Tag Archives: Preston North End

4th October 2008- Championship, Watford 2 Preston North End 1

Watford came back from a goal down to earn a win over Preston thanks to Tommy Smith’s 50th goal for the club.

A quite ridiculously open game of football that looked like delivering many more goals at each end. Due in no small part to our formation – going 4-4-2 without John Eustace in midfield was always going to be a high risk strategy. We had enough to make it pay off; all six of our “attacking” players had good afternoons.

23rd February 2008- Championship, Watford 0 Preston North End 0

Watford lost ground on leaders Stoke after being held by spirited Preston.

On Saturday night, as Watford’s players digested another disappointing home result in a season blighted by them, they were asking themselves one question: chicken or beef?

Some days it just doesn’t bounce for you. Had Doris scored his early chance, Preston’s impotence in attack suggests we’d have won comfortably – not until the last twenty minutes did a victory seem anything but inevitable.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2008-02-23

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/23-february-2008/

26th November 2005- Championship, Preston North End 1 Watford 1

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

Sunday Telegraph, 27 Nov 2005

Observer, 27 Nov 2005

BSAD: A reasonable number of Hornets have made the trip up, although some have had longer journeys than others; local boy Clarke Carlisle, missing due to suspension, is in the stand as is Richard Lee who joins in most of the chants like a good’un (even the Aidy Boothroyd ones).

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2005-11-26

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/26-november-2005/

6th August 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Preston North End 2

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4663

BBC Sport

Preston got their Championship campaign off to a winning start after coming from behind at Watford.

BSAD image

Four match reports including: Like the first discovered alien lifeform, this one is going to be prodded and poked, stared at and x-rayed, questioned and interrogated. Its every molecule will be examined, checked, recorded. By the time that we’ve finished with Watford versus Preston North End, there’ll be nothing left but a small puddle of purple goo.

19th March 2005- Championship, Watford 0 Preston North End 2

This was the final game in Ray Lewington’s reign as Watford Manager.

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David Nugent and Paul McKenna were on target as Preston stayed on course for a place in the Championship play-offs.

Football is a game with ever-altering ambitions, where the only goals that never change are those at each end of the pitch. When the season started these sides will have shared the same aim but by the time this match ended their immediate desires will have been entirely opposite. One side are dreaming that their form will carry them out of this division while for the other precisely the same possibility forms a nightmare.

BSAD image There’s a point, at about quarter to five on an otherwise sunny and bright and cheerful Saturday afternoon, when this becomes almost physically unbearable. While the rest of the country celebrates the arrival of spring, the effort required to maintain the connection between backside and plastic is virtually impossible, and the commitment to doing so utterly inexplicable. Only sheer paralysis causes eyes to remain focused on the pitch, rather than returning to concrete and feet, or being closed in torment or buried behind palms of hands.

An important home match in front of a sell-out crowd before two tricky, long distance away games, Watford had to win this. It was made even more vital by stupidly throwing away a two-nil lead against Leicester on Tuesday night. However, the ninety minutes which we witnessed were very bleak, and gave us little confidence in the now forthcoming relegation fight. A team lacking our star performer of recent weeks in Jay Demerit saw an unconvincing defence line up of Smith, Cox, Doyley and Chambers. Lewington played an unadventurous midfield line-up of Ardley, Mahon, Gunnarsson and Jackson. Webber partnered Helguson up front.

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Taken from the programme on 6th August 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Preston North End 2

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7th August 2004- Championship, Preston North End 2 Watford 1

The Football League decided to rename their three divisions this season. What was ‘New’ Division One was now called the Championship, Division Two was renamed League One and Division Three became League Two.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4608

It’s a curious occasion, then. Here we are, eager to analyse and dissect and predict…and willing to base our opinions on something that takes place in conditions that are completely untypical of what will follow over the next nine months. Sitting in the shade of the stand, it’s easy to forget the impact of the weather…until you emerge into the sunlight on your way out at the end, and you’re physically beaten back by a wave of sheer, savage solar energy. Yeah, I know…they’re well-paid professional athletes and everything. But Christ, this would be about physical survival, not about peak performance. Drawing conclusions on the basis of one game would be – and often is – absurd at any time. More so now than ever.

https://www.soccerbase.com/

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/08-august-2004/