Category Archives: October

15th October 2022- Championship, Watford 2 Norwich City 1

WFC.net goal commentary: 1  2

Attendance: 19,400

BBC Sport: Imran Louza and Keinan Davis scored for Watford as the Hornets bounced back from two straight defeats to beat Norwich City and move back within two points of the Championship play-off places.

Sky Sports: Josh Sargent then pulled one back for Norwich, but they could not get level as they missed the chance to go top of the table. They drop to third after Burnley won earlier in the day to move above them and Sheffield United to the summit.

BHappy: There are (to varying degrees) nascent partnerships all over the pitch.  Gosling and Sema, our unlikely right flank.  Louza and Asprilla.  Sarr and Kamara, who spends the evening bounding forward like an excited puppy in a manner that Isma might find familiar.  Their first link up sees Kamara dink a pass over two opponents to where Sarr has skipped unnoticed;  young midfield Liam Gibbs is panicked into grabbing an arm and Sarr’s momentum does the rest. Good to see goal machine Louza, having so gloriously if inconsequentially broken his duck at Bloomfield Road, grabbing the ball in JP’s absence.  Not so good to see Gunn save well as the Moroccan international struck the spot kick firmly yet eminently saveably to the keeper’s left but hugely heartening that we didn’t miss a beat – to the extent that City fans’ celebrations at their let-off were quickly dampened by the aggression with which we chased down and regained possession after the spot kick, albeit to no immediate benefit.

Fran’s Watford Blog: Asprilla put in a wonderful performance.  In previous games, while he obviously has talent, he has looked like a boy playing against men, too often outfought as he tried to make things happen.  On this occasion, he was going on runs, jinking past players and finding team mates with some clever passes.  It was a shame that he had to go off, I hope that he is not out for long.  Gosling was excellent.  There was some scepticism when he was drafted in at right back, but he looked the part on Saturday.  So often it was his head on the end of high balls into the Watford box and the tackle to stop Sargent’s run near the end was superb.  Sarr was the Sky man of the match for a performance in which he shone.  Gone was the unmotivated sulky demeanour and back was the creative player making and taking chances.  He even joined in the lap of honour at the end with some enthusiasm. 

8th October 2022- Championship, Blackpool 3 Watford 1

WFC.NET goal commentary: 1

Attendance: 11,567

BBC Sport: Blackpool ended a four-match winless run as Jerry Yates’ late double sunk Slaven Bilic’s Watford at Bloomfield Road.

Sky Sports: The Hornets were booed off by the travelling fans as new boss Slaven Bilic watched over a second straight defeat, leaving them 12th on 17 points while Blackpool climbed to 19th with 15 points.

Fran’s Watford blog: There was much anger among those gathered at the perimeter fence.  Troost-Ekong came over to give his shirt to a fan, which was a very brave act as he was subjected to considerable abuse.  Front and centre was the lad who had broken the seats who had several stewards around him and was lucky not to be taken away.  The other players kept their distance and quickly disappeared down the tunnel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63099156

5th October 2022- Championship, Watford 1 Swansea City 2

WFC.Net Goal Commentary:   1

Attendance: 17,231

BBC Sport: Ben Cabango’s header in time added on saw Slaven Bilic suffer a defeat in his first home game as Watford boss. Watford led at the interval thanks to Ismaila Sarr’s 34th-minute opener as he finished from close range. The visitors equalised on 52 minutes when Olivier Ntcham’s deflected effort from 20 yards gave Swansea parity.

Sky Sports: The defender headed home Ryan Manning’s free-kick eight minutes into a total of 20 added on after the officials’ communication equipment failed, leading to the players having to leave the pitch.

Fran’s Watford Blog: After the excitement of Sunday, this had been a rather dispiriting showing.  There were some really good signs in the first half, but the Hornets were undone by poor defending.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63056517

2nd October 2022- Championship, Stoke City 0 Watford 4

WFC.NET Jon Marks Goal Commentary: 1 2 3 4

BBC Sport: New Watford manager Slaven Bilic got off to a sensational winning start as his rampant Hornets side scored four goals at Stoke.

