Absolutely Gutted

We all have our expectations. They were raised by the incredible scenes at Hull. We were all dreaming of a late winner for us. It just had to come. It was written in the stars. Our Aguerro moment.

But it never came. Our expectations were punctured. We all felt flat, like ****, as low as most of us can remember for years.

So, naturally, we kick out a bit. We have to blame somebody. It's not nice, it's not always totally fair, but it's human nature.

We feel let down.

Then slowly it passes...and you start looking forward again.

 

"Jack Bonham, the 19-year-old goalkeeper horribly at fault for both Leeds goals" - The Daily Telegaph

"academy stopper Jack Bonham stepping up to take his place and making errors for both goals." - The Daily Mail

"Watford's third-choice keeper, dragooned into his debut, was culpable for both of the goals which condemned them to defeat" - The Independent

"Bonham was partially at fault with Leeds’s opening goal and wholly at fault with their 90th-minute winner from Ross McCormack" - The Express


Interesting.

It's not just me that felt Bonham made errors for which he was "at fault" and "culpable" then.

 

Couldn't agree more, the keeper could do nothing.

As for the 2nd goal, it made absolutely no difference because we couldn't score the decisive one we needed.

In other words Bonham had no negative effect on the game whatsoever.

 

Whoever was at fault or not at fault, the fact remains, this morning we could all have been waking up as supporters of a Premier League club. And we're not.

Everybody can argue until the cows come home about the reasons for that, but being wrong or right in a discussion ain't going to affect the fact that we had it in our grasp and let it go

 

As I said, I find it distasteful.

 

I hope the Daily Mail read this post. It's evidence that the Watford Way hasn't been taken away by the Pozzo's.

 

Aligning yourself with The Daily Mail, Daily Express etc? With their proven lazy journalism and anti Watford articles highlighted on this forum over the season I would have thought you'd be uncomfortable bed fellows? A left winger using the Tory press to substantiate an ill thought out opinion is very sad. Think your in danger of being black balled :naughty:

 

what about the fact Doyley was half asleep and let the Leeds player have a head start over him. Poor defending by both of them

 

Well said.....we lick our wounds then go again. The only thing is that Thursday is far too soon. I would have preferred at least a week to 10 days. Like you said in another post, we have two quick games and if we get through, the final is not until May 27th. That is totally ridiculous scheduling.

 

You can't draw comparisons to any other job, because in a normal instance you wouldn't trust somebody inexperienced in such an important role. It's highly unlikely somebody who's just come out of medical school to perform a surgery if the rest were preoccupied after an explosion, as an example. You'd just go without if possible. If, it was life and death, and the new doctor had to go for it and had no other option, the person died, nobody would be pointing fingers at them saying you should've done better.

He was thrown in the deep end, and quite frankly he shouldn't have been left as exposed by the defence to begin with.

 

Oh no! What does that entail? Could you let me know?


In the meantime, is there any danger of you achieving basic skills in English?

 

If he wasn't up to being 'trusted' with keeping goal for the first team, then he shouldn't have been anywhere near it.

As I said earlier, he's been on the bench for us quite a few times this season when Almunia or Bond has been injured. It's just luck he didn't play before yesterday.

 

But as my poor analogy points out he wasn't playing because he was adjudged to be the perfect replacement for a champions league finalist.

 

I think we're also excluding the fact he just saw one of his mates taken off on a stretcher after lying crumpled on the ground covered in his own blood for 15 minutes. It wouldn't be surprising if there was some mental impact.

 

The longer we have to wait for the play offs, the longer the agony of missing out yesterday goes on. Maybe it's not so bad that we play again in 4 days. The old adage of falling off a bicycle and getting straight back on.

My worry is more that we play Thursday then Sunday. 2 days in between. Cue more crazy Zola rotation.....

 

It's bad luck he hasn't had to play before today. If he had he wouldn't have been put in the position he was yesterday.

Shame really there is not a proper reserve league anymore, the current youth development league doesn't prepare any young players to be suddenly thrust into the limelight particularly goal keepers. Bond did well at Man City but it was a game we were not expected or under any pressure to win.

Feel for the lad, must have been difficult for him to go into the dressing room at the end and his display will not give him any credit to go into the bank with our own supporters or with other clubs if he needs to get game time elsewhere.

 

A shame for Bonham as I'm sure he didn't wake up in the morning expecting to play. He was partly at fault for the first and completely at fault for the second. He can be blamed for the fact he could have performed better, but should be cut some slack as making your debut in a game of such magnitude will always be difficult.

I don't think the club should have signed a third goalkeeper. It was a freak scenario yesterday. A decent keeper wouldn't want to join a club to be third choice. Bond is a perfectly capable understudy, it was just very unfortunate he also got injured.

 

Had we played better after half time, rather than seemingly letting the fact Hull were winning affect us, then maybe the whole debate about Bonham's errors would be academic.

When this Watford team learns to play for 90 minutes, not just for halves or in patches, then make no mistake we will go up as potential champions.

 

Not just hindsight btw, I posted it at the start of the season..but there seemed to be much talk in the summer of all the ball work we were doing (which has undoubtedly made us a joy on the eye) but little about fitness work, the long 10 mile runs that are usually a part of life for a footballer in June.

I've never known a season where I've heard so much talk of tiredness, or of players not being fit enough. Maybe it's mere coincidence but we've conceeded so many late goals in matches, or faded badly after a brilliant first half.

I'd like to think that this summer, we'd change how we do things and work on getting everybody 100% fit for what could be another very long season. If we make the final on 27th May, that's going to present another obstacle to our pre-season plans..

 

As found in the Daily Mail????????

Now you really are clutching at desperate straws! My English may not be perfect but it is more accurate than your judgement of Bonham. Having been a union member since 1986 I find your singling out of a young worker for unfounded abuse indefensible. If ever there was a case of being articulate not proving intelligence the you are the outstanding example.

How about posting your sporting/coaching achievements to add credibility to your argument?

 

It turns out that bonham was going to be released at the end of the season. In fact, he wasn't even going to be on the bench but because he didn't have a ticket, the secretary offered him a ticket on the bench. He only had his training kit because Chamberlain offered him the chance to train with the goalkeepers. He was only thrust into the limelight because poleon pushed anya into Bond, which i think is one of the worst things i have seen on a football pitch. Clear penalty in the first half, Deeney on the pitch, and we wouldn't be focusing on the play offs. You can't change the past, but we can change the future.

 

No point in complaining about the penalty we should have had and not accepting that Leeds should have had one also.

 

I feel so much about now and the future

 

Why dig this up? It still hurts just a tiny bit that MAYBE just maybe instead of getting excited about McGugan we'd be excited about Badu.

 

We were all so negative, now we are all so jolly and lovely to each-other *cough*

 

Bloody Hell – i was just about over this!