24th April 2016- FA Cup Semi Final, Crystal Palace 2 Watford 1 (at Wembley Stadium) Leave a Reply Referee:Craig PawsonAttendance:79,110 1-1 LIVE FROM WEMBLEY: Watford beaten by Crystal Palace in FA Cup semi-final Watford suffer FA Cup semi-final agony after Crystal Palace defeat at Wembley IN PICTURES: Watford V Crystal Palace Crystal Palace will play Manchester United in a repeat of the 1990 FA Cup final after beating Watford 2-1 in Sunday’s semi-final at Wembley. Yannick Bolasie headed Palace into an early lead but Troy Deeney levelled the match on 55 minutes. But with the game on a knife edge, Connor Wickham popped up with the winning goal on 61 minutes to send Palace to their first FA Cup showpiece since losing out to United in a replay following a memorable 3-3 draw. Watford had knocked out holders Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in the quarter-finals yet this was one hurdle too many for Quique Sanchez Flores’ side. Watford scored from one of only two shots on target during the game and, after a sequence of just three wins from 17 league matches, this was a display that will do little for manager Quique Sanchez Flores’s chances of keeping his job. Yet, for all that Adlène Guedioura smeared a stoppage-time volley just wide and Joel Ward almost inadvertently converted Allan Nyom’s dangerous centre, Flores’s team were rather disjointed throughout and handicapped further by a knee injury sustained by Étienne Capoue which could yet prove serious. Sometimes these reports are enjoyable to write. Winning helps, of course, but it’s not a perfect correlation… there are interesting defeats too, defeats that don’t quite feel like being slapped in the face. This isn’t one of those times. This is the sort of occasion when you kinda suspect that everyone wants to forget it as much as you do. One of the most important football matches of your entire life is about to end. You spend its last ten minutes trying to work out how best to get back to civilisation. You wish it away and it meekly obeys. Generally I try to take positives from games, but it is hard on an afternoon like this. I can take a defeat if we have given our all and were beaten by a better team, but I came away from Wembley thinking that, given the talent in our squad, we should have done better. If you had told me in August that we would retain our status in the Premier League and reach the FA Cup semi-final, I would have been thrilled. But that defeat will hurt for some time. I’m not angry, I’m not sad. I’ve spent the last 24 hours following our defeat feeling morose, listening to Einaudi in the hope the tears will eventually come and I’ll feel alright. What I do feel however is let down. Which is not something I ever want to say. If we gave our all, if we left everything out on that pitch and still lost, then fine, we can leave with our heads held high. But we didn’t, we were slow and unadventurous. Share this:TwitterFacebook
17th January 2015- Championship, Watford 5 Charlton Athletic 0 Leave a Reply Goals: 1 2 3 4 5 Craig Cathcart fired the hosts ahead before Troy Deeney doubled their advantage with a cool finish after Gabriele Angella’s high through ball. Odion Ighalo slotted in from close range just before half-time and later headed in Daniel Tozser’s corner. Tozser himself added a late fifth with a curling, 25-yard free-kick to complete a torrid day for the visitors. If anything, the margin of defeat flattered the visitors as the Hornets carved out a succession of opportunities and could easily have scored more goals had their finishing been better and Addicks goalkeeper Neil Etheridge not made some fine saves. Today was a good day. The sun shone, a beautiful crisp winter’s day which saw early gentle snowfalls melt away, no wind, no bite, a day to grin at the aggressively blue sky. Vicarage Road looked fabulous in front of its biggest crowd for nearly seven years in – count them – four stands. “Your Song” rumbled around Vicarage Road before kick-off and, whilst Charlton started quite brightly and the early exchanges suggested a punchy end-to-end encounter it didn’t take long for the game’s pattern to establish itself. Troy Deeney played a wicked through-ball to release Anya, the Addicks’ defence fell apart like a house of cards, Chris Solly took a yellow by snatching at the escaping wing-back and that was pretty much that. Our worst performances tend to have been followed directly by defiance like this since Slav’s arrival and Charlton were the fall guys. This was the bit of being “inconsistent” that is to be enjoyed. There are worse things than being inconsistent after all… https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2015-01-17 https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/17-january-2015/ Share this:TwitterFacebook