Tag Archives: May11

11th May 2022- Premier League, Watford 0 Everton 0 (and Rob Edwards is appointed our new Head Coach)

Before the game it was announced that Rob Edwards, who had just secured promotion to League One with Forest Green Rovers would become our new Head Coach at the end of the season.

BBC Sport: Rob Edwards: Watford appoint former Forest Green boss as manager from 2022-23

Sky Sports: Forest Green chairman Dale Vince accused Watford of “doubling down on deceit” after Edwards left the club earlier on Wednesday; Watford say Edwards “had a contractual provision allowing him to leave Forest Green Rovers at any time to discuss employment opportunities at other clubs”

The Guardian: Edwards is to take over from Roy Hodgson, who will leave at the end of this season. The selection of the 39-year-old former Wales defender marks a significant change in the type of appointment typically made by Watford’s owners, the Pozzo family. He becomes the club’s ninth permanent manager in five years.

Attendance: 20,653

BBC Sport: Watford ended a club record run of 11 successive home defeats and Everton moved a point closer to Premier League safety after a dismal game at Vicarage Road.

Sky Sports: Chances were at a premium with Ben Foster’s fine save to deny Richarlison in the second period the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock – but Leeds’ 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea edges Everton further away from the danger zone.

The Guardian: After a turgid first half, the most likely source of a goal seemed to come from Watford’s João Pedro, who, like Richarlison, joined the club from Fluminense but has yet to make quite the same impact. Pickford was off his line quickly to beat the lively Brazilian forward to a long through ball a few minutes after the restart. Richarlison then called Ben Foster into serious action for the first time when his goalbound shot deflected off Christian Kabasele.

BHappy: There’s a stoicism about our play.  Not much more than stoicism, admittedly, but let’s be realistic… we’ve been falling quickly and any kind of foothold, anything to stay the momentum is welcome. On WhatsApp, my co-editor asks why the League Cup first round is being played in May – and there’s something of that annual landmark’s curiosity about the return to view of some fringe players.  Former Evertonian Dan Gosling – whose ability to time runs into the box must surely owe something to having spent two years playing with Tim Cahill – does an inconspicuously disciplined job… scrapping, scraping, getting a foot in.  For someone who’s not played all season he’s straight back on his game.  So too is Jeremy Ngakia, who is bold and assertive while Samuel Kalu is far more convincing than during his most recent cameo at Molineux.  The world doesn’t collapse.  We’re doing OK. It is, however, a monumentally terrible game.  Quite epically banal stuff, the 1970s supermarket own brand corn flakes of Premier League football. If you’re here for entertainment you’re going to be sorely disappointed

Fran’s Watford Blog: At this point the 1881 had started singing, “We’ve got the ball/We’ve lost the ball”, the latter being a bit on the negative side for me until they followed it up with “We’ll win it back” and, suddenly, everyone joined in and there was a really fun atmosphere.  This song went on for about 15-20 minutes.  The visitors continued to attack as Gordon tried a shot from distance, but it was an easy catch for Foster.  Then a cross from Richarlison bounced off Kalu and into the air, coming down into Foster’s arms.  Gordon won a free kick, which he took himself, but his effort was straight at Foster.  Lampard made a second substitution replacing Delph with Allan.  Doucouré really should have done better after receiving a pass from Iwobi in a dangerous position, but he hit a very soft shot straight at Foster.  I must say that it was the first time that I noticed he was playing.  Hodgson made his first change bringing Cathcart on for Kalu, who was exhausted.  The visitors threatened yet again as Mykolenko got himself into space, but his shot was straight at Foster.  The next Watford change involved a surprise appearance by Etebo, “back from injury”, who came on in place of Kayembe.  In time added on, the Hornets won a corner which was taken by Sema whose delivery was met by the head of Kabasele, but Pickford was equal to it.  Kabasele was then in action at the other end blocking a cross from Gordon.  That was the last action of note, so the game ended goalless. 

11th May 2016- Premier League, Norwich City 4 Watford 2

Referee:
Roger East
Attendance:
26,279
1-0
2-3

Norwich were relegated to the Championship despite a thumping victory over Watford at Carrow Road.

