Tag Archives: Jan31

31st January 2026- Championship, Watford 0 Swansea City 2

Watford Observer: Gracia: Watford in a ‘difficult moment’ and ‘really need support’ from home fans

Watford want to be ‘aggressive’ and ‘play in the opposite half’ against Swansea

Gracia on Baah, Irankunda and how he selects his team

https://www.watfordfc.com/news/2026/january/31/digital-digest-swansea-edition

Match Wrap: Watford 0-2 Swansea City – Watford FC Download

Watford Observer: MATCHDAY AS IT HAPPENED: Watford 0-2 Swansea City

Match Report: Winless run extends to five as tame Watford beaten 2-0 by Swansea

WATCH: Immediate reaction to Watford 0-2 Swansea City and Gracia’s comments

Gracia plans to talk with Pozzo after Swansea defeat

Why does Javi Gracia want talks with Gino Pozzo? And what next?

BBC: Swansea City claimed a rare away victory as second-half goals from Marko Stamenic and Josh Key saw Watford lose further ground in the Championship play-off race.

Sky: Watford, by contrast, have not won a Championship match since New Year’s Day and played the final four minutes of injury time with 10 men after Nestory Irankunda was sent off for pushing Liam Cullen to the ground.

Fran’s Watford Blog: On Sunday morning the news came that Javi had resigned. I am very sad to see him go, but it was not a great surprise as he has clearly been unhappy in recent weeks. We have to thank him for the great run that we went on towards the end of last year and some of the most enjoyable football we have seen in a while. He leaves with my good wishes and will always be given a warm welcome at the Vic.

31 January 2024- Championship, Sheffield Wednesday 0 Watford 0

https://www.skysports.com/football/sheffield-wednesday-vs-watford/teams/485047

Sky: Sheffield Wednesday’s winless run extended to three matches as they recorded a 0-0 draw at home to Watford in the Championship.

BBC: Ike Ugbo, making his first start for the Owls, and Watford’s Matheus Martins both hit the post, while the latter also missed the best chance of the first half when he shot wide with the goal gaping.

Watford Observer: RECAP: Sheffield Wednesday 0 Watford 0

The pitch beat both teams on a night of little quality

Ismael felt players tried to adapt to ‘awful’ pitch and deserved rare clean sheet

BHappy: Ben Hamer, most significantly, looks pretty good at pretty much everything you’d want him to – calm, confident with both feet, decent decision making. Oh, and a good shot stopper obviously, evidenced by twice punching goal-bound shots out of the top corner, by a reflex save to deny our closest call at the end of the first half and by somehow – goodness knows how – sufficiently obstructing an effort that the opposite stand behind the goal believed had crossed the line conveying despair across the pitch by their reaction until the sight of our own midfielders trying to engineer a quick break amid the confusion confirmed otherwise to a relieved away end. Quite how Hamer has spent so much of his career as a backup is a little difficult to understand.

Fran’s Watford Blog: While a point away from home should not be dismissed, it was disappointing not to have seen a more impressive performance against a poor Wednesday team. The Hornets may have hit the post and missed an open goal, but they didn’t test the young keeper and Hamer was the busier of the two. He pulled off a couple of excellent saves, so should be pleased to have kept a clean sheet, which was the first since mid-November. There were a lot of complaints about the pitch, which was in a terrible condition and made me think that maybe Gino should instal one dreadful pitch at the training ground for the lads to train on before games like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/championship/table

31st January 2018- Premier League, Stoke City 0 Watford 0

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Watford Observer

RELIVE – Stoke City v Watford: Hornets avoid defeat in scrappy game at bet365 Stadium

Stoke City vs Watford: Javi Gracia marks Premier League debut with goalless stalemate

Javi Gracia: Watford head coach savours first clean sheet since November

Watford’s Sebastian Prodl hopes Stoke City draw can spark Premier League revival

Stoke City v Watford: Gerard Deulofeu debut pleases head coach Javi Gracia

Stoke City vs Watford ratings: Hornets put in solid team performance to earn Premier League point

Javi Gracia picked up his first point as Watford boss after his side held Stoke to a 0-0 draw at the bet365 Stadium on Wednesday evening.

