Erm..... you didn't want him to play advantage to allow us to score then???!!!! Also Eloden your comments on Hodson are well wide of the mark - same as your other comments today! Try reading and undertanding the Laws of the Game. Good to hear a decent bit of atmosphere when we were ahead today!!!!
Cardiff fans were celebrating the draw at the end, that's all you need to know really. Funniest bit for me was when the ball went out near us early in the first half, and a 12-ish year old kid grabbed the ball and went to throw it back to Cowie then didn't. Three times Cowie fell for the same move, then the kid threw it at his feet. Top work young man! Cardiff are a good side, at times today it reminded me of our Premiership year where we had to hang on to games then try to sneak a goal on the break, but once we scored we were all over them. We worked our socks off and one silly mistake cost us 2 points. It's been a long time since I've seen a goal celebrated as hard as the one against Cardiff today. I think there are a lot of bad feelings towards what Malky and Cowie did to us and they all came out when that goal went in. Unbelievable scenes for a few minutes after that goal. Much as it pains me to say it, it was another cracking game at the Vic and total value for money, but a draw was the fair result.
Not what I meant, if there were two similar fouls then you'd expect him to give the same response. Pretty sure everything else I said was alright. Just rushed down my thoughts, sorry sir.
A good point today. Defeats for Donny, Brizzle, Forest & Pompey, and we're now 6 points clear of the drop. A win against Donny on saturday would give us a nice little buffer for our usual new-year slump.
I went to the game today in great spirits (my first visit to Vicarage Road since Leeds at home in the league last season). I thought that we played quite well I must say. I love having Nosworthy in the team; he was an immovable brick today, a constant thorn in Cardiff's attack. It seemed to me like the players around him felt confident that they had 2 of the best CB's in the championship in Mariappa and Nosworthy playing. Loach made a couple of good saves, one outstanding one in the first half to keep out a header. The command of his area let him down today I must say. The lad can save shots yes but I just don't think our back four are confident with him. There was one corner today where loach went to catch the ball, then dropped it. Very worrying stuff there. Deeney had a cracking game too, always getting involved down the right and putting in a couple of lovely crosses into the box. Great game. Well done Troy. One thing I did notice is that our set pieces were all absolutely awful today. Corners and free kicks mostly went nowhere as they were overhit. Loved the abuse Mackay and Cowie were getting, especially the chant about Malky going bald. Well done Dyche, another impressive performance. If we can find a good keeper with a bit of charisma and commanding ability in January, then we're sorted! Looking out for myself tonight on the football league show tonight. COYH!
Frustrating! Three home games in Bristol City, Leeds and today that we have been in the lead but cocked it up for ourselves, however Cardiff were worth their point in fairness. As above, the goal celebration was the loudest I have heard at the Vic for a long time, and the celebration by the players showed a very united and happy team. Loach showed his best side and his worst. A few of his saves were good but any ball in the air within his six yard box causes panic and a real lack of conviction at times. As a side, Cardiffs dead ball delivery was spot on every time so the defence had to be on their game for those. As a back four they were solid, one weak header from ****o in the first half apart I don't think they put a foot wrong. Kightly and Hogg were superb and they show they have championship pedigree. Buaben was in and out of the game but took his goal very well. Yeates is due a performance now. Often he gets away with an average performance with some brilliant dead ball delivery but even that was lacking today. Deeney was top class. His hold up play, winning headers, bringing others into the game were all superb. He should have done better with his header but his all round game was top class, MOTM for me. Sordell was equally as good and showed hunger and desire which everyone knows I think have been missing from his game. The way he battled to keep the ball when setting up the goal was brilliant. His shirt was being tugged and in the past that is a situation he would likely have dropped to his knees and expected the penalty but instead he battled, outmuscled and outfought - the end result was exactly what was deserved and showed a better level of teamwork than he has shown in games past. Somebody mentioned above the Dyche should have made some subs but to be honest I wouldn't have made any either, we looked fine as we were to be honest and other than a very clear cut **** up we would have been sitting here with three points. I was critical of Dyche at the start of the season but to be fair he has got us playing, it is the repeated **** ups that are incredibly frustrating. With that in mind I would liek to see us be a bit more ruthless and have a bit of a cushion so if there is a howler it doesn't always have the same effect. If Leeds and Cardiff are both supposedly play off material then we don't have much to fear currently, but fingers crossed we can keep hold of Kightly and Nosworthy so it stays that way.