The home side fell behind to Troy Deeney’s opportunistic 11th-minute goal, before responding three times before half-time through Nathan Redmond, Dieumerci Mbokani and a Craig Cathcart own goal.

The Carrow Road crowd started to sense events might just turn in their team’s favour after all, but news that Sunderland had taken a two-goal lead at the Stadium of Light quashed hope.

All the while, goals continued to rain in. Watford scored a second, Deeney getting around Russell Martin too easily and squaring the ball for Odion Ighalo. Sunderland scored a third. Norwich scored a fourth, Mbokani beating the offside trap and dinking the ball delightfully over Heurelho Gomes. “We lost intensity,” said the Watford manager Quique Sánchez Flores. “For the first time in the season, I had the feeling that it was a party match. It happens. We got the objectives a long time ago.” For Norwich, their quality constituted a sort of taunt. If only, if only.

Evening Standard, 12 May 2016

It’s not unreasonable to argue that, our situation and form being what it is, travelling supporters kinda ought to have known that a non-performance like this was a strong possibility. It’s also true that Norwich had an awful lot more riding on this than we had. To be expected, perhaps, that they’d be the more focused, the more motivated. But even accounting for both factors and to whatever degree you sympathise with the position that Quique Flores is in – of which more later – there was no excusing this pathetic shambles. The club, the team, the manager do still have a responsibility to uphold… to their supporters, those daft enough to come have nonetheless spent time and money, and so on and so on. A well-worn argument. As importantly, but for the way the evening transpired in Sunderland, fans of both north-east clubs who may have been depending on this outcome would have had every right to look at this and ask “what the bloody hell was that all about?”. We’re not the only ones to take our foot off, sure. That doesn’t make it acceptable, whatever the magnitude of achievement that has or hasn’t gone before it. Lack of ability you can forgive. Lack of effort, less so.

At half time, I went to chat with Don.  You know that things are not going well when even Don can’t find anything positive to say.  Although he did manage a complaint about the ref, so I knew he was OK.  Our summary of the first half was that the majority of the Watford players were on the beach.

Whilst what Flores has achieved for this club is remarkable, and whilst I don’t want to seem ungrateful he is the master of his own downfall. I love the guy and I don’t want to be mad at him. I’ve been patient with him but like every human being I have my limits, and last night was the final straw. Last night there was a severe lack of imagination and effort (which isn’t something I like saying). 

11th May 2008- Championship Playoff Semi-Final First Leg, Watford 0 Hull City 2

I haven’t done the research but I think we must have set a record of being the only club to ever achieve our lowest league attendance of the season in the first leg of a playoff game.  We had attracted over 15,000 to every other league game in 07/08 but our terrible form of just one win in 14 games which saw us scrape into the playoffs meant only 14,713 turned up. In comparison 18,535 attended the first leg against Birmingham in 1999, the third highest home crowd of the 98/99 season.

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4812

BBC SportGoals from veteran pair Nicky Barmby and Dean Windass put Hull within sight of the Championship play-off final.  Watford had a goal harshly disallowed in the fourth minute and fell behind shortly after when Fraizer Campbell set up Barmby to sidefoot home.

skyTo make matters worse for Adrian Boothroyd’s men, skipper John Eustace was given a straight red card after a second-half scuffle.

BHappy image Yes, okay, so we lost.  And we can’t defend.  And, well, Dean Windass.  But that was rather fun wasn’t it? 

https://oldwatford.com/2008/05/13/14th-may-2008-championship-playoff-semi-final-second-leg-hull-city-4-watford-1-hull-city-won-6-1-on-aggregate/

11th May 1991- Division Two, Watford 2 Bristol City 3

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=3930
English Division Two (old)Table »
Barnsley1-0Middlesbrough
Brighton and Hove A2-1Ipswich Town
Bristol Rovers1-1West Bromwich Albion
Leicester City1-0Oxford United
Millwall2-1Blackburn Rovers
Newcastle United1-2Hull City
Oldham Athletic3-2Sheffield Wednesday
Plymouth Argyle2-0Charlton Athletic
Port Vale3-1Swindon Town
Watford2-3Bristol City
West Ham United1-2Notts County
Wolverhampton Wndrs3-1Portsmouth
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