Tag Archives: Apr23

23rd April 2022- Premier League, Manchester City 5 Watford 1

WFC.Net goal commentary: 1

Attendance: 53,013

BBC Sport: Watford tried their best, but they were outclassed by a rampant City team and remain anchored in the bottom three, seven points adrift of safety.

Sky Sports: It looked like the hosts would run away with the first half once again when Jesus scored his first goal inside four minutes. City scored five goals in the first 18 minutes when Watford last visited the Etihad in September 2019.

The Guardian: City could have been rampant from this juncture but fell asleep. Hassane Kamara initiated a move he would finish, taking a ball from Dennis that punched a hole in the home defence after Rúben Dias was dragged out wide on the left. When Kamara struck, Guardiola did the same to the turf in the technical area, hitting the grass with a fist.

BHappy: Briefly, the mood changes.  The course of the afternoon no longer seems mapped out… this is a competitive encounter all of a sudden.  Only for six minutes as it turns out, but it’s a decent six minutes – we’ve taken some blows but thrown some punches ourselves, not rolled over, and one has landed.  If you’re looking for evidence of life, here it is right here. 

Fran’s Watford Blog: The travelling Hornets then regaled the home fans with a chorus of “You’re not singing anymore.”  Normal activity resumed soon after as a corner came out to Jesus on the edge of the area, but he shot over the bar.  City restored their two-goal advantage after 34 minutes when Jesus found Rodri just outside the box from where he powered a shot past Foster.

23rd April 2019- Premier League, Watford 1 Southampton 1

Referee:
Mike Dean
Attendance:
19,170

1-1

Relive our coverage of Watford’s match with Southampton in the Premier League

Andre Gray earns late Watford point after Southampton make history with opener

Javi Gracia ‘gives value’ to point after Watford draw with Southampton

Andre Gray says Watford’s draw at home to Southampton was ‘one point earned’

How we rated the Watford players against Southampton

Adam Masina believes Watford have right character after snatching late draw against Southampton

Andre Gray’s late equaliser salvaged Watford a point in a thrilling 1-1 draw with Southampton, who scored the fastest goal in Premier League history.

Shane Long had given the Saints an early lead when he scored the fastest goal in Premier League history. Long struck after just 7.69 seconds and Southampton held on to their lead until Watford’s Andre Gray levelled from close range.

Craig Cathcart won’t forget the record-breaking moment in a hurry either as the Watford defender was the man at fault. Roberto Pereyra sent the kick-off back to the defender, whose ­attempted long ball was charged down by Long, who sprinted goalwards before dinking daintily over goalkeeper Ben Foster.

This must count as one of the Premier League’s more surreal occasions, and not just because John Barnes graced this stadium’s turf again, this time with microphone in hand, to bellow a karaoke version of Rocket Man during the half-time interval. More remarkable still was Southampton scoring within eight seconds of Watford’s kick-off, or Shane Long’s continued transformation from shot-shy workhorse into prolific goalscorer. It was only when reality bit late-on that Watford made their own impression on the night.

 It’s a funny old night, really. Funny old game, funny old night. The celebration of the imminent Elton John biopic is rather awkward and misjudged, at least in parts. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of half-time nonsense, especially with John Barnes involved and some season tickets up for grabs. It isn’t my cup of tea, but we all find our fun in different ways and we often find other people’s fun a bit cringeworthy.

Having finished my pre-match ritual of putting on my replica shirt and retrieving my notebook, pen and camera from my bag, I noticed a big white envelope by my seat.  I opened it to find a sheet with the words of “Rocket Man”, as if I don’t already know them.  Irritation at this distraction was compounded when I looked up to see Shane Long bearing down on goal and shooting past Foster.  Only 7 seconds of the game had elapsed.  I had missed Cathcart hitting a pass at Long to lead to this chance.  I was devastated and, again, I blamed the decision to dispense with Z-cars.  You don’t mess with something so important at such a crucial point in the season.

23rd April 2011- Championship, Watford 1 Barnsley 0

Vince Pitt’s cartoon has not aged well.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4963

Captain John Eustace’s winner after just 43 seconds kept Watford’s slim play-off hopes flickering after a poor game against Barnsley at Vicarage Road.

Don Cowie delivered a corner from the right and after Troy Deeney hit the crossbar with a powerful header, Eustace was on hand to prod in from point blank range.

If Troy Deeney eventually blended into the anonymous blur, he took an awful lot longer than most. Often up-and-down in a rather Jordan Stewart kinda way – undermining a positive and encouraging contribution one moment with a distracted, infuriating error almost immediately (although never quite to Stewart’s peerless level) – his first half in particular was jam-packed with consistent, varied contributions. Strong headers, hard work, neat touches, bright vision. In a forward line featuring Danny Graham and Marvin Sordell, his was the star turn, the real source of impetus and momentum.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2011-04-23
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/23-april-2011/

23rd April 2005- Championship, Watford 0 Sheffield United 0

Watford edged closer to safety in the Championship, after a nil-nil draw at home to Sheffield United.

So, let’s make this quick; in fact, let’s make the next couple of weeks quick, if we can. Let’s get it over with, then forget it all for a couple or three months. Because it deserves to be forgotten about, as much as it deserves to be remembered with a long-lingering bitterness. Amid all of the kerfuffle, there was a fair amount to be praised about this afternoon’s football, and a great deal of spirit evident throughout. We’ll need that spirit, and I’m not merely being churlish when I say that; we’ll need, for instance, the kind of willing, able attitude that saw Dominic Blizzard replace Brynjar Gunnarsson as the teams lined up for kickoff, then turn in a typically willing, able performance in the centre of midfield. That’s what’ll get us somewhere, wherever that might be.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4660
https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2005-04-23
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/23-april-2005/

23rd April 2000- Premier League, Watford 2 Arsenal 3

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4397

Brief highlights from the Premier League website

Really, this made no sense whatsoever. A spewed, skewed mess of a football match, mercilessly thrilling throughout. Goals, misses, controversy, aggression, mistakes, mayhem. The thunderstorm that clattered around during the second half, blackening the skies except for occasional sharp flashes of lightning, could hardly have been more appropriate – this was furious, elemental stuff.

Oh what the hell, the season’s run-in is upon us – this is the batch of games we looked at from afar and thought, oh God, please don’t let us need the points from these games to stay up, please let us be sorted by then. And you know something? We don’t. And we are. So let’s party like last year was 1999, and next year we’ll be back in this division, this league, this wretched pandemic loadsamoney pissing contest…and we can send GT out on a high.

https://oldwatford.com/2006/12/26/26th-december-2006-premier-league-watford-1-arsenal-2/

23rd April 1996- New Division One, Watford 6 Grimsby Town 3

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4192
Daily Telegraph, 24 Apr 1996
Evening Standard, 24 Apr 1996

BSAD imageIt says a lot about a performance when you come away from a game in which you’ve scored six goals feeling a bit disappointed. Grimsby were there for the taking and we could have made it towards double figures with a bit more luck and confidence.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=1996-04-23
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