We really need to be taking 3 points from these home games against the likes of Cardiff. I can't honestly see where the next win is coming from. Worrying times.
I thought Sordell was sluggish today actually, just didn't quite click. Still did all right, but I think he needs a goal to get his confidence back to really play with conviction. Too much dilly-dallying and I think a bit of a reluctance to shoot on sight like he used to. As LBH has said though, in terms of work rate and battling qualities he has come on leaps and bounds in the last few months. Hopefully a few against Donny will bring him back to the fore. I think we need to accept Loach will ***** up now. He has done every few games for the last three years and he still cannot get his sizeable frame to really catch crosses with conviction, he always is weak and gets knocked around in the box. Apart from that ***** up he generally did very well I thought. He is far, far too experienced to keep making these daft mistakes though. Ah well. We will just have to score an extra goal to make up for it each week. Don't mind, he is a good Watford lad so I'll for give him. Hogg should be the attacking mid, why he isn't I don't know. He can pass, tackle, shoot and has an unbelievable work rate. He is a player that oozes ability and class. Buaben was rubbish and has been largely rubbish since he has been playing. I would try Eustace holding, which we know he can do, and tell Hogg to forget about sitting back and tell him to fly about further up the pitch winning the ball, creating havoc and having a few of his stinging shots. I don't get what Buaben's strengths are - is he attacking, is he defending, is he a ball winner...? I just don't know. More good games from Troy, Mariappa and Nosworthy. Mariappa increasingly looks Premiership-bound, but I hope he doesn't go. Kightly was well shackled mostly, but him and Yeates did pretty well here and there largely. Hodson and ****o did OK, especially considering the calibre of winger they were up against. Good performance AGAIN, unbeaten in seven I reckon. Pat on the backs all round, we really have shown that we can take it to almost anyone. Our games are scrappy, but that is because we are so effective at breaking up play and preventing the opposition from creating attacking moves. Bodes well.
I think Sordell and Troydinho were both very good individually but if anything didn't click for me today it was those two as a partnershp.
Probably about to get whooshed but we tried that already and it didn't work. We've been a different side with Hogg and Buaben in the centre of midfield.
Are you completely thick? I'm beginning to think you are. Let me refresh your selective memory. The ban, as you well know, was for posting over the top abuse towards a post by LBH, not for disagreeing with anyone. The abuse you posted was edited by myself and the reason clearly given as to why it was edited. I left it at that. You re-edited the post and put the abuse back in place of my edit. I banned you for a week and removed the abuse for a 2nd time. If you don't understand why you're not allowed to post abuse on here then I can direct you towards the exact line of the forum rules that you agreed to when you signed up, maybe you also missed it with the 2nd account you signed up with and posted with whilst the ban was in place? (yes we sussed that within about 1 minute) Now, wind your neck in and move on or I will gladly remove every trace of you on this forum.
Top summary from Potguy up there ^ Agree with all of it apart from the section about Buaben, Hogg and the Prince compliment each other brilliantly, Hoggy races around getting stuck in all over the pitch and the Prince is more languid, always showing for a short pass and popping up in a good position to take the ball in attacking and defensive positions His style of play allows us to slow the game down and relieve pressure when necessary, hes an intelligent player and he pops up in dangerous positions a lot, e.g. the goal today, shielding the ball allowing Yeates to score against Posh, winning the penalty against Posh, as well as a few other occasions when he has been unlucky not to score when arriving late in and around the area.