Sky Sports: Goals from Ismaila Sarr, Ken Sema, Keinan Davis and Vakoun Issouf Bayo secured Bilic an impressive win at the bet365 Stadium with the club’s biggest victory since hammering Bristol City 6-0 in February 2021.

Fran’s Watford Blog: So the Bilić era started with a result that was as unexpected as it was enjoyable.  The starting line-up had players in their favoured positions and the change to four at the back was a positive that allowed the attacking players more freedom.  From the kick-off there had been a more attacking approach than we saw under Edwards and it paid dividends.  Sarr gave his best performance in some time contributing a goal and an assist.  Sema was everywhere and thoroughly deserved the ovation that he received after being substituted.  Kamara was awarded the Man of the Match award and his performance was a joy.  But the highlight of the afternoon was the return of Louza, who was absolutely magnificent.  We were all dancing a jig after watching his performance.

30th October 2021- Premier League, Watford 0 Southampton 1

Attendance: 20.869

BBC Sport: Che Adam’s superb strike was the difference as Southampton held on against Watford at Vicarage Road for their first away league win of the season.

Sky Sports: Claudio Ranieri’s side came crashing back down to earth following their impressive 5-2 win at Everton last weekend, and it is now back-to-back home defeats for the Italian after he replaced Xisco Munoz as Watford manager earlier this month.

BHappy: Meanwhile, the second half had been preceded by a farewell to Emma Saunders, who moves on to Sky Sports.  Two things to note here… first, it’s entirely appropriate that the wider Watford family are recognised in this way.  Players and prominent coaching staff will sometimes get this stuff, ex-players too including the ever more rock’n’roll Ross Jenkins, also wheeled out here.  But “the likes of Emma” (and those less visible still) deserve their recognition;  those that find this a bit parochial can go screw themselves. But Emma in particular, along with Tommy Mooney, Jon Marks and everyone else involved, deserve one final round of applause for providing something to look forward to last season.  Doubtless her star will continue to rise, but she deserves to be remembered fondly for her part in that whatever else she goes on to achieve.

Fran’s Watford Blog: After the excitement at Everton, it was all rather dull.  It had been a much better second half from the Hornets but, despite the fact that we had more shots on target than the visitors, we rarely looked like scoring.  Although we would have been a lot happier had that Fletcher shot gone in.  Sarr has come in for a lot of criticism, as he is perceived to be looking uninterested, but he created the majority of the chances, sadly most of them went straight to McCarthy, but the highlights showed that Walker-Peters was rather fortunate to have cleared that chance off the line.  But it is early days for Ranieri, so we have to hope that the form will improve soon. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59019335

23rd October 2021- Premier League, Everton 2 Watford 5

WFC.Net Jon Marks’ Goal Commentary: 1  2  3  4  5

Attendance: 38,834

BBC Sport: Joshua King’s hat-trick helped Watford to a stunning first win under Claudio Ranieri as Everton collapsed in a pulsating Premier League game at Goodison Park.

Sky Sports: Just under three minutes after coming on, Richarlison edged Everton ahead, stooping low to head Michael Keane’s cross home (63) against his former club, but Watford turned the game on its head with two goals in 88 seconds.

BHappy: This will be the day that we cash in all of our Goodison chips.  This is for Chris Powell, and the ultimately decisive penalty given against him for having the ball smashed into his face in 2005.  This is for Lucas Digne’s 96th-minute free kick three years ago.  For Alice breaking down on the M6, for me taking out the side of the Qashqai in a hurried attempt to park in 2015.  For Felix’s puncture in 2000, the insane jacking up on the side of the motorway before rushing to Goodison to see us get effortlessly dicked.  Again.  For Gomes’ injury and Cleverley’s missed penalty.  For Steve Terry in 1983, one of six defeats in six visits in our first top flight spell. You wouldn’t have chosen to cash in all those chips at once.  But given that we were to go whole hog, it would have been rude not to enjoy it.

Fran’s Watford Blog: The celebrations were tinged with disbelief.  None of us had seen that performance coming.  The players were throwing shirts (and gloves) into the crowd.  On the way out of the ground there were hugs with Simona and Dave.  We spent so long celebrating that we were on the last bus back to the city centre.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58936301