Some interesting quotes from the Muff forum, on the whole they seem pretty balanced, but there is no fun in posting balanced posts... "Our record in the leagues at home against Watford, we have Won 21, Drawn 20 and Lost 12. In all competitions AFCB have Won 38, Drawn 39 and Lost 39." That is a very close record! "Let's face it we are probably never going to be challenging the top six in the foreseeable so a relegation scrap adds some real passion into proceedings!" . I love the foreseeable future comment. aka never! "Hope we can build on the Luton result and bag a very important win". LOL "Well after reading one or two comments on their forum re our main training place is the Dolphin Leisure Centre, with its teaching and diving pool, our players had better be careful. ". The reply: "Hornet's nest? Bar a few, a bunch of deluded fools. I bet they say the same about us LOL". Reply 2 #fact-check "The diving pool at the Dolphin has been out of action for months, possibly even years - it is currently being repaired/refurbished". We need to up our game the Dolphin joke was fake news - it is shut.
Just seen a Bournemouth video on YouTube and Ake, Smith and Wilson all training with the first team. So I guess it’s them.
Just seen that Mike Dean is ref on Sunday, Muff penalty nailed on... https://www.nbcsports.com/video/nigel-pearson-critical-referee-mike-dean
Me too. Would be great if they all go off injured with hamstring injuries and are out for 6+ weeks because of being rushed back.
Where? I have seen the video of AFCB today and 32 still pictures from their training pitch this morning. Not one features Ake, King or Smith. Great focus on Solanke and Sturridge playing upfront. Is that cheat Wilson injured? Howe is a sneaky, arrogant and a stubborn *******, so l would not be surprised if they were training elsewhere. Perhaps inside the stadium. Howe is desperate for certain players to make a return from injury. A tight game expected. Penalty against Watford and a sending off very possible . A win would be great...
Hearing the Zeegelaar may be brought in from the cold, with our injury crisis in defence. He could be in line for a recall on Sunday.
Old enough to have seen the first two, but well before my time as a WFC fan (my parents have never been football fans and would have never agreed to take me to such matches when football was a lot less safe back then anyway!). Missed Spurs as I didn't have a season ticket and couldn't get to that game, and streams were harder to come by back then, but I heard it was quite a good game, one of very few highlights of 2006/07, and we were just one game from our first win. Went to Hull, and that was awful, from the surroundings, their more neanderthal fans, the game and the poisonous atmosphere at the end when fans turned on both the players and Walter. Summed up well the Mazzarri era post-Okaka show when there was far more bad than good and we weren't even good enough to be inconsistent like earlier.
1979 is when I started following the mighty Horns. My second ever match was the 4-0 Hull win and into the pond game. As you rightly say, in 41 years I've only known Watford to be out of the top two divisions for two years. That was the Kenny Jackett season, where we only lost once in 28 games, which was just incredible, however, 16 of those were draws and we finished 13th. GT then took over and KJ took a step back and we won the league with that final day victory at Fulham. Jason Lee winner. So, I've been pretty spoilt and seen first hand, the very best of Watford's history.
Quite a contrast for older Luton fans whose history is nearly the exact opposite: since they came down with us in 1996 they've only had three seasons outside the bottom two tiers (and that may be as good as it gets for at least a year following this season). Quite remarkable given that before that they only had seven seasons below the top two since before the last war, and had ten consecutive seasons in the top flight while winning the League Cup. What happened to them? Did football move on and they couldn't keep up (still having that cowshed of a stadium can't help)? Or are they just one of those clubs that will never again be as people knew them, like Nottingham Forest, Ipswich, Sunderland (maybe), Oldham, Notts County etc?
Holebas is a ticking bomb this season. I feel he may go in the Summer. When he has featured he is slow and gets done for pace. Last season was his twilight season, now he might follow Gomes into a coaching role.
He better go next season. His contract is up and if we offer a new one to him at 36 and when he is clearly finished then it would be a new level of insanity, even for us.
I'm a massive fan of Holebas still and we've not really had a chance to see him under Pearson. He's still a great player and at 35 is doing pretty well. I kinda think if you remove the responsibility of defending then there's still a pretty decent and pacey winger in there, or if you stop him going forward then he could still be an effective defender. As a wing back I think he's just spread too thinly doing 2 roles at this stage in his career. He's definitely not shot and if not for us then (if he still wants to play) has a lot to offer for a championship or continental club where the pace and strains are a lot different.
I totally agree about the Mapps/Daws positions, although I'm no expert on this. Got a feeling NP will do it the other way round. If that's the case I hope he's not afraid to switch them during the game if we go 1 or 2 nil down.
Even more bizarre. I saw my 1st game against one of the Chesters in the old third division and at that point we'd spent almost our entire history in the lower leagues. Now in my late 40s Watford have spent more than a quarter of my life in the top flight! Crazy sh1t. Thank u Elton & Gino.
I've got this covered, as soon as RP puts his shirt on the ground and starts to pull down his shorts, I'm gonna run onto the pitch and switch the Watford shirt for a Luton shirt so he can defile that one instead.
Nervous about this one. Prior to this game, any thoughts of survival were really nothing more than wishful thinking, but now we’ve actually given ourselves a chance of getting out of this mostly self-inflicted mess, I’m desperately hoping the momentum can be maintained and we’ll succeed in plunging Bournemouth into full crisis mode. Obviously there’s a long way to go, whatever may happen on Sunday. That said, it feels like a potentially pivotal and season defining game.
Wonderful isn't it? Finally sussed. A crap town with a crap team in a crap Dog Kennel stadium. The latter soon to be upgraded to a Gorilla enclosure. I expect Forest, Ipswich and Sunderland to be 'back' at some point though.
That estimable publication the Bournemouth Echo says Mepham is having surgery today and is out for three months.
Which may explain why Ake is having a fitness test,no other options? Big risk to play him if he's not ready.
No point anyone trying to play this game down, it's massive. I think it's more of a case of must not lose, than a must win. We can't let them get an extra 3 points in front of us, and any point on the road is decent in this league. I think we'll win, even if Ake is fit to play. GD & Sarr are on fire.
It's a vey significant match, but no more so than those games against Norwich and Villa. Before those two, there was a feeling if we don't win we'll surely be relegated. This one is more the case if we win we are back in the race to stay up among everyone else. It's a huge opportunity, but will not be fatal if we lose. Having said that, it is pivotal. The table will have a quite a definitive look depending what our result is.
Ake always seems to have a good game against us. I wish we had bought him after his loan season with us. He would surely have chosen us (having spent a good season here) if we matched Bournemouth's offer. The price, at the time, seemed on the high side. But how much have we wasted on substandard defenders since?
They substantially outbid us and promised him they'd play him in his preferred position rather than at left back if I recall.
I can't understand this position; he's definitely not still a great player, and he doesn't play as a wing back, so I don't know why we'd be judging him as one; he's purely being asked to fulfil the requirements of his incredibly standard position, aka his job. He's not good at defending at all, he's literally incapable of keeping a cross from coming in which has been one of his biggest issues throughout his time with us, and now he's slower, which rubs along with his idiotic mentality to make him even more rash and dangerous. Crediting him with being pacey is a bit like crediting Gray with being pacey, as well. Watching him play at any point this season it's abundantly clear that he definitely is.