A tight contest opened up in the last 15 minutes as both teams committed men forward in search of a winner, with substitute Peter Crouch going close for the hosts and Doucoure shooting wide.

Tempers boiled over time and again, just as they did in the corresponding fixture at Vicarage Road in October, after which Troy Deeney was retrospectively banned, and it was something of a surprise the game finished with 22 players on the pitch.

I’m here as the result of a phonecall from fellow former fanzine editors at Stephen Todd’s funeral back in October, suggesting that we take on the season’s least inviting midweek away trip in his honour. Toddy knew how to do football supporting better than pretty much anyone I’ve ever met; I’ve lost the knack, but something in the idea has remained sufficiently appealing that I haven’t wheedled my way out in the meantime. We arrive in Stoke at not long after four o’clock, settle into the local Harvester, avail ourselves of the salad cart, try to build a list of every goalscorer from the Pozzo era. Shenanigans and indeed misdemeanours from away trips of yore are mentioned; Dave keeps that flame alive by ordering gammon with egg and pineapple.

After a swift glass of red at the pub, we headed back to the hotel and spent a late night in the lounge with a large number of Watford fans. Everyone in attendance had thoroughly enjoyed the performance and were happy to have been part of a more positive crowd.

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31st January 2017-Premier League, Arsenal 1 Watford 2

Less than 24 hours before GT’s funeral we travelled to the Emirates and recorded our first league win there, and our first league away win against the Gunners since 1988.

clips of Jon Marks BBC 3CR commentary
Goal 1 Goal 2

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LIVE – Arsenal v Watford: Hornets sensational in first league win in eight at Arsenal

Watford pull off stunning win over Arsenal

Wenger claims Arsenal deserved more from Watford loss

Watford boss Mazzarri dedicates Arsenal triumph to Graham Taylor

Arsenal v Watford ratings: Momentous win and courageous performance at The Emirates

Former Tottenham defender Younes Kaboul lashed in the opener within 10 minutes for Watford with a shot from outside the area which deflected off Aaron Ramsey. Just two minutes and 57 seconds later, the visitors doubled their lead as Troy Deeney tapped in the rebound after Etienne Capoue’s fine run ended with his shot being saved by Petr Cech.

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Arsenal 1-2 Watford: Troy Deeney leaves Gunners’ title hopes hanging by a thread

Arsenal players ‘mentally not ready’, says Wenger after Watford defeat

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31st January 2007- Premier League, Manchester United 4 Watford 0

http://watford.fcdb.info/index.php?page=matches

Manchester United produced a dominant second half display to see off Watford.

Independent, 1 Feb 2007- I could totally see how you’d get Chris Powell and Jay DeMerit mixed up!

Daily Telegraph, 1 Feb 2007

Evening Standard, 1 Feb 2007

Manchester United have the air of a team in complete control of their own destiny, so a side of Watford’s limitations were always going to struggle in a contest their manager Aidy Boothroyd had likened to “Muhammad Ali against Jimmy Krankie”.

Is that a mouldy potato in your pocket, or…?

31st January 2002- New Division One, Preston North End 1 Watford 1

http://watford.fcdb.info/index.php?page=matches

Daily Telegraph, 1 Feb 2002

Guardian, 1 Feb 2002

Evening Standard, 1 Feb 2002

A Thursday night in Preston! What an attractive prospect! Amazingly, 313 Watford fans braved the distance and the fact that recent form had decreed that this was a banker of a home win.

Not for the first time this season, there was confusion among the five hundred or so Watford faithful when the line-up was announced. It appeared that Gifton would be playing up-front on his own with support from Jermaine Pennant. However it quickly became clear that no-one had communicated this to Gifton as he spent most of the time hovering on the half-way line down the left hand side. It was usually David Noble who was Watford’s furthest player upfield.

Almost forty games has passed and with the exception of forty-five minutes against ten-man Wimbledon, we are still looking as unfamiliar with ourselves as we did at Maine Road.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2002-01-31

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-division-1/31-january-2002/