6th January 2024- FA Cup Third Round, Watford 2 Chesterfield 1

WFC.Net Jon Marks Goal Commentary: 1  2

BBC: Tom Dele-Bashiru sent Watford into the fourth round of the FA Cup with an injury-time winner against National League leaders Chesterfield. Chesterfield had been on course to upstage a side 63 places above them in the English football pyramid, but late goals from substitute Mileta Rajovic and Dele-Bashiru saved the Hornets.

Watford Observer: RECAP: Watford 2 Chesterfield 1

Hornets survive scare to reach FA Cup fourth round

Ismael had to ‘get loud’ at half-time because ‘players chose to go another way’

‘It was like we were strolling around’ admits Hoedt whose warning went unheeded

BHappy: Chesterfield were never a dull prospect.  Few of us will be overly familiar with the Spireites travails since interrupting 60+ years of bouncing slowly between tiers 3 and 4 to drop out of the League altogether five years ago, but if the margin of their lead at the top of the National League didn’t spark interest, the startling prospect of our visitors capitalising on the FA Cup’s generous rules inflating away allocations by filling the Vicarage Road end will have grabbed everyone’s attention.  A non-league team, even a non-league team that isn’t a non-league team by tradition, even a non-league team that’s the demonstrably the strongest non-league team in the country at the moment doesn’t bring an away following of nearly 4000 with coaches filling Vicarage Road after the game for a nice day out.  Our visitors thought they could get something here, and giddy on the little-risk-high-reward deal described above, were noisy and boisterous throughout.

https://www.thefa.com/competitions/thefacup/results