An entertaining game and would have taken a point beforehand - even if we should have had all 3. Definately thought Cardiff where one of the better teams ive seen this year and started strongly. Rode our luck at times during the first half and Cardiff edge the game going into half time. Second half we had them on the ropes after we scored, they seemed to loose their composure - arguing with the ref/each other, making mistakes and looked for the taking... then we gave away a stupid goal that came from nowhere. Hogg imo was brilliant again - MOM for me. Thought Nosworthy & Marriappa again looked solid - the back four as a whole are looking so much stronger than 12/13 games ago. Hodson too impressed again at right back. Buaban, bar the goal, wasnt really in the game and Deeny again worked hard up front Forgot to mention Loach. I know its all been said already but the guy is a worry. Players make mistakes from time to time, fine - thats part of the game and goalkeeper is the least forgiving position on the team, but he is making the same sort of mistakes that costs a goal four or five times a season. His decision making at times is poor, his communication with other players is poor and his command of the area at times is non exsistant - especially on balls accross the box. My initial reaction was that he was to blame for their goal, but will need to see it again really - the whole thing happened so quickly i almost missed it. Cardiff seemed to have him sussed, everytime there was a corner their players just crowded him out with the predicatble results that he flapped at the ball and we really where lucky not to have conceaded in the first half on acouple of occasions. Im sure theirs a decent championship keeper in Loach but he needs to cut out these mistakes because they are not only costing us valuble points ( if we had taken the points we should have done from the forrest, bristol & cardiff games we would be pushing for a play-off place) but also because the back four cant have any confidenance in him .
At least Loach tried to come for most balls into the box today, he didnt always get to them but a bit of consistency in his game could go a long way He does appear to be trying to improve
Woah woah woah. Slow down and calm down; no need for aggressive and baseless accusations like that. If you're trying to say that I created a second account after being banned then you're mistaken. I take it the account you're referring to is Dychey's due to the message that you sent to him but that is not the case and I think the fact that he has been a member of this forum longer than me and his account dates back to 2009 shows that. Just because two people share the same IP address it doesn't automatically mean that they are the same person. Anyway back to the game, I was very impressed with Hogg and ****o today. After a shaky start ****o is looking like a very good signing and even though he still makes the odd mistake he is looking very comfortable at left back and with him, Mapps, Nosworthy and Hodson/Doyley playing well our defence is looking stronger than it has done for years. As for Hogg, I can't believe Villa let him go; we'll do very well to hang on to him for much longer.
Hogg is fast becoming the most influential player in our squad. The first 20mins he didnt get a kick and neither did we!! once he got in the game so do we. Draw was a fair result. Stupid goal to let in, but that comes with Watford. What was disappointing is that cardiff had run out of steam and we werent under much pressure when we conceeded. credit to SD he has made us hard to beat which is more than can be said for other teams below us. Jan will be a massive month for us off the pitch. we will lose MK back to Wolves, we need to find a replacement. As for NN lets hope we can agree something with Sunderland.
At what stage of the game did Hodson look out of his depth, never got beaten and used the ball well a great young prospect.
Happy with a 1-1 draw today, considering where Cardiff are in the league, thats now 9 unbeaten isnt it? If we win on Saturday I think thats 15 points out of a possible 21 at Home, pretty sure our home form wasnt that good last season. However I think maybe Loach is starting to cost us points, he made a great save from one of Cardiffs header in the 1st, I was happy with that, he then started making a few dodgy punches, one of which went straight to Whittingham who hit the post then rolled on the line and we got lucky . Even though it may have been his fault that we didnt get all 3 points, I dont think we have a better(or good enough) replacement for him at this moment of time. Who wouldve thought after that Hull defeat we would go on a 9 unbeaten run, even though most are draws, I certainly did not expect it, COYH.arty1: P.S. HODSON PLAYED WELL YET AGAIN, WHO EVER IS SAYING HE'S OUT OF HIS DEPTH, I HAVE TO LAUGH, WHAT GAME WERE YOU WATCHING ?:doh:
I Thought it was a really good display today. Loach is a funny one made a couple very very good saves then makes a silly error. I think he is a good championship keeper the problem is we expect him to be more than that. I like the midfield of hogg and buaben. Hogg is fantastic and I can't understand why a bigger club did not take him. Buaben just needs to get some composure. He works hard and tries to do the right thing however half the time it is not executed and he often snatches at shots. Although we have been on a good unbeaten run we need to win Saturday.
