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?

The man behind me- Watford 1 Blackpool 1

Home to Blackpool and drew 1-1 in a game we really should have won easily. Adam Johnson scored a great free kick just before half time but Blackpool scored a penalty with about 15 minutes left.

My mate Laurence made the comment after he used my ticket to go to the Southampton game that the man behind me was very annoying. I was surprised because whilst being loud I like the man behind me as he is quite funny.

However I soon saw what Laurence meant. Another man, who does now sit right behind and next to the funny loud man, has appeared and will only shout to yell abuse at the Watford players. His targets yesterday were King (!), Doyley and Mahon. I clearly wasn't the only one who got fed up as a couple of women near me turned round to stare at him. I really hope he isn't going to be there again but the fact he has had that seat for two games in a row doesn't look good.

Compact- Queens Park Rangers 1 Watford 1

Drove to South Ruislip and got a very fast Central Line train to White City. I was at the ground by 1.50 as the station is less than half a mile away.

I liked Loftus Road a lot. For a start it had the biggest loo's I've ever seen inside a football ground and it was also very compact. You feel like your seat is right on the pitch. I was amazed that the capacity is around 18,000 as everything is so close you'd imagine you could only get about 5000 in there.

I was wearing my San Francisco 49'ers sweater and a steward came and had a chat to me because he used to live in San Fran when he was in the marines and had been a 49'ers Season Ticket holder for two years. I was very impressed! He also said he did stewarding at Wembley and so was going to see the Miami v NY Giants game there in October.

The chatting continued as I sat next to an older lady call Phyl who had 3 children and whose husband had died last year. She had been a Watford supporter for years and it was the thing she did on her own. She was very chatty about Watford and families and was a good person to sit next to.

The game was one we should have won easily but we just didn't get the luck and ended up drawing 1-1. Adam Johnson scored our goal early in the 2nd half but QPR equalised within 10 minutes. It didn't even help when they had a man sent off for two bookable offences late on.

I left the ground quickly and there was a train in the station when I got there. I got back home by 5.40! Only slightly later than if I'd gone to the Vic.

Everybody Wear Sunscreen- Leicester City 4 Watford 1

So much for it all being peachy! However Martin Allen speaking on ITV1's The Championship still reckons that we'll be going up as champions. Not something you usually hear from the opposing boss who has just won 4-1.

To be honest I couldn't really comment despite being at the Walkers on Saturday. I was in the unfortunate position of being in the very front row. At a concert this would be fine but at a football match I find it probably the worst place to be. Especially directly opposite the corner flag when there isn't a cloud in the sky.

Apart from this unfortunate position (oh and the result) I've only got good things to say about the Leicester experience. I parked easily and nearby, despite all the signs telling you that there was no matchday parking the nearer you got to the ground.

Why, oh why do all councils insist on the doing this sort of thing now? Rather than celebrating the fact they have a football club and encouraging people to come and watch and making it easy to get to, they insist on making it as difficult and unwelcome as possible for the motorist, even at grounds where the parking is okay! Leicester had various business parks around it but you never would have found these had you believed the road signs from the M1.

Wandering around outside before hand I was really impressed at how Leicester were trying to appeal to families. There was loads for kids to do outside including a bucking bronco, a football target practise, face painting and various mascots.

Leicester are fortunate at the amount of room they have outside the ground to do this (I'm not sure we'd be allowed to do it on Vicarage Road) but they should get credit for the fact they do it at all. I certainly don't remember anything like it at Arsenal or Man U last year and they've certainly got the room.

I'd heard the ground was an identikit new stadium but I liked the way Leicester had made it there own with the montage of pictures hanging down from the roof. The facilities were good and there was even a telly showing Sky to watch Sunderland v Liverpool on beforehand.

I've also got to give credit to the programme. Usually I buy the programme as a souvenir and spend about 5 minutes skimming through it. However Leicester was rare in that it actually held my attention for a while. It took our idea from around 1999/2000 of having lots of short easy to read questionnaire type features and interviewing fans and players a like. Its was much easier to get through than our current 'long swathes of text' magazine.

Because of the sun I couldn't really tell you much about the first half other than Leicester's goal was fantastic, the stewards didn't really know what they were doing not letting the disabled helpers sit with those they were there to help, Baz Luhrmann knew what he was taking about and I wished I hadn't left my baseball cap in the car.

Half time came and I decided if I didn't want to get sunstroke it would be best to move and so I went and sat right at the back pleased that, once again, we were unable to sell out our ticket allocation.

The downside of this was I was sat nearest to the Leicester fans behind the goal who unsurprisingly got loudly and more exuberant as the second half went on. They even stole our e-i-e-i-e-i-o Marlon King song. However I'm sure most fans would agree that their behaviour was fair enough and only what we would have done had we been winning so convincingly.

I was more offended by the pathetic and bad tempered complaints to the nearby steward made by a couple of middle aged Watford fans near me. If you are going to get wound up by the Leicester fans gesturing at you then don't encourage them by spending more time looking at them than you do actually watching the game!

The two goals shortly after half time both looked unlucky, but we can't complain given some of the deflections we've had go for us over the last few games. Once it was 3-0 the game was pretty much over although it was good to see that Marlon was one of the few who never gave up even when they'd made it 4.

James Chambers got a good reception when he came on (better than the one Jordan got from the Leicester fans) and kindly gave us an undeserved penalty late on. Unsurprisingly there weren't many Watford fans left to see this.

So what conclusions can be drawn? Against Wolves and Sheff Utd we never played well but got the result. From what I could tell during the sun baked first half against Leicester we played well and heads understandably dropped in the second half once it was 3-0. The only game I'd say we've played really well was Gillingham in the cup with 10 different players than who started at the Walkers on Saturday.

The one definite I can say so far is that I'm really not sure Mart Poom is the Ben Foster replacement we've been looking for. He seems to have serious communication problems with his back four. This is something that I think is just about forgivable in the first game of the season but by now really should have been sorted out.

He has also inherited the Ben Foster trick of having one seriously dodgy blunder per game although luckily for him none of these so far has resulted in a goal. However it won't be long I fear.

Poor Richard Lee. He was great against Gillingham and was pretty faultless in his Premiership appearances last year. He really really deserves a spell in goal to prove himself to Boothroyd. It seems he is forever judged on the three losses when he was in goal at the very start of the Aidy regime. If the likes of Steve Kabba can come back from the wilderness I feel Rich definitely deserves a go. I hope he has a good one against Southend on Tuesday.

Speaking of Kabba he started. Henderson was nowhere to be seen and I think we can assume he's going to become a Cottager. A front line of King and either Kabba/Priskin isn't quite what I think Aidy had in mind before the season started. It was frustrating to see DJ Campbell play well for Leicester when he could've easily been lining up for us.

Aidy reckons this result might do us some good and I'm inclined to agree. Certainly on the performances so far we haven't deserved the plaudits we've got. Hopefully now we'll see we've got to improve if we are going to to prove Martin Allen even half right.