We won't play worse than that and get anything out of a game this season. Pereyra, Success, Deolefeu, Chaloba, Doucoure, Hughes - all terrible. Deeney outstanding. Really dragged us back into a game and into a position to sneak a point. Ref was appalling. Terrible afternoon which will please nobody involved. We go away, regroup and then come again.
Well as HB1 says he had a shocker for both sides but will their offside goal be highlighted more ? Charlie Austin says they would have won 2-0 - might have 2-2.
Well, that was awful. Everyone pretty much useless, particularly Hughes (who offers absolutely nothing from the right and hasn't done for a while) and Doucoure. Deeney did well when he came on. The penalty shout looked absolute stone wall to me, but their goal was good so it's evened out a little bit.
Beeb interviewed Hughes about disallowed goal and HUGHES raised the ref's failure to give Watford a pen
Quickly brushes it off by saying they deserved to win though which completely contradicts his claims because their disallowed goal was way after our claim which would have led to them having Bertrand sent off and us having a penalty. If anything, if our claim was met, we'd have been favourites to win. Either way, it would be fair to say that the ref was indeed very poor and perhaps a draw was fair at the end of the day.
•Bertrand was already on a yellow when fouled Chalobah for the penalty that wasnt and so would have been sent off for second yellow, arguably a straight red as Chalobah was about to shoot. With 10 men its unlikely Austins disallowed goal would ever happened as they would have parked the bus for remaining minutes. •Chalobah looked way off the pace, Femenia is a defensive liability prove by the fact that every opposition attacks down our right as their analysts have shown it as a weakness for us. •Del Boy is playing to impress too much. I have no problem with him doing well and getting a big transfer in summer but he needs to do it by playing in his team mates instead of being a playground hero. •Away point is always decent. Reasonable performance means we only need to dust off, readdress, and go again.
The reaction from Austin shows what a dire losing mentality Southampton have. Some would say passion but to me it shows they are relying on luck to get out of trouble
What does he know? Conveniently forgetting that a) our penalty would probably levelled the scores & b) Bertrand should have been off - that tackle was worth a second yellow. The issue of 'was it or wasn't it a second goal' would never have arisen & we would have run riot against their ten men... Out of interest, are there any qualified refs on here who could clarify whether or not Yoshida was interfering with play (the only reason I can think of for the goal being disallowed)?
Fair play to the ref. He's already of similar stature to an establish PL ref like Jon Moss after just a couple of games at this level. #bellysgonnagetyou
Having been to Southampton today, is their stadium the least characterful in the country? A single homogenous tier all the way round, including the corners, and a row of executive boxes along the top of the east side. And that’s it.
A few more random thoughts... Seasons are rarely as neat as beating all the sides below you and losing to those above. It rarely works that way. So for every failure to beat a Newcastle, Fulham or Southampton (all on the road where last season we’d have probably been beaten before the bus arrived at the ground), there are unexpected wins against the likes of in-form Spurs and Wolves. 20 points from 12 matches is a superb return to take into the next international break. That’s 7 points from our last four, three of which were away. Illogical though it seems, it’s often the toughest time to play a side who’ve just had a drubbing. The alleged curse of Manager of the Month continues unabated. First Javi, then the Wolves boss and now Eddie.
The Soton attacker had to limbo beneath the shot. So close, Foster would have deduced the Soton lunch menu off his breath.
The Soton attacker had to limbo beneath the shot. So close, Foster would have deduced the Soton lunch menu off his breath.
Felt like watching two teams scrapping it out at the bottom of the Championship. Deeney won everything in the air. Ref was awful for both sides. It was rather wet.
Southampton seemed to be really targeting this one to get their first home win of the season . Thought we would lose, glad we didn't. Penalty incident seemed similar to the one Kabasele got sent off for Southampton
Too many poor performances today. Watching us play out from the back was painful - far too slow. Having said that Foster’s kicking was pretty erratic today. Before Deeney came on there were no clear leaders on the pitch. I do think we suffer from a lack of leadership when we need to step it up a gear. We need to get the basics right rather that try all of the fancy flicks and tricks. Still would have liked to have seen a few more shots on target given we had 3 strikers on the pitch towards the end.
