Iv noticed that in the past 3 Home games we haven’t been kicking towards The Rookery in the second half As I haven’t been able to get to any matches this year due to Covid and that, is this something that has changed since Ranieri? Has it been going on longer? Or has it just been the last 3 home games an attempt by “top” teams like Man Utd, Chelsea & Man City so worried about us they’re trying to unsettle us by turning us around after winning the Toss? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It’s definitely not the latter. On every occasion the opposition has kicked off. The team that wins the toss gets to choose ends or to kick off - they can’t do both.
That's because CR wants us to get at it straight from the start as we have often made a slow start in the past. He thinks kicking towards the Rookery in the first half will help us get going quicker and hopefully get us a lead to build on instead of quite often playing catch up because we have fallen behind because of our slow starts.
Thats actually a really interesting take on it that I hadn’t considered, i think your right with that Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For me it would be preferable to be kicking towards the Rookery in the 2nd half. Because it's better to be kicking downhill when the legs are tiring towards the end of the game. Let's use the slope to our advantage.
I heard the same on Saturday, I always preferred us to kick towards the Rookery in the second half as the 1881 are so gobby they can suck the ball in haha! However it might be a master stroke by CR71 as against Man U and Chelsea we certainly started off with a head of steam kicking that way and it certainly helped!
I think it’s great. Sitting in the Family Stand you get to see the goals a lot better as most goals are scored in the second half.
Really, to make it fair on everyone, they ought to rotate the pitch round by 90 degrees every season, although admittedly the pitch would sometimes have to be quite short and wide.
Maybe you should blame me rather than Ranieri? This was my post on 17th November on the Manchester United thread (post no 77) just 3 days before the match: "I hope we give it a right good go this week with none of this sit back, wait and see stuff. HB1 said a couple of weeks back that we need to get the Vic back rocking like it can do but so often it seems like we are afraid to make things happen. My solution? If we win the toss, elect to kick towards the Rookery End in the first half for a change and really try to press at the start of the game. If we catch 'em early, get the crowd up, you never know!"
Is is any coincidence that our hardcore ultras stand is named after the worst of early-modern London's famously diseased and deprived slums? I think not.
It appears it was named after a little village by the River Colne. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/nostalgia/642485.who-recalls-the-rookery/
Good lord, the bloke in that article is the opposite of a snappy writer. Think he might actually be a dementor.
Dont quote me on it but i believe there's still a few feet difference from end to end. You probably remember it was around 6 feet in the 80's but has been leveled incrementally over the years. I dont believe it will be leveled any further because of needing to do structural work on the stands.