19th January 2003- New Division One, Watford 2 Norwich City 1 Leave a Reply There was something almost Betjeman-esque about the first 45 minutes here yesterday, so effectively did 22 well-paid professionals evoke the spirit of the thousands of park games that kicked off around the country an hour or so earlier. This was a wearisome game. A dreary, generally uneventful, rarely attractive football match between two largely uninspired sides. And played at a ludicrous time, just for effect. The equivalent of being dragged from your bed at five o’clock in the morning and forced to watch back-to-back episodes of “Heartbeat”, while being kept awake by periodic prodding with a blunt stick. Probably the most forgettable game since…erm, I can’t remember. But with a reward for anyone who managed to stick with it until the end. The match itself couldn’t have made much of an impression on the TV viewers, though the three points have brought Watford back in touch with the teams chasing for a play-off place. Whilst a top half finish would have been beyond most Watford fans’ expectations at the start of the season, it is great to see that there is some hope of some end of season games. Keep up the good work Ray, Terry and the lads. More games from 19th January at https://oldwatford.com/tag/jan19 Share this:TwitterFacebook
2nd January 2001- New Division One, Watford 3 Wimbledon 1 Leave a Reply At first glance, you could reasonably say that we’ve waited for two miserable months for a performance like this. Personally, I’d argue that we’ve been waiting for it all season. So, back to basics – a cold January evening, a 36-year-old goalkeeper who cost one-squillionth as much as his deputy, and some changes in personnel since I last watched the Horns. Steve Palmer and Michel Ngonge have been Frankensteinly morphed together to produce Carlton Palmer, whose all-round Mr Tickle aspects were at their very best last night. We had shape. And purpose. The central midfield of Carlton Palmer and Allan Nielsen scrapped away tirelessly and destructively, and when they got the ball they fed the wings or the the forwards rather than just passing the ball to them. More games from 2nd January at https://oldwatford.com/tag/jan2 Share this:TwitterFacebook
10th April 1999- New Division One, Watford 2 Bolton Wanderers 0 Leave a Reply BSAD report: Back in GT’s heyday, there was never any question of waiting to find out what the opposition was going to do. No polite introductions. So it was here – while Bolton were courteously allowing the game to settle into a pattern, we rudely elbowed them out of the way and hurled ourselves lemming-like at their goal. Within a minute, Mooney sent Wright sprinting through, only for Banks to charge from his line to clear – that was not to be the last time that the Bolton keeper saved his team-mates. http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4351 Share this:TwitterFacebook