15th March 2008- Championship, Watford 0 Stoke City 0

Darius Henderson failed to convert a penalty for the second time in a week as Watford played out a sixth consecutive draw.

The red card shown to the Watford captain, John Eustace, in the 22nd minute for a high tackle on Richard Cresswell appeared to be the right decision but, if the player is to believed, there was no malice intended and he was dismissed for a mere miscalculation of timing. It was particularly hard for Eustace to take as he was playing against his former side for the first time since he left the Britannia Stadium in January.

Full marks to the Stokies for their vocal disdain of Eustace’s dismissal, and to Don Fraser for his “come up here Styles and we’ll show you what contact is” shout of the day.

The two major incidents aside, Watford could, and perhaps should have won this game. The Stoke stats of zero shots on target and zero shots off-target tell their own story, and the increasing number of tantrums and hissy-fits from Ricardo Fuller tell you all you need to know about the performance of the Watford defence (or of course further evidence of his suspect temperament).

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2008-03-15

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/15-march-2008/

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