Crystal Palace 1-2 Watford FC - 12/01/2019

We’ve got Filbert.

 

Under the radar is actually a good place to be. We're never talked about, but if we remain 7th, then they'll be forced to talk about us. Watford now have to remain consistent. That's the challenge.

 

Just thinking the same.

Both sides of the camp cheering for Cathcart today, I would think.

 

Eh?

 

Plus the next Brazilian kid off the conveyor belt - Joao Pedro - joining this time next year.

 

Amazing to think that these two were previously in a Watford squad with such players as Malky Mackay, Junior Osbourne, Paul Devlin, Yves Makabu-Ma-Kalambay and Les Ferdinand!
Also amazing to see how many of those from our squad that season now play non league football.. 10 i counted.

 

At least he didn't score a 20 yards own goal like Rose did ! (I think!).

 

Will it all return to that level one day?

Let’s enjoy these golden years.

 

Watford Football Club‏Verified account @WatfordFC 8m8 minutes ago
Only one player has scored more goals at Selhurst Park this season than this man

 

Is it just me or haven’t we heard from Malts in a while?

Hopefully not parked on a trolley in a corridor in Colney these last few months.

 

Good points but crikey, Smudge!

How much higher?

 

Fantastic!

Give him the match ball.

 

I was thinking the same. We are at our ceiling now. We cannot possibly go any higher, unless the top 6 are having a disaster season, such as United were under Mourinho.

I think it's more appropriate to say we should have even more points on the board and be leading the way at 7th, a bit like Burnley were last season. Of course that could still happen anyway.

 

That does my head in every week.

It crowds our box so makes it much harder for foster to get out and means that even if we do clear it, it comes straight back. Give them something to worry about.

 

We follow in Dyche’s footsteps.

Of course, he is the Imelda Marcos shoe obsessive of Prem managers.

 

Well i'm not sure how many of those players i mentioned would be coming back

 

You’re smashing us through that glass ceiling!

How many more points would we have gained with Alcacer?

 

It would just take Henri Lansbury to return & the band will be back together.

 

Nope, I’d noticed his absence too. Fellow follower of the Cidermen, trust he will be back in harness for the new season.

 

Defensively we've been vastly improved this season. Only Bournemouth and Liverpool have scored more than twice against us this season. The bizarre defensive capitulation against Bournemouth twice, is the only major blemish. We shipped in 7 goals to them. Take that anomaly away and it's 25 goals in 20 games which is decent.

I think our bigger problem, certainly earlier in the season was converting basic chances. We let so many teams off the hook at key moments in games and I agree, we should have probably 7 more points this season.

The way I see Watford, is that Gracia has created that perfect bubble, where we're in this zone of belief. It's great, but is something that can disappear quickly. It hasn't done and that's credit to Gracia, but I'm aware of the fickle nature of form. We do need a little more genuine quality. Just a couple of players, but that would take us to that level where we are comfortably in the top half, if not 7th.

Look at the money silly clubs like Everton throw at it. They are not intelligent. You can see that in the way they operate and they overspend in order to short-cut to success. It's human nature and it's to our benefit that many clubs work this way. They want that nice big house with gold furnishing, but forget to spend money on the foundations first.

With Watford, we pinch a couple of good players in every window on the cheap. Sure, we've had our fair share of flops, but that 18 man squad we put out today cost around £80m to accumulate. In Premier League terms, that's cheap as chips. £4.4m on average per player.

 

Palace are the turd that won't flush, but today we thrust the bog brush into them, broke the log up and maybe they'll go down when the chain is pulled in May.

 

Maybe doing important work on Tom Cartwright’s bowling stats or some such.

 

Be generous with the bleach.

 

But would their ground be up to the standard required in the championship!

 

Watford are currently best-of-the-rest. We may not stay there, but on our form this season we're undoubtedly a top-half team. Why do you think that you're entitled to beat the likes of us?

 

It's the same attitude fans had over Burnley last season, and Leicester the season before. Their ignorance, which is fed by media portrayal, goes before the reality of how good that team actually is.

This season's illusion consists of Everton and Palace are very good sides. Watford are relegation crap, love and admiration has to be given towards Wolves and Bournemouth at all times.

 

Loved today’s result but that was not an enjoyable match. Palace for the first 60mins (other than the first 5) stifled us and took our best players out (apart from GD) of the game. Say what u want about woy but he can set a team up.

It could have gone either way and I’m bloody glad it went the way it did. We were better but that was a tough one until the end.

Zaha tricky but Kiko had a stormer defensively to mitigate, no sendings off, penalties or real controversy apart from our concussed Will from an off the ball challenge which could end his career. I’ll be bringing this up repeatedly for at least 6 months. If he dies I hope the core palace support wear black for our next tie.

 

Did anyone else notice that Clevs & JG have the same eyebrows?

Is a manicurist doing the rounds at Colney?

Should such perks be declared?

#hsbc2

 

Ive just found this photo of Palaces goal..



(Roger Daltrey in our away kit)

 

Mariappa is not good enough. He is all we have right now, but he is poor.
Cathcart has looked shot recently and again he is all we have it seems. He was going to let the ball run out. He did not see McCarthy coming in. Good job McCarthy missed it.
We need a good CH or two would be nice.

 

I prefer referring to us as the poo knife.

 

What was the Hughes incident?