Monthly Archives: November 2004

30th November 2004- League Cup Quarter Final, Watford 3 Portsmouth 0

BBC Sport

Portsmouth’s traumatic week sunk to new depths as they were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Watford.

Mirror, 1 Dec 2004

Evening Standard, 1 Dec 2004

guardian

Watford would seem to specialise in compounding the problems of troubled south-coast clubs, but Portsmouth’s first-team coach Kevin Bond did not bemoan the impact of Harry Redknapp’s departure as manager last week.

BSAD image

Three BSAD reports including…Despite recent events, Portsmouth are a much better side than the last round’s victims, and this success required the intense, concentrated implementation of a well-prepared gameplan. Required it, got it…and weagain, astonishingly and spectacularly, arrived at the point where we’d put the game out of reach with half an hour remaining.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=40850&id=4633

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More games from 30th November at https://oldwatford.com/tag/nov30

https://oldwatford.com/2010/03/16/16th-march-2010-championship-watford-2-ipswich-town-1/

20th November 2004- Championship, Watford 0 Rotherham United 0

Your glass is definitely either half-empty or half-full at the moment if you are a Watford fan, depending on your point of view.

We really ought to have won it, obviously, yet never quite did enough to turn theory into fact. Not the first time and probably not the last either, and it says much about the division that we can make a habit of such indecision while comfortably maintaining a position just below the playoffs. When we take our chances, we’re capable of being a frightening side; much more often, we’re poised on the brink, unable to make the leap. That’s all right, mind: such potential, even unrealised, is a great and unexpected improvement after recent struggles. People booed this, but they’re the people who’d do the same even if we’d hit the woodwork seventeen times, had nine realistic penalty appeals refused, three perfectly good goals disallowed, forced the keeper into an endless series of miracles, and had a shot cleared from a yard over the line. With nine men. In this instance, we were some way short of that, clearly. Some way short of previous seasons’ atrocities too, though.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=39599&id=4630

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2004-11-20

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/20-november-2004/

13th November 2004- Championship, Sheffield United 1 Watford 1

We waved to the team coach, standing on the grass verge of the M1 as they sped past our stricken Fiesta, more to keep warm than anything. To be honest, though, I couldn’t feel more affection for the club right now if they’d stopped, furnished us with as many rub-downs and isotonic sports drinks as we could handle, and towed us home. This Watford team works hard, has the right attitude, carries no one, features no mercenaries or over paid former superstars, and even has cup runs. Call me unambitious, but that’s pretty much all I wanted from the club.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=37901&id=4629

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2004-11-13

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/13-november-2004/

9th November 2004- League Cup Fourth Round, Watford 5 Southampton 2

BBC Sport

Watford thumped Premiership side Southampton to cruise into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.

Beforehand, however, for the hour-and-a-bit that actually mattered, when both sides were competing head-to-head for a match that hadn’t yet been completely decided, there was something entirely different. Something that five-two doesn’t capture. Four-nil gets it, mind. Four-nil is final, unarguable, absolutely resounding. Four-nil is a crushing victory, a brutal result. Four-nil hurts like five-two doesn’t, and this hurt. It was four-nil after sixty-six minutes. The rest was just an entertaining encore.

Clearly, this was a match that we could win. Obviously, they were lacking in confidence. But, crucially, the game still had to be won. Am I the only one slightly disappointed with the media focus on how bad Southampton were rather than our splendid display? Whilst they did disintegrated into a hapless rabble, it was only after they were beaten into submission by a Watford side on a mission.

Despite having a ticket, my mate Adam couldn’t make the game due to some nonsense about a work commitment. I called him after Dyer’s goal and could tell he was fearing the worse by the way he answered the phone. ‘One-nil – Dyer,’ was my simple message amidst the accompanying din of the Rookery. Maybe he’d heard it ‘0-1 – dire’. I’m not sure.

Evening Standard, 10 Nov 2004

Daily Telegraph, 10 Nov 2004

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004%E2%80%9305_Football_League_Cup

https://oldwatford.com/2010/03/13/13th-march-2010-championship-watford-0-peterborough-united-1/

6th November 2004-Championship, Watford 2 Derby County 2

BSAD report:I don’t know how many words there are in Icelandic for goal, but there must be quite a few for determination.

BSAD report:Unfortunately, my battle to scribble notes in a straight line in the rapidly failing light meant that I was looking down at my pad when Derby scored the equaliser, so I can’t tell you how it happened, except that it was, I think, Ian Taylor, from a rebound.

BSAD report: The man next to me by Richard Scrimshaw

report by a Derby fan

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=36348&id=4627

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