Good to see that we matched Cardiff and even bettered them throughout the game. Great to see the Prince bag a goal and a shame to concede in the manner we did. It appears that some of the members on this forum expect Loach to be a premiership level keeper, but he isn't he is liable to mistakes. He is still a young keeper learning his trade who is trying to improve with each game, as shown by him attempting to collect crosses. Oh well, bring on Donny.
Loach is not a bad keeper - the teams that have been mentioned that have been tracking him, are surely evidence of that. I think the problem is a little more in-depth than that - I know it has been mentioned before, but could the problem actually lie with the coaching he is receiving from Alec and the other coaches? I know Alec wasn't the best at coming off his line for crosses, which doesn't neccesarily make him a bad coach - because he isn't, maybe we need a specialist coach on commanding your box from set pieces? Having said that, if we did get Loachy sorted out, he'd be gone in the next window, as that is his main fault. One other thing I noticed yesterday, apart from his howler for the goal, was his hesitancy to release the ball at times. One situation in particular springs to mind during the first half - he'd collected a shot and waited, and waited until everyone had moved up field, all the time ****inson was free and yelling for the ball down the left channel, with Kightly in front of him, we could have got at them much sooner... A point was a fair result, but once we'd got ahead, they fell right off their game - we desperately needed a second, but even after the OG, their keeper made a great reaction save from Kightly's near post header. Good atmosphere, good day out, good result, that could so easily have been a very good three points. Let's not take Donny for granted and put them to the sword on Saturday.
A good performance all round, a little bit shaky in the first half - didn't feel comfortable defending their set pieces - but that is more down to Loach than faults of any of the back four. We just about survived the first half and came out in the second half really taking the game to them, Andrew Taylor was lucky to stay on the pitch, because in my eyes, if the foul doesn't go in, then Sordell's going to score. Equally, Kightly had a header very well saved towards the end, and Deeney probably should of done better with a header. Loach actually had a good game by all accounts other than the mistake, but sadly that it what, and should be remembered.. more points dropped, we're signing a new keeper in January. The back four were superb, I love the Nosworthy Mariappa partnership, Hodson played well, and ****inson had a superb game, especially going forward he linked up with Kightly very well. Yeates had a quite first half, nothing really of note - but showed some nice touches and worked hard in the second half, strangely made a lot of interceptions - he's due a good performance, back him to score against Donny anytime. Kightly is a superb player, had a good game yesterday - thought Blake dealt with him well to be fair. Hogg is just incredible, the longer we can hold onto him the better, what a signing that was. Prince started very brightly then slowly got worse and worse, the goal was actually a terrible finish, he's a good player in the making, just more than anything, needs some composure on the ball - he makes very intelligent runs. Up front, Deeney was my MOTM, superb performance, its a shame its taken this long for him to break into the side, but he looks a different player, phenomenal. Sordell had a better game than he has been having recently, looked more up for it, was absolutely genius in the way he set up Prince... will be a big loss when he goes to Southampton this January, although we're getting a big fee - let's hope we can re invest it back into the squad smartly to an extent where we will be stronger, for me he's not worth a fraction of the four million on offer, he's seriously over rated.
