Well, if that’s how you feel, then it’s your problem to deal with. I see nothing wrong with forthright views, as long as they are considered and have some thought behind it, then it’s ok. You may not like to read it, or may not agree with it, that’s ok too. But it’s not my responsibility to protect you from the truth as I see it.
to be fair to HB1 this is a wild take. They might be ‘flying’ but they are non-league side, overwhelmingly they would lose to the vast majority of sides at our level, let alone ‘far better top teams’ than us, that’s why it’s called an upset whenever it does happen.
Are we a better team than Chesterfield? This can be answered in so many ways, which is why the FA cup is such a good competition. - League Position & Players: Yes Watford are far superior in this category. Better league status results in more money, better players etc. - Better team: Chesterfield are a great team and this showed yesterday. They are flying in their league and gave us a good game yesterday. Everyone Chesterfield players did an amazing job and their supporters should be very proud. Personally i think we still have a lot of work to do and Chesterfield were the better ‘team’. Over 90 minutes: you could be Man City and have a terrible game or any non-league team and have a worldie. Thats the whole point of the FA Cup, anything can happen. Yes, there are results that are obvious on paper that translate to the pitch but every round of every FA Cup in history always has an upset where lower beats higher opposition. The players need to realise this with the every game regardless of the opposition otherwise we will get stung.
Thought Dele Bashiru was good today and it was fitting he got the goal. Ok, it’s lower league opposition, but that was the same for our other players.
I’ve always liked TDB. I think he’s got qualities that are useful to us in the EFL. Not a Prem level player and has been plagued with injury throughout his career. This has made his development so stop start. But I’ve got time for him as I see he has a higher potential ceiling than most. That goal he scored was pure class. A lovely cushion controlled ball, then a manoeuvre to go past a defender and to get a strong shot off that was impossible to save. A beautiful goal, down to pure skill in the moment.
We shouldn’t get too hung up about Chesterfield’s position. They are a professional club taking a break in the National League that is almost certain to end this year. They have a decent, very experienced manager in Paul Cook and lots of players with experience of higher divisions. It would be no surprise to see them make back to back promotions. Some their play was energetic with occasional glimpses of excellent team play. So they would have been tricky opponents for any non-Premier team. Of course we should beat them and we did enough, which is often the way in cup games. God knows we’ve tested a few teams higher than us in our Championship days and found them have just a bit more.
You could compare yesterdays game to Jan 1978 we were in the 4th division away to West Ham (1st division), we gave it our all and only conceded in the 82nd minute because we were chasing a winner. Lost 1-0, we were proud in defeat the same way as Chesterfield were yesterday. I dare say the West Ham supporters would have been saying similar things to posters on here should Tim Bernard Lee been born 20 years earlier.
TDB moving into the #8 role and bringing Andrews on in his place and taking off an isolated Healy won us that game. TDB was very good when he was put back into the midfield, scored the winner and Asprilla was on hand to deliver a peach of a cross for Raj to head home. We were well below par first half and mentalily were not on it for 70ish minutes. VI said he had to "get loud" again at HT. Us starting so slow in games is going to hamper any upward progress we make this season and it's something VI needs to address.
Have you all gone stark raving mad? We were lucky not be 2 down just after half time to a non league team, at home, with basically the first team out there. We won it by the skin of our teeth and were absolutely unprofessional throughout. It was a car crash. Did any of you on here actually go yesterday?
Classic WFC cup performance v a lower league team. I mean remember we went 3-0 v Tranmere and ended up losing the tie! Val says the players didn't listen to him first half. Obviously not loud enough before games as seems to be a common theme!
Who said I clapped them off at half time? You did Mr Strawman. I'll applaud the overall effort in the end. Regardless of opponent if you can't enjoy a last minute winner there's something wrong with you not the players manager or other fans. I also think everyone knows/knew they can do a bit better, so I don't know who you think is benefiting from your incredible insight into the performance of the team.
If you don’t like my posts don’t read them. Put me on ignore. Why torment yourself like this? What’s wrong with you?
Good. If I had a choice between L1 or the Premier League I'd take L1 all day long. The Premier League is a cesspit and unrecognisable as football, it is a sanitised TV show. The Championship will go the same way but currently still has a degree of entertainment about it.
