Category Archives: Graham Taylor

8th August 2015- Premier League, Everton 2 Watford 2

Scan 32

Scan 33

Scan 34

Scan 35

Scan 36

Scan 37

Scan 38

Scan 39

Scan 40

Scan 41

Scan 42

Scan 43

Scan 44

Scan 45

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5169

BBC Sport

Arouna Kone’s late equaliser earned Everton a point at home to Premier League newcomers Watford. Mexican Miguel Layun fired Watford ahead on the half-volley in the first half after Everton failed to clear.

sky

Substitute Arouna Kone’s late equaliser earned Everton a 2-2 draw and spoiled Watford’s hopes of a fairytale win on their return to the Premier League at Goodison Park.

Telegraph

When referee Mike Jones blew the half time whistle, the booing inside Goodison Park was so thunderous that the stadium’s public address system was activated to full blast immediately; the noise on the terraces being masked by One Direction, a noise of a very different kind.

Miguel-Layun-and-Odion-Ighalo-score-to-earn-Watford-2-2-Premier-League-draw-at-Everton-_-Watford-Observer Download

Watford are up and running in the Premier League after a high-intensity display of commitment and organisation saw them twice lead at Everton only to be pegged back on both occasions in a stirring 2-2 draw at Goodison Park.

BHappy image

The old “will take time to gel” thing drifts from being a source of concern to a reason to be excited in the wake of the opening fixture. Because there were deficiencies, several of them actually, and yet we went and got a result despite them in a challenging away game, twice taking the lead in the process.

There was some disappointment among some Watford fans that we had twice surrendered the lead. Others, me included, felt that we would have bitten hands off if offered a draw at the start of the game. We met a number of Toffees fans on our journey back to the city centre who were very complimentary about our performance and scathing of theirs. Most Watford fans were impressed with our strong showing and the quality of our new signings. Quique has promised us a surprise in each game. I am not sure that will be good for my blood pressure or my sanity, but I am intrigued to see how he will set up at home. So far, so good and I am really looking forward to the rest of the season.

Screen Shot 2018-08-09 at 21.41.47

Screen Shot 2018-08-09 at 21.43.16

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.

26th October 2012- Dinner honouring the Watford team of 1982/83

Images courtesy of Matt Hall

15th September 2012- Championship, Bolton Wanderers 2 Watford 1

The game where Lloyd Doyley scored his other goal.

Lloyd Doyley’s cross evaded everyone, including goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, to ensure a tense finish but the home side held on for victory.

Second goal of Lloyd Doyley’s career doesn’t hide Watford’s defensive frailties at Bolton Wanderers

Lloyd Doyley admits second Watford goal was a cross but Bolton Wanderers defeat tainted moment

https://oldwatford.com/2012/09/18/18th-september-2012-championship-watford-0-brighton-hove-albion-1/

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5022

7th March 2012- Championship, West Ham United 1 Watford 1

Highlights: West Ham 1-1 Watford

West Ham needed a late Ricardo Vaz Te goal to earn a point as they blew their chance to go top of the Championship. Teenager Sean Murray fired Watford ahead midway through the second half with a fierce low drive.

Substitute Vaz Te struck with three minutes of normal time to play and West Ham laid siege on the Watford goal throughout nine minutes of stoppage time following a nasty injury to Dale Bennett.

Sean Dyche’s Watford, by contrast, were fearless. Outclassed on paper, they defended heroically and “looked after each other”, as Dyche put it. Leaders stood tall all over the pitch. Captain John Eustace shed blood for the cause. Goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, in his third game on loan from Manchester United, kept Watford in the game with some excellent saves. “We believe in what we do,” Dyche said. “We’re realistic, you know you’re in for a tough task at a place like this. But the mentality of the team is fantastic, and that was on show tonight.”

A clash of heads between John Eustace and Dale Bennett, Watford team-mates, forced a seven-minute delay. Eustace left the pitch, returning with a large bandage on his head, but Bennett, his neck in a brace, was taken off on a stretcher and then to hospital. “We suspect it’s not as serious as it looked,” Sean Dyche, the Watford manager, said. “We’re waiting on the doctors to see if he’ll be kept in overnight.”

Away matches are brilliant. Evening kick-offs are brilliant. Nothing-to-lose, dammit games are brilliant. So an evening kick off at the Boleyn Ground, preceded by several hours of build-up… verbal, nutritional (Nathan’s Pie and Mash shop a thing of rare beauty) and liquid is something to savour. Yet more so given that astonishingly sensible stewarding permits actual standing for the entire ninety minutes. That’ll never catch on. And of course that the Boleyn Ground is a claustrophobic, suffocatingly intense venue. Industrial-scale bubble machines of a size that would cause my daughters to combust with excitement are stationed at the side of the pitch, propelling countless swarms of the things into the night sky. I must have seen that here before, but I can’t believe it’s anything like as effective when the floodlights aren’t catching them. Not sure it would work quite as well with Hornets, one to mull over though. I’m sure there are financial reasons for leaving Upton Park, reasons that might even benefit the football club, but you’d have to be bloody mental to want to abandon this place. If the atmosphere is slightly subdued before the game, from kick off onwards it positively crackles.

More games from 7th March at https://oldwatford.com/tag/mar7

1st September 2011- UEFA European Under 21 Championship Qualifier, England Under 21s 6 Azerbaijan Under 21s 0 (played at Vicarage Road)

Stuart Pearce’s England Under-21s thrashed Azerbaijan to start their Euro 2013 qualifying campaign in style.

Stuart Pearce’s England U21 side made a bright start to their Euro Championship qualifying campaign with a 6-0 rout of Azerbaijan.

Six goals, six debutants, three points and no sign of a sea change. England could not have wished for a more comfortable start to their attempt to qualify for a fourth successive European Under-21 Championship as they disposed of Azerbaijan with ease, but there was nothing here to suggest that they will fare any better in the 2013 finals in Israel, if they get there, than they did during June’s dispiriting performance in the 2011 tournament.

A journey of 2,250 miles begins with a single step, and although England were scarcely bothered by their Caucasian visitors in their opening European Championship qualifier, it was an encouragingly cohesive display from the side that Stuart Pearce hopes will lead him to Israel in 2013.

Hornblogger: I remember fondly the last Under 21 international at Vicarage Road which took place 23 years ago. My mate Laurence and I refer to it regularly because it was at the time, and probably remains, one of the most boring games we’d ever witnessed. For years afterwards we ceased using words like boring, dull and grim and instead would use ‘Denmark Under 21’s’ to describe anything bad that happened.