In all the fuss over the penalty and goal that weren’t awarded, not much discussion of the Saints goal that did stand. A horrible one to concede. What on earth was Bobby doing?
It was great when we beat them 3-0 in our promotion season and the home fans tried to storm those boxes. It was certainly better than the effort their team put in that night
It was just a miscontrol rather than any particularly brain-dead defending. 9/10 times he'd take a touch and play the ball away, this time it ballooned off his foot into his knee and then he couldn't really do anything about it as Ings was on him. Was poor for much of the rest of the game too.
Moog.... That god dam meme... Well, I’m home and drying off now. Absolutely soaked walking to and from the ground but at least I got to see Southampton for the first time. The Marlands is a cute little Shopping Centre which has sone nice shops. Anyway into the game, I concur with most of what has already been said. We were awful bar a few flashes first half and dispite litterly gifting them the lead we had little to shout about the first 45. I am sure Pereyra will make up for his error but it’s all a lapse in concentration when tbf defending isn’t really his forte. HT and paid too much for a soggy burger and can of coke but it did little to brighten spirits on a poor first half showing. We really missed Capoue today, but I thought Chalobah did well in his game back full after his injury. Success was very quiet bar a good chance at the end when he leapt for the ball. Second half was only marginally better overall. It WAS a penalty. Bertrand or whatever his name is got Chalobah before the ball. The referee was too far away to see it but the linesman wasn’t. Yet another one goes against us. Btw had he not been challenged he was going to score I feel. Then their moment of controversy. Did Austin score? Well yes he did but their other player was just offside and I think Foster’s view was obstructed. Quite funny seeing him run off celebrating then throwing his arms in the air. Swings and roundabouts really. We never got ours they never got theirs. Our goal was more of a lucky hit but well done Holebas. Takes a bit of heat off him for his lacklustre display at Newcastle last week. Really glad we didn’t lose and to be fair a draw was the right result. I will say when Gracia took off Hughes and put Deeney on we looked sharper. Talk about a captains performance. He could of won it at the death too, setting up Chalobah with a lovely pass which resulted in our not given penalty. Credit to the big man and hope he starts vs Liverpool. All in all a cracking second half full of incident and drama but we really were second best apart from after we scored and looked the only side to win it. Southampton ad a city is quite nice. Their football team is not. Thought their fans were quite friendly and had a good chat with one after the game who said the draw was fair and both sets of players and fans should feel aggrieved with the officials.
I think the opportunity to blindly hoof it passed quite quickly and then it was just a tricky situation to be in. And not the player we'd pick to be in it. For me the bigger issue was no-one was backing him up. So when the physical battle was lost it left Gabbiadini with a free shot 10yds from our goal.
Just home, first time I've heard the chant "how sh#t must you be, we're winning at home". I'll post more later as need to get warm and dry first, but god only knows how Saints blew that.
Just as a reality check, assuming Utd lose to City tomorrow , we are joint 6th...despite not collecting the points our performances have deserved.
The one thing I agree with Mark Hughes is that Simon Hooper would never have got a big Premier League match, such as the City v United derby. Why should Watford have to suffer this rookie official? For obvious reasons, I'm really pleased he disallowed that Southampton goal, but it will only focus the attention on that incident. Had the goal stood, then I doubt too much would have been made of the penalty we should have had. It's a case of "It's only Watford, so it doesn't really matter". I watched The Debate last night, and there was a chat about Gracia's impending new contract. Of course there was lots of fun made out of that, Watford not sacking a coach, but it really showed the attitude towards the club. Danny Murphy, who I think is quite an articulate pundit, kept on saying "it's only Watford", as if they were something found on the bottom of your shoe. He said it so many times, that Kelly Cates pulled him up on it. She said "why do you keep saying it's only Watford?, you've just been raving about their players"...…..that actually stumped him, then all he could say to defend it was about our budget not being as much as other teams. It was a very patronising attitude though, but that is rife in the Premier League. We are constantly given a rough ride, and it takes something like a big controversy against one of our opponents before it gets any kind of coverage. In the Premier League there is definitely a two tier system. Prejudice, be it intentional or subconscious is so ingrained. I think Burnley suffer just as much as us, when it comes to this type of thing. Being one of the most unfashionable clubs in the top tier is a massive disadvantage.
