Category Archives: May

11th May 2016- Premier League, Norwich City 4 Watford 2

Referee:
Roger East
Attendance:
26,279

1-0

2-3

Norwich were relegated to the Championship despite a thumping victory over Watford at Carrow Road.

The home side fell behind to Troy Deeney’s opportunistic 11th-minute goal, before responding three times before half-time through Nathan Redmond, Dieumerci Mbokani and a Craig Cathcart own goal.

The Carrow Road crowd started to sense events might just turn in their team’s favour after all, but news that Sunderland had taken a two-goal lead at the Stadium of Light quashed hope.

All the while, goals continued to rain in. Watford scored a second, Deeney getting around Russell Martin too easily and squaring the ball for Odion Ighalo. Sunderland scored a third. Norwich scored a fourth, Mbokani beating the offside trap and dinking the ball delightfully over Heurelho Gomes. “We lost intensity,” said the Watford manager Quique Sánchez Flores. “For the first time in the season, I had the feeling that it was a party match. It happens. We got the objectives a long time ago.” For Norwich, their quality constituted a sort of taunt. If only, if only.

Evening Standard, 12 May 2016

It’s not unreasonable to argue that, our situation and form being what it is, travelling supporters kinda ought to have known that a non-performance like this was a strong possibility. It’s also true that Norwich had an awful lot more riding on this than we had. To be expected, perhaps, that they’d be the more focused, the more motivated. But even accounting for both factors and to whatever degree you sympathise with the position that Quique Flores is in – of which more later – there was no excusing this pathetic shambles. The club, the team, the manager do still have a responsibility to uphold… to their supporters, those daft enough to come have nonetheless spent time and money, and so on and so on. A well-worn argument. As importantly, but for the way the evening transpired in Sunderland, fans of both north-east clubs who may have been depending on this outcome would have had every right to look at this and ask “what the bloody hell was that all about?”. We’re not the only ones to take our foot off, sure. That doesn’t make it acceptable, whatever the magnitude of achievement that has or hasn’t gone before it. Lack of ability you can forgive. Lack of effort, less so.

At half time, I went to chat with Don. You know that things are not going well when even Don can’t find anything positive to say. Although he did manage a complaint about the ref, so I knew he was OK. Our summary of the first half was that the majority of the Watford players were on the beach.

27th May 2015- Slavisa Jokanovic to leave Watford as head coach after failing to agree terms for a new contract

The saga of whether Slavisa would remain our head coach dragged on throughout most of May but it was on the 27th that newspaper articles started to confirm he was leaving. By the 28th the Independent said he had parted company with us in an article speculating on the new Sunderland manager. However on the same day the Watford Observer was still reporting that he was ‘almost certain’ to leave. Official confirmation from the club didn’t come until 5th June when Quique Sanchez Flores was announced as his replacement.

Independent, 27 May 2015

Evening Standard, 27 May 2015

Independent, 28 May 2015

Watford Observer: Slavisa Jokanovic is almost certain to leave Watford after the Hornets head coach failed to agree a new contract with the club.

After leaving Slavisa gave an interview about his exit.

Sky Sports: Former Watford boss Slavisa Jokanovic has said he left Vicarage Road because he felt he was no longer wanted by the club.

2nd May 2015- Championship, Watford 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1

1-0

Watford denied Championship title by late Sheffield Wednesday leveller

Watford missed out on the Sky Bet Championship title after Bournemouth won 3-0 at Charlton and the Hornets were held to a 1-1 home draw by Sheffield Wednesday.

Atdhe Nuhiu’s stoppage-time strike saw Sheffield Wednesday secure a dramatic draw against Watford to deny them the Championship title. Matej Vydra’s headed the hosts in front during a dominant first-half display.

As for the supporters… similarly, perhaps Watford’s best ever season in this regard (cap doffed again to the 1881) doesn’t deserve to be remembered for the cretin whose pitch invasion interrupted Wednesday’s free kick, for the vermin responsible for flares who deserve bans from the ground, for the vanity of those who decided that invading the pitch was more important that having a reason to invade the pitch. Ed Perchard has penned a wordier assassination of these imbeciles in In the Wolf’s Mouth but in any case, choking as the narrowness of the margin was these were all irritants. None should be used as excuses for our failure to put Wednesday away.

As Wednesday won a deep free-kick, the crème-de-la-crème of unneeded intrusions – some pissed-up toss pot waddling into the penalty area, waved through by the hundred lurking stewards – took the attention of the players when it was needed most.

What happened next came as no surprise, though maybe it did to those idiots crowding round the goal line before the final whistle had been blown. With a hint of offside the ball made its way to the back post. A header back across goal wasn’t cleared, and with Wednesday’s first shot on target they found the back of the net and with Bournemouth winning their game, this meant that Watford would no longer be champions.

I have to say that, while I am all for pitch invasions when the game is over, it was disappointing to see how many people were more concerned with getting selfies on the pitch than with the result of the game. I felt totally deflated and, talking to many people afterwards, that was a common feeling. Eventually the pitch was cleared and the players came out. Jon Marks interviewed a number of them on the pitch and eventually reached Troy Deeney who said how p*ssed off he was but then launched into a chant of “Watford FC” which brought a smile back to my face.

More games from 2nd May at https://oldwatford.com/tag/may2

3rd May 2014- Championship, Watford 1 Huddersfield Town 4

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5119

Substitute Danny Ward scored a hat-trick to help Huddersfield Town finish the season on a high and end Watford’s 10-game unbeaten run at Vicarage Road.

The “lap of honour” at the end of the game was peculiar in the extreme. The stands were… not empty, but not thronging with acclaim as they surely would have been given any kind of performance on the day. It’s been a disappointing season, given the expectations we went in with… but it’s not been that bad for the most part. There have been good wins, good performances, and everyone wants to leave happy. As it was, those that remained were surely largely there for one man only.

27th May 2013- Championship Playoff Final, Crystal Palace 1 Watford 0 (After Extra Time)

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=5067

It’s really not the old Wembley, is it? True, the old Wembley smelt of sour tramp when you got up close and it felt as though it might just fall down if everyone jumped at once…but not even the stale piss of a dozen generations could hide the essential romance of the place, the sense of that-happened-over-there history. This…well, it has the moneyed sheen and efficiency of an airport departure lounge. Any idiosyncrasies have been firmly ironed out by committee, any dark corners where you might be able to scratch your name for those who follow have been illuminated by an artful downlight. All trace of this game will have been wiped clean by the time you read this.

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