Maybe I went with very low expectations but we were fantastic. All the fight, passion and desire that had been lacking in pre-season and, I guess, in the last 9 or so miserable months was back and flowing through the whole team.

I’m not wanting to get carried away so I will temper this by saying I’m not now expecting a promotion push or anything similar, but this will do. Even had we lost today I would’ve come away happy because they all showed how much they care. Top marks to everyone. I can’t think of one player that I could say had a bad game.

I was delighted to be proved wrong in that we did start a Priskin chant, and I’d forgotten when I wrote the chants posting that Lloyd Doyley is now the beneficiary of the Ngonge chant.

A good day all round. Great atmosphere from the away support, great passion on the pitch, just a shame about the weather and location of the ground. But I guess I was warned.



Another scrap against Palace. Aidy wasn’t involved for once.

In Memory of Jimmy Davis

5 years on. RIP Jim.

Season Preview

So it all starts tomorrow. I’m not excited as I’d usually be given our pre-season performance and the negative noises coming out of WD18. But its football, and even a depressing afternoon out at Selhurst is better than watching Gabby Logan providing in depth analysis of team GB’s yachting performance (but I always feel like this after the non-event that is the Olympic Opening Ceremony, I’ll change my tune once the gold medals start coming our way).

As a nod in the right direction as to what should be done on the eve of the big kick off here is a brief comment, prediction or any old nonsense about the 24 teams that make up Football League Division Two (as it should be known).

Barnsley- Deserved to get to the FA Cup Final, always cold, still got Deveaney. He was a good signing Aidy! Mid table.

Birmingham- Fighting it out with Burnley and Cardiff for nastiest side in the division. Will do depressingly well and be up in the Top 3 although I don’t think McLeish is as good for them as Steve Bruce was.

Blackpool- Half a ground, can’t think of a worse place I’ve ever been. The town I mean not that funny wooden structure we sat in on the last day of the season. They won’t survive this time around, not with Stevie Kabba leading the attack.

Bristol City- Gary Johnson obviously knows what he is doing. Playoffs again.

Burnley- Can’t the league find a good reason to give them a 30 point deduction? Bottom half but safe.

Cardiff- Falling out big time with Jimmy Floyd. I don’t reckon Dave Jones is as good as he thinks he is. They’ll be surprise strugglers and DJ will be gone by March.

Charlton- Another mediocre season. Pardew will be another one for the chop.

Coventry- See Charlton changing Pardew for Coleman.

Crystal Palace- Love him or hate him Colin knows what he is doing both with the players and chairman. Automatic promotion.

Derby County- Another dismal season. Paul Jewell only seems to do well every other job he has. This one, like his time at Wednesday ain’t gonna work out. Bottom half.

Doncaster- I still think of them as one of the former league clubs now in the Conference so a bit of a surprise to find them this high up. They’ll do okay, bottom half but safe.

Ipswich- The days of always getting to the playoffs seem to be behind them. Comfortably mid table.

Norwich- Can Roeder break the difficult second season syndrome? Possibly but I reckon a top half finish without troubling the playoffs at best.

Nottingham Forest- They were European Champions you know! Twice! Be funny to see them go straight back down again but I reckon they’ll just have enough to stay up.

Plymouth Argyle- Sturrock seems to know what he’s doing, seems to like Plymouth and reminds me of GT a bit. They’ll reach the playoffs this time round.

Preston North End- So near the promised land a couple of times, its now all fallen away. Struggling again but enough to stay up.

Queens Park Rangers- I reckon (or maybe hope) its all going to go wrong. Dowie was a terrible decision and one they seem to be regretting already. He’ll be gone by Christmas and the R’s will make the playoffs but no better.

Reading- Top marks for sticking with the man who got them out of the division once before. I think he could do it again. Top 3.

Sheffield United- Won’t be as much fun for the rest of us with Blackwall in charge, instead of Robson, but he still won’t get anywhere near the feats of Colin. Mid table.

Sheffield Wednesday- May 2000 must seem longer ago to them than it does for us. Dull and drab again, fighting against relegation but surviving.

