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Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by hornetboy1, Apr 3, 2021.

  1. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    It has to be celebrated. I don't think I've ever known a sequence quite like this.

    Since that hideous home defeat 0-3 to Burnley, this has been our home record in all competitions.

    Crystal Palace 0-0
    Manchester United 2-0
    Aston Villa 3-0
    Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1
    Tottenham Hotspur 0-0
    Tranmere Rovers (FAC) 3-3
    Everton 2-3
    Liverpool 3-0
    Brentford 2-0 (Friendly)
    Leicester City 1-1
    Southampton 1-3
    Norwich City 2-1
    Newcastle United 2-1
    Manchester City 0-4
    Scunthorpe United 1-0 (Friendly)
    Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 (Friendly)
    Middlesbrough 1-0
    Luton Town 1-0
    Blackburn Rovers 3-2
    Bournemouth 1-1
    Stoke City 3-2
    Coventry City 3-2
    Preston North End 4-1
    Cardiff City 0-1
    Rotherham United 2-0
    Brentford 1-1
    Norwich City 1-0
    Huddersfield Town 2-0
    Barnsley 1-0
    Queens Park Rangers 1-2
    Bristol City 6-0
    Derby County 2-1
    Wycombe Wanderers 2-0
    Nottingham Forest 1-0
    Birmingham City 3-0
    Sheffield Wednesday 1-0

    P 36 W 25 D 6 L 5 F 65 A 31 Gd +34
     
  2. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Most of it without any fans - typical!
     
  3. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Coincidence?
     
  4. Steve Leo Beleck

    Steve Leo Beleck Squad Player

    Only so much tutting and grumbling from the stands that players can take. Must be relieved not to be in that cauldron of mild disapproval.
     
  5. PotGuy

    PotGuy Forum Fetishist

    The deafening roar of those shuffling off to their cars at 85 mins and 3-0 down to beat the traffic is like a dagger through the heart of the team

    Rip
     
  6. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Probably less pressure and expectation to attack which under Ivic certainly we didn’t do much.
     
  7. Carpster

    Carpster Squad Player

    It makes for very nice reading.
     
  8. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    Interesting point re fans. The players keep talking about how much they miss the fans and how important we are, and of course we are. Most home support are hugely significant, but this run being so good on the backdrop of no fans can't be ignored.

    Over this run, we've had supporters in for just a handful of games.

    Crystal Palace 0-0
    Manchester United 2-0
    Aston Villa 3-0
    Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1
    Tottenham Hotspur 0-0
    Tranmere Rovers (FAC) 3-3
    Everton 2-3
    Liverpool 3-0
    Cardiff City 0-1
    Rotherham United 2-0
    Brentford 1-1

    With fans
    P 11 W 5 D 4 L 2 F 18 A 9

    Without fans
    P 25 W 20 D 2 L 3 F 47 A 22

    You can see we've been far better without fans at home. Even this season when we let fans in for three games our record was 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat, which is way under the overall average for the season.

    It's odd, but it's working for Watford.
     
    Crezzy95 and wfc4ever like this.
  9. Knight GT

    Knight GT Predictor extraordinaire 2013/14

    We will all be back next season to watch us lose every other week to make up for it
     
    wfc4ever likes this.
  10. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    I think the no fans shows how much of sport is in the mind. People will talk about things like pitch size and grass length, but such things shouldn’t make such a noticeable difference. The home and away aspect still clearly influences mindsets in terms of tactics and approach even when it shouldn’t.

    One interesting thing I’ve noticed is fans of clubs not doing so well blaming lack of fans for their fortunes, or suggesting they’d be doing better with them. It’s a big theme among Sheffield Utd fans, and if you scan the Brentford forum and the thread for their last game you’ll see a lot of their fans saying it. That is odd in itself as that game was away, but as we’ve shown it’s a double edged sword. Yes a crowd can spur you on, but they can also make things worse if you’re not performing well.
     
  11. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Maybe some of it just happens to be coincidence as we got relegated to the Championship where we would hope to have a strong record regardless.

    The fact we are a strong side in the league rather than at the bottom of the Premier league must help.

    But as HB1 says we did have some disappointing performances with fans albeit at the end of the Ivic reign which maybe says something.

    It is interesting though how a team like West Ham seem much better without their hostile home support who can often turn on them whereas Liverpool have struggled without fans at Anfield to maybe spur them on or influence the officials?
     
    Chumlax, Simmos and Otter like this.
  12. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    Well at least if we only lose every other week we should stay up....oh, hang on.
     
  13. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    We're actually an outlier from the overall data.

    The trend across football as a whole shows the lack of supporters in stadiums has eroded home advantage (and thus boosted away prospects). The fact that our home form has bucked the trend is likely despite the lack of fans, not because of it.

    I suspect our significant uptick in form merely reflects the combination of our relegation and the players recovering from the dire form that encapsulated our early Premier League performances last season. Our squad is very good by Championship standards (I am of the opinion that the squad was good enough to stay up, and should have done so; we massively underperformed), so a jump in home winning percentage is to be expected.
     
    Simmos, Teide1 and Happy bunny like this.
  14. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    Or maybe we're all miserable bastards who hate our players while other clubs - except Newcastle, obvs - are supported exclusively by happy clappers.
     
    Simmos and GarethCritic like this.
  15. Forzainglese

    Forzainglese Reservist

    I actually laughed at this. Congratulations and Happy Easter.
    I wonder if it would be possible to co-ordinate the crowd (when we get back) so that every body could go 'TUTT' simultaneously. Would it make a significant sound? How disapproving would it sound? There's a scientific paper in there, somewhere.
     
