Tag Archives: Graham Simpson

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/

29th October 2005- Championship, Watford 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1

Ashley Young inspired Watford to victory at Vicarage Road.

A simply gorgeous moment in the eighty-seventh minute. A Wolves corner in front of the Vic Road end, where the speckled colours of clothes and faces have increasingly given way to solid blocks of empty red seats. The ball swings into the six yard box, where substitute Olonfinjana has been left in enough space to start his own vineyard and given enough time to grow it from seed. He must score. Inevitably, he doesn’t score. With wonderfully misguided conviction, he turns and smacks a forceful header five yards wide of the target, and another cluster of Wolves fans is shaken loose like autumn leaves in a stiff breeze.

Three fit centre backs and all was set fair to meet the boys from the Black Country. My lucky yellow jacket, sported proudly on these occasions, also saw to the Wolves line up missing strikers Carl Cort and George Ndah in addition to the long term injury victim, Paul Ince. Also absent was the suspended Vio Ganea.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=34639&id=4681

1st October 2005- Championship, Watford 0 Leeds United 0

Scan 33
Scan 34
Scan 35
Scan 36
Scan 37
Scan 38
Scan 39
Scan 40
Scan 41
Scan 42
Scan 43
Scan 44
Scan 45
Scan 46
Scan 47
Scan 48
Scan 49
Scan 50
Scan 51
Scan 52
Scan 53
Scan 54
Scan 55
Scan 56
Scan 57
Scan 58
Scan 59
Scan 60
Scan 61
Scan 62
Scan 63
Scan 64
Scan 65
Scan 66
Scan 67
Scan 68
Scan 69
Scan 70
Scan 71
Scan 72
Scan 73
Scan 74

guardianIf the Premiership is considered boring and lacking in quality these days, God forbid either of these sides should rise from the Championship to join it.

BSAD image“If you like dubstep but didn’t reach DMZ’s fourth incredible Brixton bash, where were ya?” asks Martin Clark, by way of introduction to his vital monthly round-up of London’s grime and dubstep scenes for the excellent Pitchfork site. And I don’t have an answer to that, frankly.

Screen Shot 2018-09-30 at 19.41.17
Screen Shot 2018-09-30 at 19.40.47
http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4676

17th September 2005- Championship, Watford 2 Sheffield United 3

Leaders Sheffield United came from two goals down to beat 10-man Watford courtesy of a late own-goal off the knee of defender Clarke Carlisle.

Damn right, then, that this left a very bitter taste in the mouth. There’s never anything pleasant about losing a two goal lead; hell, there’s rarely anything too lovely about losing, full stop. But you can live with it, generally. This would’ve been a very different report if we’d just skipped the sixty-seventh minute and got on with it, succumbing to a rather flattering comeback that cancelled out our own rather flattering lead. Neil Warnock’s sides have a certain reputation for unreconstructed physical force, for a distinctive, shall we say, WayneAllisonness; that’s all part of the game that we love. You’d take that on the chin, without complaint. Given the chance.

The thing about lessons is you don’t dwell on them. You take what you need and move on. On that basis, this report should be about four sentences long, of which this is already the third, which just leaves the following: if this game isn’t a turning point in our season, then Betty “Adrian” Boothroyd truly will have made a difference to this club, been proven a “different” kind of manager, and be most worthy of a more expensive, better-fitting suit on matchdays in future.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4672

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

6th August 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Preston North End 2

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4663
BBC Sport

 Preston got their Championship campaign off to a winning start after coming from behind at Watford.

BSAD image

 Four match reports including: Like the first discovered alien lifeform, this one is going to be prodded and poked, stared at and x-rayed, questioned and interrogated. Its every molecule will be examined, checked, recorded. By the time that we’ve finished with Watford versus Preston North End, there’ll be nothing left but a small puddle of purple goo.