20th April 2013- Championship, Watford 4 Blackburn Rovers 0

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Watford kept their slim automatic promotion hopes alive with a comprehensive demolition of 10-man Blackburn at Vicarage Road.

Hull remain favourites for second place, but Watford’s much superior goal difference means the Tigers will need to win at least one of their remaining fixtures to prevent a late charge from the Vicarage Road club, who have now mathematically secured at least a play-off spot.

Troy Deeney scored twice for the Championship’s third-placed team and if their hopes of hauling in Hull’s four-point cushion with two matches remaining seem far-fetched, the form of the club’s strikeforce bodes well with playoffs on the agenda. Zola left the Championship player of the year, Matej Vydra, on the bench and the 20-goal striker was hardly missed as his replacement, Fernando Forestieri, set up the first three goals.

The scoreline tells one story.  The narrative of the match itself, however,  is not (merely) one of us putting inadequate opponents to the sword.  In fact it followed the template of several of our big wins this season;  against Huddersfield in the snow in January we laboured for a bit against a side hellbent on stopping us from playing – and once we had gotten that first goal we were gone, galloping off into the sunset with the points and never looking back.

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16th April 2013- Championship, Millwall 1 Watford 0

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Shaun Batt’s late effort earned a win for Millwall as Watford missed a chance to narrow the gap to second place. Batt tapped in from a Martyn Woolford header to leave Watford six points behind promotion rivals Hull – beaten at Wolves – with three games to go.

This was the calm after the storm. Following Saturday’s shameful scenes at Wembley, Millwall enjoyed a subdued and peaceful night back on home soil. The vicious fighting among their fans that marred the FA Cup semi-final against Wigan was mercifully not repeated, with the club’s supporters on their best behaviour.

We spent the evening pressing our noses against the toy shop window and staring at the lights inside until our eyes started to water. We had Millwall on the ropes and wilting under pressure, in front of a sparse home crowd comprised of the few thousand people who hadn’t spent all of their money on semi-final tickets and beer. Then news came through that Wolves had taken the lead over Hull…and it was suddenly all laid out before us, opening up in a great surge of hope and optimism and excitement.

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6th April 2013- Championship, Watford 0 Cardiff City 0

BBC: The Championship leaders had goalkeeper David Marshall to thank for denying Troy Deeney with an excellent save. Deeney missed another chance for the Hornets, who stay third, but Manuel Almunia frustrated Cardiff by keeping out Kim Bo-Kyung and Joe Mason.

BHappy: But much as this encounter began, continued and ended in stalemate, it was nevertheless only a single winning goal, a single moment of brilliance or good fortune for either side, away from being a significant part of this season’s story. It was as if everyone held their breath at kickoff…and held it…and held it…and nothing happened. Nothing. No storm, no flood. The weather forecast was wrong. And we all went home, put it to one side almost instantly, and started thinking about next weekend instead. It’s already old news.

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29th March 2013- Championship, Watford 3 Burnley 3

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Sam Vokes rescued a point for Burnley in injury-time as Watford missed the opportunity to move into the top two.

A mistake by 22-year-old Matthew Briggs allowed Sam Vokes to make it 3-3 as Burnley manager Sean Dyche’s first return to Watford since being controversially sacked by them ended happily for him.

And so we welcomed Sean Dyche back to a very different club. We applauded him warmly, and quite rightly; he applauded us, which was typically decent of him. And he stood on the touchline with Ian Woan, pointing and shouting and looking as if he’d never left. And then we went our separate ways again. And now we’re here, you wouldn’t change it, would you?

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9th March 2013- Championship, Watford 1 Blackpool 2

WFC.Net goal commentary: 1

BBC: Blackpool scored two late goals at Watford to give Paul Ince his first win in five games since becoming the Tangerines’s manager on 18 February.

BHappy: we have what amounts to an extraordinary injury crisis by any normal standards.  I’ve heard comments along the lines of “we’ve been lucky to avoid injuries”, but the truth is that we’ve had a few players out throughout.  The current list includes Almunia, Abdi, Chalobah, Eustace, Hoban, Hall, Neuton, Smith with Ekstrand and Cassetti not fit to start.  That’s a more than decent defence/midfield, arguably stronger than what we fielded yesterday.  We have key players looking tired and out of form – worth bearing in mind the next time that Zola opts to rotate his squad.  We had a number of key refereeing decisions go against us, a couple of them quite perversely so as discussed. And yet we were still unlucky to lose the game.

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5th March 2013- Championship, Watford 2 Sheffield Wednesday 1

WFC.Net goal commentary: 1.  2

BBC: Substitute Fernando Forestieri scored twice as Watford moved up to second in the Championship with victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

BHappy: In short, we’ve got to second by playing with freedom. By following our attacking instincts even when coaching manuals, common sense and British fair play say we ought to back down. By honouring a commitment to passing football even when it gets us into trouble (NOT THERE, FERNANDO). Especiallywhen it gets us into trouble (NOT THERE, FERNANDO). By scoring goals and making mistakes and having fun and not losing too much sleep when it doesn’t work out. This is the least constrained Watford side any of us have ever seen…and there’s no sense in fetching the harness and whip now. If we’re going to do this, it won’t be by heaping pressure on ourselves or by bowing to convention. Let’s face it: the best possible outcome of the season is one hell of a peak; the worst possible outcome ain’t much of a trough….

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