    UEA_Hornet and Steve Leo Beleck like this.
  16. Forzainglese

    Forzainglese Reservist

    Maybe, just maybe, our home crowd is so relatively quiet compared to the away end, which is made up of so many raucous, uncouth northerners, East Enders and so forth. In that way, and since we have had no crowd at all of late, maybe that accounts for the uptick in home performances. (And possibly casts a poor light on the manliness of our players).
     
  17. folkestone orn

    folkestone orn Squad Player

    Our players were used to playing in relative silence, so it's like nothing has changed?
     
  18. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    The crowd will get on peoples backs who will then often put more pressure on themselves and crumble. Or be scared to make a mistake so dont try anything.

    I dont think its too far of a stretch to say we have a few of these players. Chalobah has had the luxury of 30-40 games to get his form back. Kiko POTS candidate.

    On the other hand I think Sarr would have been unplayable with a crowd egging him forward.
     
  19. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    Have we ever been unbeaten at home for a whole season?

    Our home form in our debut season in the top flight was amazingly good - 16 wins and 50 points from 21 games, even better than in the promotion season, when it was 45 points from 21 games (I haven't worked out many goals we scored, but it was probably in the 50s). Clearly we shocked a fair few teams who were either expecting an easy three points or thought they'd worked out a way of stopping us.
     
  20. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    Just wanted to bounce this, with an update. 28 wins from the last 39 matches at home. Truly outstanding.

    Strangely the home form should have been even better. Should have beaten Spurs, Everton, Tranmere, Bournemouth & Brentford during that period too......not that I'm being greedy. :D

    Crystal Palace 0-0
    Manchester United 2-0
    Aston Villa 3-0
    Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1
    Tottenham Hotspur 0-0
    Tranmere Rovers (FAC) 3-3
    Everton 2-3
    Liverpool 3-0
    Brentford 2-0 (Friendly)
    Leicester City 1-1
    Southampton 1-3
    Norwich City 2-1
    Newcastle United 2-1
    Manchester City 0-4
    Scunthorpe United 1-0 (Friendly)
    Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 (Friendly)
    Middlesbrough 1-0
    Luton Town 1-0
    Blackburn Rovers 3-2
    Bournemouth 1-1
    Stoke City 3-2
    Coventry City 3-2
    Preston North End 4-1
    Cardiff City 0-1
    Rotherham United 2-0
    Brentford 1-1
    Norwich City 1-0
    Huddersfield Town 2-0
    Barnsley 1-0
    Queens Park Rangers 1-2
    Bristol City 6-0
    Derby County 2-1
    Wycombe Wanderers 2-0
    Nottingham Forest 1-0
    Birmingham City 3-0
    Sheffield Wednesday 1-0
    Reading 2-0
    Millwall 1-0
    Swansea City 2-0

    P 39 W 28 D 6 L 5 F 70 A 31 Gd +39
     
  21. folkestone orn

    folkestone orn Squad Player

    Apparently we haven't conceded at home since February. That is remarkable tbf
     
  22. Heidar

    Heidar Squad Player

    So what you're saying is that having fans in the stadium is detrimental to our home form?
     
  23. tonycotonstache

    tonycotonstache Squad Player

    No. Just our fans in the stadium.
     
  24. MIlton Dammers

    MIlton Dammers Reservist

    After the QPR debacle, only WRDC managed to score a goal against us at home, while we ourselves scored 20. Remarkable really. Our defence is good at this level, but not THAT good.
     
    wfc4ever and folkestone orn like this.
  25. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    We probably had some good fortunate to be fair which we won’t get next year.
     
  26. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    And no oppo player has scored against us in nine home matches, as the only goal we’ve conceded at home since QPR has been an own goal!
     
  27. Johnny Todd Sings

    Johnny Todd Sings First Year Pro

    So when the new stadium is built in Bushey it will be advantageous to have a capacity of zero. That should keep the locals happy.
     
  28. Supertommymooney

    Supertommymooney Squad Player

    Marvellous has two l's.

    The same number of L's we had at home in the whole 2020/21 season.
    ;)
     
    Since63 and I Blame Pozzo like this.
  29. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    Sierralta is the perfect defender for the Championship, you can hurl a 20-ton boulder at him and he'll head it away (and that's not the only thing going for him at all, I look forward to seeing him in the Prem). The other four CBs we've fielded in the league this season are all decent at this level, but all have their faults, it is a damning indictment on the division that so few opposition players have taken advantage of their lapses
     
    MIlton Dammers likes this.
  30. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    Only 3 goals conceded at home since Xisco took over. The 2 in the QPR debacle and an OG from WTE for Derby.
     
    miked2006 and folkestone orn like this.
  31. RS2

    RS2 Squad Player

    It's been down to luck, as has most of Xisco's reign. I give this chancer a month in the Prem.
     
  32. folkestone orn

    folkestone orn Squad Player

    Interesting when you consider that Ivic was supposedly a defensive coach. It seems we were better in every respect under Xisco.
     
  33. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Sadly I think you could be right, but lets hope not.
     
  34. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    Why should I be surprised by this comment?

    You and a few others have set out your stall against Munoz since day one whatever the evidence to the contrary which is pretty sad, seems you want him to fail.
     
    RS2 likes this.
  35. Forzainglese

    Forzainglese Reservist

    Our pitch is significantly better than a good number of Championship pitches; and we like to play the ball around, including on the ground.
     
    miked2006 likes this.

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