Category Archives: Graham Taylor

5th March 2011- Championship, Watford 1 Millwall 0

Danny Graham’s 21st goal of the season proved decisive as Watford edged out a narrow win against Millwall.

It’s all about the points, quite obviously. However theoretical the threat of relegation had been before kick-off, the winless run will have had many glancing down the table and calculating our margin of safety. Malky’s assertion that many of the dropped points can cite mitigating circumstances and stout performances wasn’t inaccurate, but with a young team and a small squad we were always at risk of building downward momentum. In spite of which, and in spite in particular of the blows to our midfield this week (see below), this was a fine, spirited performance. Millwall contributed in no small part to a game that was far more watchable than a 1-0 home win in a mid-table encounter might suggest… they played an open game, which suits us now as much as it did at the New Den at the beginning of the season. In reality the result could easily have gone the other way but the best move of the game won it, the incomparable Graham applying yet another effortlessly ruthless finish to Cowie’s visionary pass.

More games from 5th March at https://oldwatford.com/tag/mar5

15th January 2011- Championship, Watford 3 Derby County 0

Free-scoring Watford notched three goals in nine first-half minutes to see off dismal Derby and rack up a seventh consecutive Championship victory.

Will Buckley, Danny Graham and Marvin Sordell were on the scoresheet as Watford moved into the play-off places.

You know this, but I’m going to say it anyway. There have been better Watford sides than this in the past, and teams that have achieved more (although there’s time…). But this little spell bears comparison with the most illogically enjoyable of our past (and there have been plenty of those). We’ve not battled and scrapped for these results, although the work rate is there. We’re comprehensively too good for people, week after week. It would be prudent to reserve final judgment perhaps until we see the squad at the end of January. But at the moment, being ten points from safety looks, extraordinarily, irrelevant. And this with a first team with an average age of under 24, and a subs bench with an average age of 20. Truly, glorious fun at the moment, and not to be taken for granted.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2011-01-15

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/15-january-2011/

28th December 2010- Championship, Watford 4 Cardiff City 1

Watford closed in on the play-off zone with a third successive victory that dented Cardiff City’s promotion push.

Our most recent game – which feels like months ago, not merely 18 days – saw us beat the league leaders. Utterly. Definitively. Superlatives flowed as effortlessly as, um, wine, in describing a performance that humbled a previously unbeaten side. This one, if anything, was better.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2010-12-28

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/28-december-2010/

6th November 2010- Championship, Watford 1 Nottingham Forest 1

Lewis McGugan cancelled out Jordon Mutch’s opener as Watford and Nottingham Forest shared the points.

The decision to start with Troy Deeney was only a surprise, if at all, for as long as it took for Jordon Mutch to give us the lead on three minutes. Whilst Camp looks thoroughly competent, the defence in front of him was a shambles every time a high ball came into the box. That we didn’t capitalise was down in part to simply not getting quality in often enough, down in part to luck, and down in part to some rather tolerant refereeing that saw Deeney wrestled away from the ball more than once and the safe option of penalising the striker adopted at both ends. Deeney’s card was marked by a number around us from the kick off, but for me he did a decent job of holding the ball up, linking the play and receiving the ball with his back to goal. Clearly an asset.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=36337&id=4933

10th April 2010- Championship, Watford 1 Plymouth Argyle 0

Heidar Helguson’s second-half strike boosted Watford’s survival hopes to keep Plymouth mired five points from safety in the Championship drop zone.

It’s difficult to overstate the value of that result. The final reappraisal of our situation outside the pub at lunchtime returned unerringly to the conclusion that the game was make or break… and we won the game. We won the damn game. A win on a Saturday for the first time since November, and defeats for the precarious looking Sheffield Wednesday, Palace, Scunny…. as it turns out, defeat of any realistic magnitude would have seen us still outside the relegation zone, but wondering where three points were going to come from and with Plymouth back in touch. We’re not safe yet by a long chalk… but can afford to be bullish once again. Thank goodness.

13th March 2010- Championship, Watford 0 Peterborough United 1

Relegation-threatened Peterborough saw off fellow strugglers Watford to claim their first away win of the season.

Defeat also dragged the Hornets closer to the relegation mire, with Malky Mackay’s men having lost their last four matches. The Hornets could have no complaints and only woke up after Dickinson had found the net.

Worth remembering, first of all, that this is what this season was supposed to be like from the start. Or from the end of August, at any rate. Having sold off our most sellable assets in August the real surprise is not that we stumble to a clumsy defeat against Peterborough but that this season has lifted expectation levels to an extent that made this look like a home banker beforehand, even given our recent form.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2010-03-13

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/13-march-2010/