FA Cup - The Road To Wembley - We Made it to The Final

Oops.

 

This is the first time I’ve seen Parish without Brighty sitting on his lap!

 

I believe there are 19 current football league or Prem clubs nearer to Selhurst than Brighton is.. if ive counted right. Even clubs as far afield as Southend, Gillingham, Wycombe. Stevenage and.. whisper this.. Lootin Town are nearer. As are we.
The only other similar long distance rivalries i can recall are Wycombe-Colchester.. United-Liverpool.. and strictly down to geography, clubs out on a limb like Carlisle, Yeovil and Plymouth.

I'm not knocking it though. There isn't a rule book on who shall be your rival team it just happens sometimes. I seem to recall that your rivalry really took off in the 1970's, in part due to an existing managerial rivalry between Venables and Alan Mullery. Mullery was famously pictured flicking the V signs at Palace fans.

 

It's all changed now that Susanna Reid is on the scene. Mark Bright strikes a disconsolate figure at Selhurst these days.

 

Some people do struggle to understand that the rivalry has nothing to do with geography. Anyway, I don't even want to think about it, it's too depressing. Our only hope is that we scrape past you lot and meet them at Wembley

 

To be fair, in recent seasons we have developed something of a "rivalry" with Bournemouth which is clearly not geographically motivated. There are a number of games/incidents that developed it that have nowt to do with geography.

Similarly with Palace. No geographical motivation but I would happily say that I consider Palace a rival now and that I would enjoy beating them in on Saturday more than I would with most other teams. The obvious reason is that they've beaten us in some notable games over recent years but also because I don't like cheats and Zaha is a first degree cheat who has been remarkably successful at doing it against us. He makes it worse by vociferously pleading his innocence, surrounded by a choir of PR bulls*i*t*rs claiming - quite ridiculously - that he's more sinned against than sinning.

No, I don't really care if Palace supporters consider us a rival or not. I consider them a rival and I'd love to wipe the smile off that cheating [ ]'s face. Honourable mention for Pardew as well who I dislike almost as much as he adores himself.

Of course I know we'll lose and, despite thinking that I could finally make my peace with them this season by beating them twice in the league, I'll end up bitter and twisted. Accepting that is what it means to support Watford.

 

Kevin Friend of Crystal Palace will be officiating on Saturday.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...in-friend-with-craig-pawson-in-charge-of-var/

However, we have VAR and Craig Pawson will be monitoring this, so we have a chance of not getting stitched up for once.

 

In Scotland there are a couple of strange, long-distance rivalries. Although Rangers have the obvious dislike of Celtic, they also have a reciprocated dislike of Aberdeen - nearly 160 miles apart so obviously not geographical. Equally puzzling is that Aberdeen are seen as rivals by Inverness Caley Thistle - 105 miles apart so not geographical either - when the more obvious candidate would be Ross County, a mere 15 miles away.

 

The Rangers - Aberdeen one is in part due to that horrendous tackle on Iain Durrant back back in the day. Not one for the squeamish. Some tackles justify a sustained rivalry and that was definitely one

 

There's Norwich-Ipswich of course. About the same distance as Eagles-Seagulls (40 miles) but obvious as they have no one nearer.

This really is local compared with some places in Norway. My local club has a 3 and a half drive to visit their nearest rivals. Up North it takes around 8 and a half hours to drive the 330 miles between "local" rivals Bodø Glimt and Tromsø IL!

 

I genuinely find this impossible to believe. If I moved elsewhere in the country I might well go to some local matches but, as for changing allegiance, if I went and lived on the moon I would always be a Watford fan.

 

My dad changed allegiance. He grew up in Plymouth and was naturally an Argyle fan. Then when he moved to Hertfordshire in the early 70s he only used to go to Vicarage Road when Plymouth played but in 1977 a friend of his suggested going to follow Watford, he did and hasn't looked back.

The trip to Villa Park in 1984 was interesting as we met up with some of his family pre-match. He wore yellow much to the disdain of my uncles.

 

Unfortunately VAR will work against us as every time "you-know-who" falls over, VAR will be called upon to see if there was even the faintest of touches. Every time there is a touch of any description, some **** will conclude that "there was contact so he had the right to go down". I envisage no less than 4 penalties against us and 2 sendings off.

 

That would actually be fantastic.

 

So in Spring 1979 when we drew 2-2 with them after being 2-0 up (Mercer scored one of ours I think and Megson scored one of theirs) , and nearly threw away promotion, presumably he was at that stage wearing a half-and-half scarf ??

 

Fewer.

 

Same applies to Australia. I've been a NQ Cowboys fan since they joined the ARL in 1995 - the following season a group of us hired a mini-bus and drove to their first away trip against 'local rivals' Brisbane Broncos. It took us over 15 hours to get there - only to watch us get stuffed 58-14.

 

Is it the continued lack of atmosphere you'd crave?

 

You'd fit in well here.

 

Like capoue’s Tackle on Zaha?

 

Because Watford would technically be no further away than any other team? Apart from Moonchester City.

 

I'm dead exicited about this. Just got the nod that its my turn to kick Zaha.

 

You can borrow my boots that I bought to wear to another match if you like:

Spoiler

 

You're Marco Silva boots. I'm honoured.

 

Zaha didn’t cheat in the play off final, so you can’t be angry about that...

He got booked for simulation in the Boxing Day game 2016 which on balance was fair but not clear cut

And he wrongly got booked at your place last season which is a view supported by all pundits and all people that know football. Watford fans are the only ones that beg to differ.

I understand that his antics can annoy opposing fans but you have never actually been wronged by a refereeing decision involving Wilf. It seems to me you're either jealous or still upset about 2013...

 

Zaha is just like Pele in Escape to Victory, except his speech is more "I get ball, I go there, I fall over". Doesn't have quite the same ring about it.

 

Jesus, you lot are nervous about him on saturday. The only thing I get nervous about when playing Watford is that you're going to brute and foul your way to victory. Referees seem to turn a blind eye to everything your players do.

 

The only thing I get nervous about when playing Palace is one day I might need to buy a house in Surrey and no estate agents will be open.

 

Wilf Rostron, at Kenilworth RD, Spring 1984......

 

If I were you, I'd be more worried at the fact that we have players that have already run rings around your defence before and could do it again (as well as ofc playing football without being a soft pansy like your team is)

 

two marginal 2-1 victories in which we were arguably the better team in both. A few fluky goals intertwined with poor defensive mistakes from us. Oh and I haven't mentioned the blinder the Foster played at Selhurst. That my man is definitely you running rings around us

 

I am genuinely kidding. More often than not Zaha does get caught. Unfortunately in the Prem you are encouraged to go down, some easier than others, otherwise you never get the decisions. As a counter-balance Deeney would probably have to be powerbombed to get a penalty.

 

Jokes aside I do get nervous when Zaha plays against us, he’s done us a few times in fairness.

Having said that, he’s literally the only one. Begs the question, what have Palace spent 6 years worth of Premier League money on? Stadium? Training ground? A batch of exciting youngsters? Truck loads of egg and chips?

 

Wages, hair product for Parish and yes, loads of egg & chips.