20th January 2002- New Division One, Watford 1 Manchester City 2

Kevin Keegan’s promotion bandwagon was given a slice of good fortune as Watford gifted Manchester City all three points on Sunday.

As early as the quarter hour mark we were forced into a reshuffle as Cox limped off having earlier received treatment. Doyley dropped into his more accustomed central role, with Heidar continuing his tour of the outfield positions as a right wing-back.

At this point, anyway, Luca brought Helguson on, and I assume we went to four in defence, with Glass dropping back and Helguson, inexplicably, playing wide right. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, and there’s no denying Pennant’s usefulness up front, but isn’t he supposed to be a right winger and Helguson a striker?

A difficult pitch and a difficult opponent, full of tricks and movement, but we played as well as we could, which is all you can ask for. Although City were better than us, technically, our battling performance could have earned a draw. Helguson’s unfortunate own goal gave City a win they barely deserved: that’s what happens when you ask strikers to play a defensive role.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2002-01-20

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-division-1/20-january-2002/

Leave a Reply