Monthly Archives: October 2021

30th October 2021- Premier League, Watford 0 Southampton 1

Attendance: 20.869

BBC Sport: Che Adam’s superb strike was the difference as Southampton held on against Watford at Vicarage Road for their first away league win of the season.

Sky Sports: Claudio Ranieri’s side came crashing back down to earth following their impressive 5-2 win at Everton last weekend, and it is now back-to-back home defeats for the Italian after he replaced Xisco Munoz as Watford manager earlier this month.

BHappy: Meanwhile, the second half had been preceded by a farewell to Emma Saunders, who moves on to Sky Sports.  Two things to note here… first, it’s entirely appropriate that the wider Watford family are recognised in this way.  Players and prominent coaching staff will sometimes get this stuff, ex-players too including the ever more rock’n’roll Ross Jenkins, also wheeled out here.  But “the likes of Emma” (and those less visible still) deserve their recognition;  those that find this a bit parochial can go screw themselves. But Emma in particular, along with Tommy Mooney, Jon Marks and everyone else involved, deserve one final round of applause for providing something to look forward to last season.  Doubtless her star will continue to rise, but she deserves to be remembered fondly for her part in that whatever else she goes on to achieve.

Fran’s Watford Blog: After the excitement at Everton, it was all rather dull.  It had been a much better second half from the Hornets but, despite the fact that we had more shots on target than the visitors, we rarely looked like scoring.  Although we would have been a lot happier had that Fletcher shot gone in.  Sarr has come in for a lot of criticism, as he is perceived to be looking uninterested, but he created the majority of the chances, sadly most of them went straight to McCarthy, but the highlights showed that Walker-Peters was rather fortunate to have cleared that chance off the line.  But it is early days for Ranieri, so we have to hope that the form will improve soon. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59019335

23rd October 2021- Premier League, Everton 2 Watford 5

WFC.Net Jon Marks’ Goal Commentary: 1  2  3  4  5

Attendance: 38,834

BBC Sport: Joshua King’s hat-trick helped Watford to a stunning first win under Claudio Ranieri as Everton collapsed in a pulsating Premier League game at Goodison Park.

Sky Sports: Just under three minutes after coming on, Richarlison edged Everton ahead, stooping low to head Michael Keane’s cross home (63) against his former club, but Watford turned the game on its head with two goals in 88 seconds.

BHappy: This will be the day that we cash in all of our Goodison chips.  This is for Chris Powell, and the ultimately decisive penalty given against him for having the ball smashed into his face in 2005.  This is for Lucas Digne’s 96th-minute free kick three years ago.  For Alice breaking down on the M6, for me taking out the side of the Qashqai in a hurried attempt to park in 2015.  For Felix’s puncture in 2000, the insane jacking up on the side of the motorway before rushing to Goodison to see us get effortlessly dicked.  Again.  For Gomes’ injury and Cleverley’s missed penalty.  For Steve Terry in 1983, one of six defeats in six visits in our first top flight spell. You wouldn’t have chosen to cash in all those chips at once.  But given that we were to go whole hog, it would have been rude not to enjoy it.

Fran’s Watford Blog: The celebrations were tinged with disbelief.  None of us had seen that performance coming.  The players were throwing shirts (and gloves) into the crowd.  On the way out of the ground there were hugs with Simona and Dave.  We spent so long celebrating that we were on the last bus back to the city centre.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58936301

16th October 2021- Premier League, Watford 0 Liverpool 5

Attendance: 21,085

BBC Sport: Roberto Firmino scored a hat-trick as rampant Liverpool condemned Claudio Ranieri to a miserable start to life as Watford manager in a one-sided game at Vicarage Road.

Sky Sports: There was to be no new manager bounce factor for Watford with Sadio Mane scoring after just eight minutes, setting the tone for a completely dominant Liverpool performance and netting his 100th Premier League goal in the process.

Fran’s Watford Blog: So, we reached half time two goals down after being thoroughly outplayed.  During the break, there was a brief appearance by Heiđar Helguson, who is the latest Watford ambassador.  I was expecting an interview, but he just waved to the crowd as we sung his name.

4th October 2021- Claudio Ranieri is appointed Head Coach

BBC: Watford have appointed Claudio Ranieri as manager on a two-year contract.

The Guardian: Ranieri, whose first game in charge with be at home against Liverpool after the international break, will be joined at Watford by assistant coaches Paolo Benetti and Carlo Cornacchia and fitness coach Carlo Spignoli.

Sky: Ranieri last worked in the Premier League with Fulham in 2018/19 but was dismissed after just a few months after failing to arrest their struggles.

The day after Ranieri’s appointment The Guardian’s football cartoonist David Squires took our ever changing managers and included them in a strip that also featured the big Netflix TV hit of the time Squid Game.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2021/oct/05/david-squires-on-squad-game-the-brutal-drama-featuring-watford-fc

2nd October 2021- Premier League, Leeds United 1 Watford 0

BBC Sport: Leeds picked up their first victory in the Premier League this season as defender Diego Llorente returned from injury to score the winner over Watford.

Sky Sports: Watford looked lethargic and made numerous errors throughout, even without two of their three substitutions being made due to injury. They did find the net in the second half in their best five-minute spell, but Christian Kabasele’s poke home was ruled out after he was judged to have fouled Liam Cooper in the build-up.

BHappy: This was pretty dreadful all told.  For all that there were nods of approval in the extensive queues for sustenance as the team news broke pre-match, Sierralta making a welcome return and Tufan’s first League start the most sensible looking solution to our midfield challenges, we never looked remotely equipped to cope with Leeds’ aggressive press, tamer versions of which we’ve struggled with already this season at Brighton and last week most obviously.