Tag Archives: Dec26

26th December 2006- Premier League, Watford 1 Arsenal 2

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4737

Arsenal moved third in the Premiership thanks to a late Robin van Persie winner at a heartbroken Watford

BBC-SPORT-_-Football-_-Premiership-_-Watford-1-2-Arsenal Download

Should you have room after all those mince pies, the one word match report is: Gusto.

And amid it all, one of the most resourceful and committed team performances that Vicarage Road has seen in recent years, reducing Arsenal’s vastly over-hyped ice-skating-on-grass football to scraps and bits and hilarity. Still lost, I know, but the fight was truly something to behold. When the team needed and deserved our fullest support, a few hundred were crassly bellowing about a country whose history apparently ended in 1945 and distant deeds that they have absolutely no claim over, while the rest of us were shaking our heads in silent disbelief and wishing that the ground would open up. Never has an atmosphere been deflated so quickly without a goal being scored.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2006-12-26

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/26-december-2006/

26th December 2005- Championship, Watford 3 Southampton 0

George Burley’s reign as Southampton manager got off to the worst possible start with a 3-0 defeat at Watford.

It’s quite exciting. The day after Christmas. What fantastic bargains will we get in the sales? What will the new year bring? Why did I get nervous when ig requested a proper match report, instead of my usual Boxing Day ramblings?

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2005-12-26

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/26-december-2005/

26th December 2004- Championship, Reading 3 Watford 0

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4637

BBC-SPORT-_-Football-_-Championship-_-Reading-3-0-Watford Download

Reading kept up their promotion push as they cruised past struggling Watford.

…festive cheer has been spread throughout Hertfordshire and beyond by a sequence of results on the 26th December that (excluding today, but you can do your own maths) has seen us score just once in response to ten goals against. Because football doesn’t work like that, there’s a solitary win over Bristol City in 1998 – Gifton Noel-Williams by the corner flag, and all that – to confuse matters, but anyone looking for further highlights would have to make do with a couple of postponements. Or three nil-nil draws, including that one against Notts County and one at Wycombe twelve months later that has apparently (until now) been expunged from history in order to spare anyone from having to recall it.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2004-12-26

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/26-december-2004/

26th December 2000- New Division One, Fulham 5 Watford 0

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4429

For thirty minutes or less, there was a sense of purpose about us, flickers of intelligent life that gave some hope. We began by knocking the ball around from kickoff, switching the play over to Paul Robinson on the left and then out to the other flank. At the end of it, Micah Hyde elegantly swung his right boot to send the ball drifting over the bar from twenty yards. In less than a minute, more constructive football than we’d seen during the whole of Saturday’s appalling nightmare.

Fulham FC.com: Watford boss Graham Taylor watched his side put to the sword by rampant Fulham, and then told his players: “There’s only so much I can do.”

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2000-12-26

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-division-1/26-december-2000/

26th December 1999- Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur 4 Watford 0

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4382

The same old story, over and over and over. The plodding inevitability of endless defeats, each new fixture bringing fresh optimism to be crushed. Minute shreds of hope, blown away in a Premiership hurricane.

We were parked at the top of the South stand, where they make you sit down in the back row so you don’t obscure the advertising boards, and tell you off for putting your feet on the seats in front of you. Oh yes, They Are Premier League.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=1999-12-26

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/26-december-1999/

26th December 1998- New Division One, Watford 1 Bristol City 0

BSAD image BSAD report: There was still one present left under the proverbial Christmas tree. Injury time began with a Watford corner, resulting from that Phillips save. Kennedy touched the ball to Noel-Williams, who shielded it at the corner flag. Doherty, dwarfed by the Watford centre forward, challenged and knocked it out for another corner. Repeat performance, another corner. Repeat performance, another corner. Repeat performance, Doherty man-handling Noel-Williams and conceding a free kick. Repeat performance, another free kick. By now, all tension had evaporated, replaced by riotous laughter as Doherty managed to get himself a yellow card for a combination of dissent and not retreating ten yards. Then, finally, the cherry atop an already ample cake – Thorpe arrived on the scene, gave the referee some abuse and talked his way into a booking. Comic genius. The final whistle followed.

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More games from 26th December at https://oldwatford.com/tag/dec26