Another point from yesterday, Andy Taylor was very lucky to stay on the pitch. The referee was terrible for both sides, and one major decision he got wrong was to only give Taylor a warning for kicking the ball away when it is the easiest decision to make - that is a yellow card offence. If teh ref had done his job properly then when Taylor tripped Sordell on the edge of the box he would have walked, or failing that he wouldn't have tripped him at all if he was already on a yellow and Sordell would have got the shot away. Very poor work from all the officials yesterday. The lino in fron of the Rous was terrible. He gave throws to Cardiff that were ours, didn't give avery clear handball against Cardiff, and the clearest one was when Sordell ran through and was at least a yard offside, he went to give it but then didn't. They were poor all round.
He will be to them, with better players he can flourish. But the fact of the matter, this season, he really hasn't been that great - he doesn't want to be here any more, and generally until yesterday hasn't been the player of old. His performance at Southampton away remains to be probably the most dire, lazy and selfish performances I've witnessed as a Watford fan. Perhaps I was over exaggerating the point, he has flashes of brilliance and one day will be worth far more, but based on his season, and our financial situation, £4 million will be a good price - he is no longer an asset to us, in that I know for certain, he doesn't want to be here. We'll get a tidy percentage of his next sale, hopefully in the regions of £2 million which will make it a good deal for us.
It was around 3 in the summer, but they're sure to come back in January. I just can't see him staying this time round.
What no scores out of ten - ok I'll have a go. Initial team selection of the starting 11 was good - we've performed well with this line up so I was happy with that. The subs bench was awful though - no pace, no creativity and two defensive central midfielders. For the outfield subs, I really can't understand why we don't go for one defender (Doyley/Mirfin), one midfielder (Eustace/Jenkins), one striker (not Iwelumo) and then one youngster (whether its Murray, Wichelow) for variety and pace. As for the starting 11: Loach - 6 - Overall a decent game as his kicking was good, he made two top drawer saves (the one from Cowie's header was critical) and you can see that the coaching is trying to get him to dominate his box more. It doesn't come naturally to him and so he is going to make mistakes when trying to do this. Punching the ball isn't something he has done much before so its interesting to see that he is trying to add this to his game. I haven't see the replay of the goal yet but my initial impression was that he called for the ball, was put off by the defender and then got caught punching when he should have been catching the ball. Hodson - 7 - didn't do much wrong in my eyes. Cardiff like to stretch the game wide which is a tactic that can create real problems for a full back as you never quite know whether to follow the winger out wide or stay central to cover your centre half. Mariappa & Nosworth - both 7 - they dealt with Miller well and Mariappa can't be blamed for the own goal. ****inson - 7 - initially struggled with Cowie mainly because Cowie was dropping deep and wide and ****inson was reluctant to get close to him (and leave a gap behind). However, apart from one poor defensive header I thought he did well and linked well with Kightly. Yeates - 6 - I thought he struggled to get the better of Taylor (although Taylor is one of the best left backs in the division). However, I didn't feel he delivered when he did have the opportunity - whether from set pieces or in open play. Hogg - 9 - outstanding - only not a 10 because he didn't get in the game for the first 15-20 minutes. Buaben - 6 - took his goal well but wasn't really in the game. He provides an important variation in midfield but he isn't the sort of player you want if you're struggling to get into the game. Kightly - 7 - others have raved but I thought he struggled to make his mark on the game. He was marked tightly throughout and didn't make the most of the opportunity available when McNaughton went off injured and was replaced by Blake (although Blake is a good player). Sordell - 5 - his pass for Buaben's goal was quite poor as it happens although he did well to create the chance. Didn't really get in the game at all which was disappointing as he could burn both of their centre halves for pace. He has the habit of holding onto the ball to invite the challenge and then skip round it. Unfortunately most Championship defenders have sussed this and are winning the ball of him regularly. I'd like to see him give and go more often - we saw this a number of times last year with DG. Deeney - 8.5 - great effort, good skills and led the line really well. At the beginning of the season I was hoping he would get a chance alongside Sordell and I think there is the makings of a really good partnership there. I also like his attitude. When something doesn't go right he smiles and just gets on with it. Sordell should take note.
