Tag Archives: Ashley Young

1st September 2011- UEFA European Under 21 Championship Qualifier, England Under 21s 6 Azerbaijan Under 21s 0 (played at Vicarage Road)

Stuart Pearce’s England Under-21s thrashed Azerbaijan to start their Euro 2013 qualifying campaign in style.

Stuart Pearce’s England U21 side made a bright start to their Euro Championship qualifying campaign with a 6-0 rout of Azerbaijan.

Six goals, six debutants, three points and no sign of a sea change. England could not have wished for a more comfortable start to their attempt to qualify for a fourth successive European Under-21 Championship as they disposed of Azerbaijan with ease, but there was nothing here to suggest that they will fare any better in the 2013 finals in Israel, if they get there, than they did during June’s dispiriting performance in the 2011 tournament.

A journey of 2,250 miles begins with a single step, and although England were scarcely bothered by their Caucasian visitors in their opening European Championship qualifier, it was an encouragingly cohesive display from the side that Stuart Pearce hopes will lead him to Israel in 2013.

Hornblogger: I remember fondly the last Under 21 international at Vicarage Road which took place 23 years ago. My mate Laurence and I refer to it regularly because it was at the time, and probably remains, one of the most boring games we’d ever witnessed. For years afterwards we ceased using words like boring, dull and grim and instead would use ‘Denmark Under 21’s’ to describe anything bad that happened.

19th November 2005- Championship, Watford 2 Sheffield Wednesday 1

So, much as I enjoyed watching our highly impressive, rousing start to the campaign, this, for me, is Adrian Boothroyd’s first landmark of genuine note. The nature of the man, it appears, is such that he wouldn’t greet it with more than a passing shrug and a sharp quip, but it is an achievement nevertheless. Because the consolidation is much more significant than the initial conquest: we might very easily have slipped back into mid-table by now, looking back upon those late summer days as a glorious, short-lived memory. Instead, we’re still here, claiming the right to consider ourselves contenders. That’s a bloody triumph, to my mind.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=37950&id=4684

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2005-11-19

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/19-november-2005/

27th August 2005- Championship, Watford 0 Reading 0

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4668

In recent years, Reading have snatched the best of the points in these fixtures, but this season, under Adrian Boothroyd – not so long ago referred to as ‘who?’ – Watford have come up with a much better challenge.

After a successful start to the season against some mid-table teams, Reading were the first promotion-challenging side that Watford were to encounter, our toughest test so far, and a good sign of where the team would end up at the close of the season. It would also show that certain players, who had been questioned for their ability and right to a place in the starting line up, were more than able to play extremely well in this league, and prove their doubters wrong. This was an important match for everyone, it would tell us a lot about the new Watford FC.

13th September 2005-Championship, Watford 2 Norwich City 1

28th September 2004- Championship, Watford 0 Wigan Athletic 0

Beforehand, so much of the talk had been about countering the threat of Ellington and Roberts, and doing so without the considerable presence of Sean Dyche. Afterwards, so much of the talk should be about Neil Cox and Lloyd Doyley, who bossed that much-vaunted partnership about for the duration. For Cox, it was an evening of timely interventions, confident decisions, and minimal mistakes; the player that we appointed captain many months ago has not yet left the club. For the masterful Doyley, it was all about basic defending amplified to eleven: always tight, always disciplined, always quick, always concentrating, never beaten. Between them, and with plenty of help from elsewhere, they kept potent, strong, pacy strikers very quiet indeed.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4619

30th September 2003- New Division One, Watford 1 Burnley 1

Football. Marvellous, isn’t it? Transporting you from the ordinary day-to-day to some higher plane. Hard to imagine that Watford fans would be experiencing such feelings and such an absorbing ninety minutes given the season to date. Hard to imagine a standing ovation for a team that comes off the pitch with only a draw, firmly rooted next-to-bottom (or bottom if you only count real clubs), down to ten men, four players booked, and with their opponents spurning a penalty and having a shot come back off the post, defying Newtonian mechanics (or is it Euclidean geometry?). But that’s what they had, a standing ovation – and thoroughly deserved.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4568