Category Archives: Gianfranco Zola

10th August 2013- Championship, Watford 6 AFC Bournemouth 1

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5070

Troy Deeney fired in a hat-trick as Watford thrashed newly promoted Bournemouth to go top of the table.

Watford-6-1-Bournemouth-BBC-Sport Download

Troy Deeney hit a hat-trick as Watford hammered Bournemouth 6-1 in their Championship clash at Vicarage Road.

Troy Deeney scored a second-half hat-trick as Watford demolished Bournemouth at Vicarage Road and sent a strong message to their Championship promotion rivals.

Watford signalled their Premier League ambitions with five goals in a ruthless second half display to crush newly-promoted Bournemouth.

Even for world-weary types like your correspondent, who prefer their battles hard-fought and their victories without any sense of entitlement, this is terribly hard to resist. It almost feels as if the anticlimax at Wembley didn’t happen; perhaps it was such a non-event, swimming in the spring heat haze, that any memories have simply evaporated and left little trace. What might’ve been a watershed moment just passed quietly into history, and here we are: the old gang, back together for another shot at the big time. Even for world-weary types, it’s a tantalising prospect.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2013-08-10

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/10-august-2013/

12th May 2013- Championship Playoff Semi-Final Second Leg, Watford 3 Leicester City 1 (Watford won 3-2 on aggregate)

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5066

If you’ve come for a calm, balanced perspective on things you’ve come to the wrong place. Surely nobody with a vested interest is capable of anything approaching objectivity this evening, in the context of the quite extraordinary last eight days… your best qualified candidate for this is in Cornwall, of all places, so you’re stuck with me. And just a few hours ago I was shuffling up a dazed Occupation Road with a bouncing six year old proclaiming that we were “definitely going to win the final. For certain. If they score a hundred goals, we’ll score a thousand….”. That result, for one, is no longer in doubt, but don’t expect cold analysis here. We’re far too far gone for that.

Troy Deeney scored Watford’s aggregate winner in an extraordinary finish to their Championship play-off semi-final against Leicester. Twenty seconds after Anthony Knockaert had a debatable penalty saved at the other end, Deeney thumped in a shot.

A quite astonishing finish to this play-off semi-final second leg saw the game swing from apparently certain success for Leicester to a Watford victory in less than 20 seconds.

Almunia, Deeney and the 18 seconds that led to Watford ecstasy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Football_League_play-offs

4th May 2013- Championship, Watford 1 Leeds United 2

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5064

Watford missed out on automatic promotion after losing to Leeds in a game delayed by serious injury to keeper Jonathan Bond. Dominic Poleon put Leeds in front, but Almen Abdi levelled shortly after. Watford’s Troy Deeney then saw red for two bookable offences before news of a late Cardiff equaliser at Hull left the Hornets needing a goal to go up. But Ross McCormack scored Leeds’ winner with the help of a blunder by replacement keeper Jack Bonham.

Bond, who was taken to hospital in the first half after Poleon’s shove to Anya, was only on the pitch after regular keeper Manuel Almunia injured himself during the warm-up.

The blood on the pitch told its own story, as did 16 minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half, and it was a dereliction of duty on the part of the referee, Graham Salisbury, that he did not send Poleon off. Overall Salisbury did not cover himself in glory, having earlier missed Michael Brown denying Jonathan Hogg a clear goalscoring opportunity when he tripped the Watford midfielder in the area.

“I thought at the end that we were going to make it,” admitted Zola, now compelled to lift his men ahead of the first leg of their play-off semi-final against Leicester on Thursday night. “There were 10 minutes to go and, although we had one player fewer, I believed we had the quality. I was taking a big gamble but we had to try.”

This ought to hurt. When you turn away and distract yourself with other things, it ought to be staring you straight in the face whenever you look back. It ought to make you want to punch the wall and throw things and find some really destructive gardening to do. If I take solace in anything – and I’m struggling – then it’s in the reaction of Jonathan Hogg, whose post-match lap of honour was so reluctant and desultory that it barely took him beyond the centre circle and never, not for a moment, involved looking at anything other than his own feet. Lap of honour? Bollocks to that.

20th April 2013- Championship, Watford 4 Blackburn Rovers 0

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5062

Watford kept their slim automatic promotion hopes alive with a comprehensive demolition of 10-man Blackburn at Vicarage Road.

Hull remain favourites for second place, but Watford’s much superior goal difference means the Tigers will need to win at least one of their remaining fixtures to prevent a late charge from the Vicarage Road club, who have now mathematically secured at least a play-off spot.

Troy Deeney scored twice for the Championship’s third-placed team and if their hopes of hauling in Hull’s four-point cushion with two matches remaining seem far-fetched, the form of the club’s strikeforce bodes well with playoffs on the agenda. Zola left the Championship player of the year, Matej Vydra, on the bench and the 20-goal striker was hardly missed as his replacement, Fernando Forestieri, set up the first three goals.

The scoreline tells one story. The narrative of the match itself, however, is not (merely) one of us putting inadequate opponents to the sword. In fact it followed the template of several of our big wins this season; against Huddersfield in the snow in January we laboured for a bit against a side hellbent on stopping us from playing – and once we had gotten that first goal we were gone, galloping off into the sunset with the points and never looking back.

https://oldwatford.com/2013/05/04/4th-may-2013-championship-watford-1-leeds-united-2/

6th April 2013- Championship, Watford 0 Cardiff City 0

https://watford.fcdb.info/index.php?page=matches

BBC: The Championship leaders had goalkeeper David Marshall to thank for denying Troy Deeney with an excellent save. Deeney missed another chance for the Hornets, who stay third, but Manuel Almunia frustrated Cardiff by keeping out Kim Bo-Kyung and Joe Mason.

BHappy: But much as this encounter began, continued and ended in stalemate, it was nevertheless only a single winning goal, a single moment of brilliance or good fortune for either side, away from being a significant part of this season’s story. It was as if everyone held their breath at kickoff…and held it…and held it…and nothing happened. Nothing. No storm, no flood. The weather forecast was wrong. And we all went home, put it to one side almost instantly, and started thinking about next weekend instead. It’s already old news.

Observer, 7 Apr 2013

Sunday Telegraph, 7 Apr 2013

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2013-04-06

Sunday Telegraph

29th March 2013- Championship, Watford 3 Burnley 3

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5057

Sam Vokes rescued a point for Burnley in injury-time as Watford missed the opportunity to move into the top two.

A mistake by 22-year-old Matthew Briggs allowed Sam Vokes to make it 3-3 as Burnley manager Sean Dyche’s first return to Watford since being controversially sacked by them ended happily for him.

And so we welcomed Sean Dyche back to a very different club. We applauded him warmly, and quite rightly; he applauded us, which was typically decent of him. And he stood on the touchline with Ian Woan, pointing and shouting and looking as if he’d never left. And then we went our separate ways again. And now we’re here, you wouldn’t change it, would you?

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2013-03-29

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/29-march-2013/