Tag Archives: Nigel Gibbs

26th August 2018- Premier League, Watford 2 Crystal Palace 1

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Referee:Anthony Taylor   Attendance:20,014

screen-shot-2016-09-12-at-23-36-22 clips of Jon Marks BBC 3CR commentary   Goals: 1   2

Watford Observer

RELIVE – Watford vs Crystal Palace: Perfect Premier League start continues for Hornets

Watford make it nine points from nine with battling Crystal Palace win

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson reflects on Watford defeat

Watford: Javi Gracia says it’s ‘special’ to get three consecutive Premier League wins

PICTURES: A selection of images from Watford’s historic win over Crystal Palace

Ben Foster: Javi Gracia’s style key to Watford’s flying Premier League start

Player ratings: Watford’s Christian Kabasele on song as Hornets down Crystal Palace

Watford: Javi Gracia pleased with Roberto Pereyra’s all-round contribution

Watford’s Christian Kabasele highlights importance of team spirit as winning run goes on

BBC SportThe Hornets maintained their perfect start in the Premier League to move behind Liverpool and level with Chelsea at the top of the table on goal difference.

skyWilfried Zaha struck 12 minutes from time at Vicarage Road to raise hopes of a visiting fightback but the hosts held on as Roberto Pereyra’s 53rd-minute strike and Jose Holebas’s freak second (71) proved enough.

TelegraphGraham Taylor never managed three straight wins at the start of a first division season, a run that carried Gracia’s team to second place ahead of Chelsea’s game against Newcastle United and pegs Watford above champions Manchester City for the week. They might not have played any of the title contenders yet, but amongst those for whom survival is the first thought – Brighton, Burnley and now Crystal Palace – Watford have been ruthless.

guardianThis snarl of a game was deep into stoppage time when Luka Milivojevic swung over one last hopeful corner kick and, with the majority in the arena anxiously holding their breath, Joel Ward leapt unchallenged into the six-yard box only to head wide of the post. The locals’ outpouring of relief at the miss was almost as deafening as the raucous delight which greeted the final whistle moments later.

FranThe build-up to this game was all about Harry Hornet who, in answer to a question from a journalist, had been branded a ‘disgrace’ by Roy Hodgson for an incident two years ago that I doubt Hodgson had actually ever seen, when Harry collapsed behind Zaha while the post-match handshakes were happening.  Sticking up for your player is all well and good but Roy lost all credibility when he claimed, with a straight face, that Zaha didn’t dive.  Sorry, Roy he gets booked for it, which was what provoked Harry’s action.  You couldn’t help but feel that Roy’s words would come back to haunt him.

BHappy imageIt feels more like March than August bank holiday weekend.  Palace have brought the traditional Croydon microclimate with them and it dampens our quick start before it gets going.  Only the hissing, spitting hot fat of this fixture burns on unperturbed, and it hadn’t needed Roy Hodgson ambling into a Harry-shaped animal trap in the visitors’ pre-match press conference to ignite it.  Our encounters have a bad-tempered, even spiteful undercurrent all of their own.

The Hornets NestIt only took four minutes for the game’s first talking point to occur. As Capoue tripped Zaha in the middle of the pitch, the referee awarded the midfielder a yellow card. At the time and due to where I was sitting I thought this decision was harsh. Replays show however that Capoue may have been lucky to stay on the pitch, after a potentially dangerous challenge.

FTRE imageIt was raining, but oh the Hornets kept on shining. 3 wins in a row for the Golden Boys and this one might have been a little trickier, but also sweeter due to a certain Wilf Zaha. 

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8th February 2013- Championship, Watford 2 Crystal Palace 2

Almen Abdi put Watford into an early lead with a well-hit effort from just outside the area before Nathaniel Chalobah headed in the Hornets’ second.

Second-half goals from Peter Ramage and Kevin Phillips earned Crystal Palace a 2-2 draw at Watford in the Championship.

Ian Holloway called for the Football League to “close the loophole” that has allowed Gianfranco Zola to loan eight players from Udinese, who are also owned by the Pozzo Family, after watching his side battle back to claim a point in a pulsating game.

These are the games, my friends. Bursting with possibility…for disaster, for triumph, for all of the stuff in between. For finding out what you’re really made of. A clash between two cresting waves, unstoppable and inevitable; no time for caution or reserve, just a head-on collision at full pelt. For a club like ours, you only really get them when promotion is on the horizon: cup or league encounters with higher forces lack the same balance, relegation six-pointers lack the surging ambition. Not a game that was ever going to end goalless and sterile, this.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2013-02-08
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/08-february-2013/

24th April 2010- Championship, Watford 3 Reading 0

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4915

Watford secured Championship survival with an impressive win over Reading.

Well thank heavens for that.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2010-04-24
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/24-april-2010/

26th September 2009- Championship, Reading 1 Watford 1

This was the first and only time we faced Brendan Rodgers’ Reading side.  He quit as Hornets boss in the summer to become the Royals manager just two weeks after saying that journalists who continually linked him with the Reading job were questioning his integrity.

Watford Observer‘No contact at all’ from Reading for Brendan Rodgers

He was sacked by Reading on 16th December 2009 when they were 21st.  Under his management they only won 5 league games.

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4878

BBC SportReading’s wait for a home league win goes on after Danny Graham scored a second-half equaliser for Watford.  One ex-Watford player, Jobi McAnuff, set up another, Grzegorz Rasiak, to give Reading an early lead.

BHappy imageLook, we weren’t there, ok? So if you’re looking for insightful thunks you’d better look somewhere else; the reasons for non-attendance shall, as ever, remain private but it should go without saying that it was fairly heavy stuff.  I’m assuming that people will want to discuss the match anyway, so do so here if you really must.

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More games from 26th September at https://oldwatford.com/tag/sep26/

1st January 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Millwall 0

 

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