From http://thewatfordnest.blog.com/ I’ve had Saturday evening and Sunday to reflect on events at Villa Park on Saturday, events which I must admit left me feeling shell shocked, but that was certainly not the first time I felt that way this season. I’m sure as I write this blog, Aidy will be showing the players where they go wrong in the final 10 minutes…simply the sudden tendency to defend deep and not to do simple tasks such as marking. Whilst checking the official site on Thursday, I discovered tickets were still available for the Villa game. I have to admit I suddenly got quite excited about the idea of travelling into Birmingham from Aberystwyth. Initial enquiries regarding the train times, suggested my plan would fail. It appeared as though the first train would not arrive in Birmingham until 14.10, and would therefore miss the connecting train to Witton. Having been convinced by my mate Tom a Birmingham City fan (and who wanted to go, hoping to see a Watford win over his rivals) I decided that revision for my exam was hopeless anyway and it was worth checking the costs. £13 and even better there was an earlier train, though it meant leaving at 9.30. After a rather calamitous start, not helped by the late running of Arriva Train Wales we arrived in Birmingham and caught a train full of Villa and a few fellow Watford fans to our final destination. It was at this point my mate seeing the Villa fans fell into a trance and started mumbling ‘Blues Blues Blues’. Arriving at the ground, we eventually found where we were meant to buy tickets and grabbed a Balti pie, just the tonic after the long journey. The match was not one to remember, although Villa certainly had the best chance in the first half, but Ben Foster made a fantastic one handed save to push the ball on to the post. Watford’s best chance fell to Hoskin’s, who grew more lively as the game developed and he would have really made a name for himself if his volley had not been tipped over. The second half was much the same as the first, though the back four of Jordon, Malky, Dan and Aidy was looking increasingly vulnerable. Baros on a number of occasions in the later stages was one on one with Foster and should have scored. He didn’t. Watford’s best chance again fell to Hoskin’s his flick almost went in, but just went wide of the post, but there was a lack of creativity without Young, and Bouazza still not match fit was struggling. As the game wore on, all the Watford fans seemed to know what was going to happen, a simple corner resulted in the players defending far too deep. Mahon and Malky, surely the most influential players were not marking a man, whilst Villa players lurked at the back post. The ball fell to Cahill who laid it back, the ball was hit hard into the box and we were punished for our defending. It was slightly unlucky goal to conceed but would not have happened had someone closed down quicker, and that was something we struggled to do all day. A game in which we should have held onto a draw was following the same old pattern, however it really was game over when Gabbi scored, resulting in a mass exodus of Watford fans. After the final whistle the players looked as devastated as the fans, and that is the most concerning thing in my opinion, have they finally lost the fight for battle? I doubt it, but we do need something positive to cheer about and it needs to happen soon or things may get embarrassing. Thanks for comments as usual
