Having not made the trip to Hertfordshire the last couple of years, it’s always an away day that I look forward to. I spent some time working in Watford in the 1980s, had a number of good nights out there and have some great memories.
I can also remember the days when away fans would have to walk around a huge allotment to get into the away end at Vicarage Road. There is one standout match for me, the last game of the season in May 1992, which we lost 5-2 with our goals coming from an on-loan Arsenal striker that you may have heard of.
However, it wasn’t Andy Cole’s brace that lives long in the memory but the fact that we ended the game with eight men, following the sending off of the Three A’s – Wayne Allison, Ray Atteveld and Mark Aizlewood. What a day.
Following a decent Easter with four points, following a win at Stoke City and a well-earned point at home to Middlesbrough, we made our way up the M4 and M25 in high spirits. It was an away day sell-out with nearly 2,000 City fans making the trip, a tremendous following considering our position in the league.
Manager Nigel Pearson resisted the urge to recall Alex Scott, Kal Naismith or Tommy Conway into his starting XI, still managing their game time back after injury and so it was the same team. As against Boro, academy defender Harry Leeson was preferred as the defensive right-back cover to Kane Wilson.
I’d like to understand the state of play with Wilson. Considered somewhat of a marquee signing, following his League Two Player of the Year award last season, I think a lot of us had high hopes for the flying wing-back.
Certainly, he looked good in pre-season, but I don’t think he has started a league game this year and has only played a couple of cup games, scoring in the second round of the League Cup away at Wycombe. Does Wilson feature in Pearson’s plans for next season? Can he force his way in? Of course, George Tanner has been consistent in the right-back role, and Mark Sykes in the right midfield role but I do wonder if Wilson may move on in the summer. I hope not.
It’s unusual to feel so positive about a defeat but we actually played really well against Chris Wilder’s team - well for this week at least it’s Chris Wilder’s team, but who knows with Watford; the revolving door of football management never stops revolving there.
The scoreline was not a fair reflection of the game and even the most ardent of Watford fans will have felt they were a little fortunate to come away with all three points. Although, that said the one stat that matters the most is goals and their two to our nil meant they deserved it.
We enjoyed the majority of possession, created some decent chances and Hornet's goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann was arguably man of the match, producing one outstanding save to deny Nahki Wells when the score was 1-0.
Not long after Watford went up the other end and sealed the victory with a goal from Joao Pedro, a player that Newcastle United were rumoured to have bid £30m for in the summer. Watford also had another £30m man in Ismaïla Sarr in their starting line-up.
As Pearson said, “football is all about being good in both boxes”. We weren’t clinical enough in front of goal, with a couple of good chances for Wells, Harry Cornick, and Cameron Pring. Whilst at the other end, it was a bit of a comedy or errors that saw Watford take the lead through an own goal by Cornick and seal the win with that Pedro goal.
On our 3 Peaps In A Podcast Bonus show we had former City midfielder and local BBC radio pundit Gary Owers as the third Peap and he was livid with City’s setup for the Watford opener.
Having messed up our own dead-ball routine, Watford broke on City and George Tanner took one for the team fouling Pedro. City didn’t put anyone in front of the ball, allowing Imran Louza to do what he wanted with the ball, and he picked out Pedro’s run, with Jay Dasilva and Andy King slow to react. Pedro’s well-struck shot went across the goal and with Keinan Davis coming in at the back post, Pring hurried his clearance and the ball clattered into the unfortunate Cornick and the ball rebounded into the net.
Cornick could do nothing about it. Gary couldn’t believe that we didn’t have at least a one man wall to make Louza have to do more with his dead ball.
City saw chances for Cornick, Wells and Pring in the first half with Sam Bell causing all sorts of problems for the Watford back line with his speed and crossing. It’s funny, arguably our best crossers of the ball on the run are Bell and fellow front men Wells and Tommy Conway. Perhaps the three of them need to take a couple of coaching sessions and let their colleagues know the type of ball that a forward likes.
We got sucker-punched nine minutes into the second half and it was again slack defending that saw Pedro extend Watford’s lead. Cornick and Andy King allowed Pedro inside on his right and whilst his shot was well struck Zak Vyner threw his head at it but missed. The movement from Zak seemed to un-sight Max O’Leary in the City goal, and the ball went through him.
He may have seen it late, but Max has to do better for me there. He only had to look at the other end of the pitch to see the heroics Bachmann was pulling off. Aside from that goal which I think he should have saved, he seems to make the saves you would expect but isn’t pulling off the worldies, those saves that win you points, and quality competition is a must in the summer for me.
We were just as good in the second half especially after the introduction of Alex Scott for Cornick just before the hour. It’s only when he hasn’t played and comes back in that you again appreciate the talent he has. One move in the second half summed him up perfectly. Winning the ball after a couple of tenacious challenges he glided forward leaving Watford players in his wake before feeding a lovely, perfectly weighted pass into Conway, whose shot was well saved again by Bachmann.
Naismith came on initially in the midfield for King but not long after moved into the back for Vyner who apparently has an ongoing injury which he is managing. Anis Mehmeti came on for Bell but those two changes seemed to take the impetus away and the game petered out.
Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast Bonus show ratings were: Max O’Leary 6, George Tanner 7, Zak Vyner 6, Cameron Pring 6, Jay Dasilva 6, Matty James 6, Andy King 6, Andreas Weimann 6, Sam Bell 7, Harry Cornick 6, Nahki Wells 7 *MotM (close between Wells, Bell and Tanner) and Scott 7 (subs have to have come onto the field before the 60th minute). A game average of 6.25, and a season average of 6.32.
For Nigel it was a 6, a good performance but I felt that the substitutions - Scott aside - had a negative impact on the way we were playing.
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