9th April 2011- Championship, Watford 1 Hull City 2 Leave a Reply http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4960 Hull’s fine away form continued at Watford as another smash-and-grab win gave them renewed hope of making the Championship play-offs. The hosts struggled to offer anything beyond long balls but Andreas Weimann did have their first effort as his run and shot crept past the post. The Austrian crashed a volley wide but it was Graham’s involvement that brought them closest to a leveller. The big striker turned at the edge of the area and let fly with a shot that seemed destined for the top corner – until Guzan brilliantly turned it over the bar. It’s hard to escape the impression of a team that’s gone about as far as its legs will carry it, walking home because it couldn’t afford the bus ticket and stumbling exhausted through the front door. That we’ve made it at all, let alone with several games to spare, is deeply, deeply admirable. But the eager zest that surrounds our best play has been replaced by something slightly heavier, slightly more saggy. One incident summed it up: Danny Graham breaking forward in the first half, delaying his pass too long, and running clumsily into a defender; just one moment, but so untypical of the player. We lacked a keen mental edge, a certain brightness. Who knows what effect a win might’ve had – that’s rather my point – but nothing about us suggests a team that’s ready to push on towards the playoffs. https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2011-04-09 https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/09-april-2011/ Share this:TwitterFacebook
12th March 2011- Championship, Watford 3 Sheffield United 0 Leave a Reply Relegation-threatened Sheffield United were reduced to nine men inside 34 minutes as they were beaten at Watford. Interpretation of the result will be distorted by the perspective introduced by two red cards in the first half (see below), but it shouldn’t be. It’s perfectly possible to make heavy weather of a numerical advantage, and on this occasion we did anything but, belying the number of kids on show (which was considerable, even if this was as experienced a line-up as we’ve been able to field of late). Share this:TwitterFacebook
1st February 2011-Championship, Watford 1 Crystal Palace 1 Leave a Reply http://watford.fcdb.info/index.php?page=matches Crystal Palace moved out of the Championship drop-zone after a battling draw at Watford. Watford took the lead through Andreas Weimann, on loan from Aston Villa, when he volleyed in Andros Townsend’s ball from the left. Palace equalised when James Vaughan collected the ball from Neil Danns before jinking his way past Adrian Mariappa and firing past Scott Loach. Evening Standard, 2 Feb 2011 Briefly, as Andros Townsend wriggled through on the left and Andreas Weimann swivelled to score, this promised to be rather fun. But Palace are nothing if not a damp squib: that was as much space and time as they were prepared to afford us, and our attacking efforts were increasingly frustrated by the two holding midfielders wedged in front of the defence like a chair under a door handle. That’s the way to play us, no question. It’s dull as a muddy puddle, but it works. https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2011-02-01 https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/01-february-2011/ Share this:TwitterFacebook
1st January 2011- Championship, Watford 3 Portsmouth 0 Leave a Reply In-form Watford powered into the Championship play-off positions with an emphatic victory over Portsmouth. For the sake of accuracy and not getting too carried away, we must mention the two chances missed by David Nugent at either end of either half…and things might’ve been different if the first of those, following some rather hesitant defending, had ended up in the top corner rather than the Rookery. But much more typical was what occupied the rest of the ninety minutes: a game that we didn’t chase so much as gently coax, safe in the knowledge that it was ours as long as we didn’t scare it off. https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2011-01-01 https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/01-january-2011/ Share this:TwitterFacebook
20th November 2010- Championship, Watford 1 Reading 1 Leave a Reply There was much about Watford’s performance that was concerning but nothing terribly surprising, and nothing for which a clear solution presents itself. We knew that we were going into the season with a young side that was going to be dependent on senior players; we’ve already seen, in Cowie’s absence, the impact that removing one of those cogs can have on the whole shape of the side. More of the same today; Jordon Mutch and Stephen McGinn both had reasonable games in the middle of the park but the whole side missed the steadying influence, the aggression, the option, the foot-on-the-ball of John Eustace in the centre. Ross Jenkins might have reminded us of what he best offers, an option not really suited to pairing with the skipper for whom he’d have been the most obvious replacement but for his ankle injury. http://watford.fcdb.info?s=39599&id=4936 https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2010-11-20 https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/20-november-2010/ Share this:TwitterFacebook
28th September 2010- Championship, Watford 2 Swansea City 3 Leave a Reply Swansea survived a remarkable Watford fight back to record their first away win of the season in the league. As so often with Brendan Rodgers, the reality was greyer than the eye-catching press release. If Vicarage Road was ever able to summon up a tabloid-friendly “hate mob”, then someone’s evidently mislaid the pitchforks and flaming torches in the years since; the lurid pre-match hype conjured up some exciting images – heads on spikes for goalposts, that kind of thing – but it’s remarkably hard to get genuinely angry about a dull, stumpy man in a raincoat. He’s not got a career in pantomime to fall back on, put it that way. http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4927 Share this:TwitterFacebook