Southampton- Rupert Lowe back in the chair, a new manager no-one has heard of, and only surviving last year by being less worse than Leicester. They will be this seasons former long term top flight team in surprise drop to the third tier.

Swansea- I reckon they’ll be another Hull if their manager hangs about. Using this season to get the measure of everyone else and then next season going up to join the big boys and peeing off Cardiff in the process.

Watford- Media speculation, counter club statements and a manager who doesn’t quite seem to be toeing the party line like he once did. We’ll struggle, Simpson will play the axeman like he did with Lewington, but the financial situation will find us out in the end and we’ll start next season yet again with just one division between us and the lot up the road.

Wolves- They’ll lose 2-1 to Plymouth at Molineux by conceding two in the last five minutes meaning the Pilgirms pip them to 6th place by one more goal scored. I hope.

Chim Chimney Chim Chimney Chim Chim Ch-noooo, What will we sing now we ain't got Shittu?...

The best players always have the best songs. Obvious really. No-one is going to bother making up a Priskin chant at the moment. But this means that when said great player goes we are deprived the chance of not only seeing him on the hallowed turf, but singing a great song too.

My 5 much missed all time favourites

5. Walking in a Palmer Wonderland

With the magnificent variation on the TM one that he was ‘walking along, smoking a bong’, something which Stevie always denies ever doing.

4. Ngonge- me lord- Ngonge

Possibly the most unlikely song ever to be turned into a chant.

3. Chim Chimney Chim Chimney

Big, loud, joyful like a poorly trained Afghan hound, Dan’s chant mirrored Dan the man. They will both be much missed.

2. E-I-E-I-E-I-O Up the Football League we go

The sheer abandonment of this song, particularly at Selhurst Park in the playoffs was as rousing as any at the Last Night of the Proms. Its unfortunate that if Marlon ever returns to the Vic, I imagine we’ll be singing it to him again with a slight change to the bit at the end.

1. Walking in a Mooney Wonderland

Easily number one, a bit like Big Dan, the character of song and man kind of went hand in hand. My favourite rendition was after he’d scored the penalty late on against Bolton in October 2000 which took us top of the table. Its notable that this is the only chant I can recall hearing after the player actually left Watford. At Old Trafford Jan 2007 Moons was spotted in the stand and the entire away following duly obliged him. It could also be heard at Wembley Arena during his appearances for the old ‘Orns in the London Masters.

Moses to Hereford

http://www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10400~1358541,00.html

I know what’s a good way to solve our crisis up front. Lets take the one player who’s shone in pre-season so far and scored two goals against Borehamwood and loan him out to Hereford. That should really help.

Tough Season- Aidy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/watford/7541482.stm

Apparently even Aidy thinks we are in for a rough ride this season and that we can’t say we’re going all out for promotion. A BIG change from last season then when we were going all out for promotion even though all the signs were we were a team with relegation form for a good half of it.

Although it doesn’t take a genius to work out that we aren’t in the best shape given our pre-season results the fact confirmation comes from the mouth of the ever optimistic AB is worrying.

Makes we wonder whether the Watford Obs got it right about us having no money. For Aidy to be so pessimistic just before the start of the season, and with the club announcing that the work at the Vic is behind and the East Stand is closing for good it all paints a murky picture. Its not made clearer by Graham Simpson going on Sky to announce that we haven’t got money worries. Hmmm. On the OS Aidy is quoted as saying it will be a long week. Make that a season Aidy. That is, if you survive it. Going by Simpsons past record I’m not sure you will.

Plant Pots- Barnet 3 Watford 2

A miserable afternoon at Underhill and that wasn’t just the rain that bucked down on the slightly odd Family Stand we sat in shortly before the start.

Nice to see Dan Shittu appearing again for the ‘Orns. We should play him up front instead of Priskin, who yet again showed us the worst of his form. I’d rather start with Kabba or Ellington than him. Jon Harley did okay, but otherwise I’m struggling to say good things.

Apart from the goals highlight of the day were the advertising hoardings, the type of which you only get at a ground such as Underhill. ’Adopt a Bear’ (couldn’t tell whether this meant real or soft toy variety) was only just beaten out by the collapsable plant pots (?) for best one.

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.