Tag Archives: Apr2

2nd April 2022- Premier League, Liverpool 2 Watford 0

Attendance: 53,104

BBC Sport: Joao Pedro wasted a glorious chance to equalise in the second half as Watford remain third from bottom, three points from safety.

Sky Sports: Jota scored his seventh header for Liverpool, more than any other player has scored in the league since his Reds debut, with Joe Gomez to thank for a perfectly measured cross from the right which the Portuguese glanced past Ben Foster. Fabinho made no mistake from the penalty spot late on to ensure Liverpool, who were 14 points adrift in January, temporarily moved two points ahead of Manchester City before Pep Guardiola’s side won at Burnley.

The Guardian: The early kick-off could not dampen the heightened expectation inside Anfield as Liverpool looked to increase the pressure on City. But Watford would make life difficult. Their three clean sheets in the league this season have all come on Roy Hodgson’s watch and with his trusted assistant Ray Lewington alongside him the former Liverpool manager oversaw a typically well-drilled defensive display. The visitors possessed a clear threat, too, on the break and from set-pieces and performed with a composure that belied their lowly league position of 18th.

BHappy: Team selection is influenced, almost certainly, by the physical consequences of a heavy programme of international duty including plenty of key World Cup qualifiers and far too much extra time for anyone’s liking.  Emmanuel Dennis and Joshua King are on the bench, for instance, whilst Peter Etebo and William Troost-Ekong don’t even make it that far.  That aside there remains evidence of Roy having established a set of key personnel; pejoratively you might call them “favourites”,  Cucho, Kabasele, and even Kucka and João Pedro are more prominent – game triers all – whilst Shaq Forde has been singled out amongst the youngsters. I’ve not seen enough of Shaq to comment but whether his judgement proves sound on not it’s a Good Thing that Roy’s perspective is broad enough to make one despite his presumed summer departure.

2nd April 2021- Championship, Watford 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0

BBC Sport: Promotion-hopefuls Watford beat struggling Sheffield Wednesday, who were without boss Darren Moore after he tested positive for Covid-19, to record a sixth successive victory.

Sky Sports: Ismaila Sarr crossed from the right hoping to find Isaac Success but instead saw the ball turned into the Wednesday net by Owls centre-back Lees. A raised flag indicating Success had been offside saw the goal initially disallowed but referee Chris Kavanagh consulted with assistant Dan Cook and ruled the Watford man had not been interfering with play.

BHappy: Sarr’s rapid recovery had already seen him play a ball in towards Isaac Success which was smuggled out of play by the attentions of two Wednesday defenders.  The goal itself will prove to be the one truly exquisite move of the game;  Adam Masina had made a pig’s ear of a crossfield ball less than a minute earlier but his second go is magnificent, a searing pass from left to right dropping into the feet of Sarr.  Sarr’s cross does Masina’s work justice, it’s completely undefendable scything between the defence and the goalkeeper;  we get a break, on another day Chris Kavanagh sympathises with Wednesday claims that Isaac Success, lurking on Tom Lees’ shoulder, is offside and interfering with play.  This time he doesn’t, Lees propels the ball past his goalkeeper and the ‘orns are ahead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56532930

2nd April 2019- Premier League, Watford 4 Fulham 1

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Referee:
Roger East
Attendance:
17,301

1-0
2-1
3-1
4-1

Watford send Fulham back to the Championship with high scoring victory

Four-goal Watford confirm Fulham’s relegation fate from Premier League

Watford vs Fulham: Javi Gracia reflects on impact of half-time changes

Watford players rated after four one thrashing of Fulham

A selection of images from Watford’s victory over Fulham

Will Hughes has praised his Watford team-mates after they beat Fulham at Vicarage Road

Fulham have been relegated from the Premier League with five games still to play after being hammered by Watford at Vicarage Road. The Cottagers needed to avoid defeat to put off their inevitable demotion for another week and were level at half-time, Ryan Babel having equalised after Abdoulaye Doucoure’s stunning opener for the Hornets.

Javi Gracia made two substitutions at the interval, and his tactical alteration paved the way for a dominant second period for the hosts as Will Hughes’ superb volley helped them regain the lead (63). Visibly deflated by the setback, Watford substitute Andre Gray took full advantage to set up Troy Deeney for a simple third (69) before laying off for Kiko Femenia to compound Fulham’s misery (75).

Javi Gracia praised his Watford players after Tuesday’s 4-1 win over Fulham helped them break their record Premier League points tally.

Fulham’s resolve, which had held up impressively after the first goal, completely crumbled. Gray set up easy finishes for the unmarked Troy Deeney and the insultingly ignored Kiko Femenía – with Doucouré again losing a battle with a teammate for the right to administer the coup de grâce. Watford scored three times in 12 minutes and could have had as many more again, and though Sessegnon and the substitute Jean Michaël Seri had chances, all Fulham got was misery.

It did not help Fulham’s cause, on the night, that Watford have an FA Cup semi-final to be preparing for, and places in the side up for grabs. It was telling that Andre Gray came off the bench to inspire Javi Gracia’s side, creating two of their three strikes in the second half.

On the walk along Vicarage Road, we found ourselves among Fulham fans who, given that a defeat would relegate them, were chanting, “The Whites are going down … and now you’re gonna believe us.”

The second half was polar opposite to the first. In the space of ten minutes Watford had blown Fulham away and scored three goals.

https://audioboom.com/posts/7222156-4ward-to-wembley

2nd April 1996- New Division One, Watford 3 Sunderland 3

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The fact that I saw about two dozen Sunderland fans for every Hornet on the way to the ground seemed to be a fair reflection of the states of the two clubs – one Premiership-bound, the other way adrift at the bottom. I’ll be quite honest – I didn’t fancy this one at all, especially after getting stuffed at Wolves. I’d rather boil my head than see us get slaughtered in meaningless games, so I wasn’t looking forward to the game one bit.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4186