Category Archives: Ray Lewington

23rd October 2004- Championship, Watford 2 Ipswich Town 2

Persistence was everything here, when there seemed to be nothing much else to cling to. There’ll be talk of match-turning substitutions and heroic spirit, sure…but this wasn’t a comeback, not as such. Nothing changed. Rather, when it appeared that the cause was utterly hopeless, when we were two-nil down to a team that had gradually and increasingly out-classed us, when the ceaseless pelting rain seemed to sum up the afternoon, we just kept going. We kept our heads up, we kept our minds clear, and we kept going. Basic professionalism or pure faith, depending on whether you’re a romantic or not…but whatever, two-nil suddenly became two-two, with fifteen minutes still to play. We’d done nothing differently, really, but that was precisely the point.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=33336&id=4623

19 October 2004- Championship, Watford 1 Sunderland 1

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BSAD imageBSAD report: There was a good atmosphere inside Vicarage Road on Tuesday night. Watford were once invincible ‘under lights’. The sense of anticipation was raised a notch or too higher than it might normally be on a Tuesday game. Was tonight going to be one of those nights?

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=32548&id=4622
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28th September 2004- Championship, Watford 0 Wigan Athletic 0

Beforehand, so much of the talk had been about countering the threat of Ellington and Roberts, and doing so without the considerable presence of Sean Dyche. Afterwards, so much of the talk should be about Neil Cox and Lloyd Doyley, who bossed that much-vaunted partnership about for the duration. For Cox, it was an evening of timely interventions, confident decisions, and minimal mistakes; the player that we appointed captain many months ago has not yet left the club. For the masterful Doyley, it was all about basic defending amplified to eleven: always tight, always disciplined, always quick, always concentrating, never beaten. Between them, and with plenty of help from elsewhere, they kept potent, strong, pacy strikers very quiet indeed.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4619

25th September 2004- Championship, Watford 0 Reading 1

If we were somewhat flattered on Tuesday, we were plainly insulted on this occasion.

The weather was strange. It didn’t know whether it wanted to rain or not. On fourteen minutes, Mr Webber didn’t know whether he wanted to score or not, and throughout the match we never seemed to grasp whether we were playing at home or not.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4618

11th September 2004- Championship, Watford 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 1

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BSAD imageBSAD report: At various points, it was a game that we wanted to win, were winning, and should’ve won. Apart from the second, these states were more theoretical than anything else, however, as we were never good enough to overcome determined and organised opponents: we should be frustrated by our failure to preserve the lead for five more minutes, but that lead would’ve been the result of evading justice and heading out on the highway with our ill-gotten gains. Which would’ve been fun, clearly, and a reward for sitting through such a monotonous, mundane football match. A point is hardly a disastrous alternative, though.

At one o’clock I arrived in Watford, and one could smell the whiff of optimism around the area, predictions that it was three points in the bag for the Hornets due to the fact that Brighton had been labelled “relegation candidates” this year. Almost fifteen thousand tickets had been sold, ensuring the game would have an electric atmosphere. And both sets of fans were in good voice, obviously keyed up for the day’s game.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4614
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24th August 2004- League Cup First Round, Watford 1 Cambridge United 0

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4612

Two forced changes from Saturday’s fabulous win at Leicester saw a first start of the season for Ashley Young, while Jay DeMerit, the recent signing from Northwood and my American girlfriend’s new favourite player, started at centre half. In fact, DeMerit’s unfussy and calm display alongside Coxy was a relative highlight of a mind-numbingly boring first half, while Young failed to shine until the closing stages of the game when he moved to the right-hand side.

I’ll spare you the ramblings of a match report, or anything as in-depth as that, because (to be honest) I don’t really remember much that’s specific. Plus I spent most of the night wondering why I felt like I had motion sickness when the closest I’d been to any sort of water in the past two days was about five miles (up). “Must be the air,” as my Mum said afterwards…bless!

9th March 2010- Championship, Watford 0 Swansea City 1