Monthly Archives: March 2005

29th March 2005- Adrian Boothroyd is appointed new Watford manager

Evening Standard, 29 Mar 2005

BBC Sport: Watford have appointed Leeds coach Adrian Boothroyd as their new manager.

22nd March 2005- Ray Lewington is sacked as Watford manager

Evening Standard, 22 Mar 2005

Daily Telegraph, 23 Mar 2005

Evening Standard, 23 Mar 2005

In Lionel Birnie’s book ‘The 100 Greatest Watford wins’ he wrote about the decision to remove Ray.

The Boss Files: Ray Lewington

19th March 2005- Championship, Watford 0 Preston North End 2

This was the final game in Ray Lewington’s reign as Watford Manager.

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David Nugent and Paul McKenna were on target as Preston stayed on course for a place in the Championship play-offs.

Football is a game with ever-altering ambitions, where the only goals that never change are those at each end of the pitch. When the season started these sides will have shared the same aim but by the time this match ended their immediate desires will have been entirely opposite. One side are dreaming that their form will carry them out of this division while for the other precisely the same possibility forms a nightmare.

BSAD image There’s a point, at about quarter to five on an otherwise sunny and bright and cheerful Saturday afternoon, when this becomes almost physically unbearable. While the rest of the country celebrates the arrival of spring, the effort required to maintain the connection between backside and plastic is virtually impossible, and the commitment to doing so utterly inexplicable. Only sheer paralysis causes eyes to remain focused on the pitch, rather than returning to concrete and feet, or being closed in torment or buried behind palms of hands.

An important home match in front of a sell-out crowd before two tricky, long distance away games, Watford had to win this. It was made even more vital by stupidly throwing away a two-nil lead against Leicester on Tuesday night. However, the ninety minutes which we witnessed were very bleak, and gave us little confidence in the now forthcoming relegation fight. A team lacking our star performer of recent weeks in Jay Demerit saw an unconvincing defence line up of Smith, Cox, Doyley and Chambers. Lewington played an unadventurous midfield line-up of Ardley, Mahon, Gunnarsson and Jackson. Webber partnered Helguson up front.

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Taken from the programme on 6th August 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Preston North End 2

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15th March 2005- Championship, Watford 2 Leicester City 2

Jay De Merit had put Watford ahead, heading home a free-kick, before Danny Webber scored a penalty after Nikos Dabizas fouled Heidar Helguson.

Ray Lewington shuffled his depleted deck of cards, still missing its ace of spades as far as the current situation goes in Sean Dyche, and also without the suspended Bryjar Gunnarsson, and came up with a 4-4-2 formation with four changes in personnel from the QPR game. Jack Smith came in for the hapless Jermaine Darlington. Lloyd Doyley returned to the fray, along with Danny Webber and Neal Ardley and we settled down to see what Watford were made of.

12th March 2005- Championship, Queens Park Rangers 3 Watford 1

Watford slumped to a third successive Championship defeat going down at Queen’s Park Rangers and had to play for nearly 70 minutes with ten men, after Brynjar Gunnarsson was sent off for deliberate handball.

Despite a certain amount of empty bluster directed towards Lee Cook and then Graham Poll, this was about feeble surrender, about shutting out the world. A performance that was utterly devoid of substance, and just about got what it deserved…and we’re simply not in a position where we can afford to abdicate responsibility for our fate, not yet. We have to intervene.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2005-03-12

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/12-march-2005/

8th March 2005- Championship, Watford 0 Nottingham Forest 2

Kris Commons scored twice against Watford to earn Nottingham Forest three key points in their relegation battle.

The physical presence of Forest’s defence made life difficult for Watford, though, and the closest Ray Lewington’s team came to hitting the target was when Johnnie Jackson steered his header wide from an awkward angle.

“Stumble-john”, or “blunderer”, sums up the Watford performance fairly well, granting naive Nottingham Forest fans blind optimism in the hope that they may well avoid relegation after all.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2005-03-08

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/08-march-2005/