




This would be the final game of the season that Watford fans were allowed to attend as a rise in Covid cases brought the relaxation of government restrictions to an end the following weekend. The attendance was given as exactly 2000.
BHappy: It’s a stultifying game of football. All the more so in contrast with that most epic of awaydays which it’s impossible to navigate this fixture without reflecting on. I’ve only been to St Andrews once in the 21 and a half years since… but this one could scarcely be in sharper contrast to that encounter. Most obviously where the was rabid, deafening noise coming from the stands in 1999 here there’s silence, punctuated only by what must have been a consciously noisy Blues entourage. Where there were intimidating walls of Bluenoses there are now plastic cut-outs, statically swaying down one side of the pitch. I was hoping that Watford would instigate something similar but I was wrong – the sight is melancholy, a silent parody of how it ought to be. And on the pitch… in 1999 it was furious intensity, no quarter asked or given by either side. Drama and epic conflict. Nothing epic about this. It’s blancmange. Nathaniel Chalobah and Lukas Jutkiewicz appear to shake hands as the game kicks off for pity’s sake.
For the second game running a limited number of fans were allowed to attend. The official attendance was 1,976.
For the first time since the pandemic began a limited number of home fans were allowed to attend the game. The attendance was 1,973.
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