I thought we controlled the game for 25 minutes and only when they scored did we realise it wasn't going to be plain sailing for 90 minutes. The 2nd quarter of the game was terrible as we huffed and puffed and Chesterfield had a bit of wind under their wings. They just did the simple things well and it put them in the game - take note Martin's and Asprilla. It's the FA cup, they had 4000 fans, they're having a great season and they will have been well motivated for their "cup final" (no offence to Chesterfield fans). It's not a simple case of turning up and expecting to see us stroll to a 5-0 win. Although had Kone and Asprilla done better with their chances it may have ended up that way. I'm doing what now? I already said I do like (some) of your posts. Would you like to do something you've never seemingly done and agree to disagree?
To be fair the foul throw was so bad it was funny. TDB was stood a yard on the pitch when he took it.
Which was only given after Paul Cook pointed it out! He seemed to be either pally with the 4th official or argumentative.
Well, you clearly don’t like some of the stuff I write, so just skip over it. You don’t need to react to it, unless it’s a constructive alternative that I may have not considered. That’s a healthy conversation. But so often, little jibes are given, which are unnecessary and it all descends. I hate all that, but so many seem to enjoy it.
At the end of the day we won & that's all that matters. The sooner we get a right footed right winger who can get behind the better. Twice Asprilla got behind, quite early, then checked and cut back inside, killing the attack. With Martin's they placed someone inside the defender to stop him cutting in, clearly did their homework well. Jorge Hurtado isn't a wonder kid. Did ok, but no more or less than anyone else. Someone on X made the stupid claim he changed the game! I doubt we will see much more of him this season. Healey gave us little more than Rajovic or Bayo. Ran a lot but didn't influence the game in any way. I can see why his 3rd choice & the coaches don't rate him. Had the opportunity to impress and missed the it.
Both Martins and Asprilla need to get down the line and cross more rather than cutting in but guess that is how the modern day winger plays.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, it’s an early round cup game which was a club we traditionally can’t be arsed about and if we ever get through them it’s normally by the skin of our teeth, so a bad performance isn’t too much to worry about. By the same token, however well Chesterfield may be doing, they are a non league team, so let’s not make the victory out to be anymore than it is, and that overcoming them was some Herculean task we should be amazed about or grateful for.
Yes I went, really enjoyed the day with my daughter and nephew who also really enjoyed it. Obviously we under performed, not sure anyone would disagree with that. So taking level of opposition out of the equation, I’d say this is a fair assessment of the game. I thought Chesterfield controlled the 1st half especially in terms of the middle 3rd but in terms of good chances to score we probably had the better of it (2 1-1’s for starters). 2nd half we controlled it and created at least equal standard opportunities. Overall, was a good open game, looked like we’d be a cup upset, but the team eventually got the job done and it’s always a great feeling to win late on. Cue Depeche Mode and happy walk back to the car.
Into the next round despite a half arsed effort from the team against a flying non league team. Happy days.
This phrase is spot on. It’s blindingly obvious that Watford are so much better when they play at speed - pass and move - which normally only happens when they have gone behind and have been given a rocket by the manager. However their standard mode is slow and careful with an obsession of keeping possession to no apparent benefit. Yesterday, after our kick-off, it took 2 minutes and 4 seconds before we had possession of the ball in Chesterfield’s half of the pitch, during which time the ball was passed back to Bachmann on at least three occasions. What a waste of time. Contrast this with Chesterfield’s kick-off at the start of the second half: the ball was passed directly back to the keeper who played it long first time into the centre of our half. Yes, it resulted in a 50/50 challenge but Chesterfield won it and created a chance on goal within seconds. It’s so frustrating that the first thought of our players is almost always a backwards move.
It’s a problem. We are starting games very poorly and having to turn things around in the second half. I’m yet to see a complete performance this season. We’re mainly decent in the second half trying to salvage something. QPR on the opening day is probably the only game where we’ve come out of the blocks flying. The last time we were leading at half time was Rotherham, which seems a long time ago now. Val is having to give the players a rocket at half time, but you can only do that so many times before it loses its effectiveness.
How so? I saw outfield players botting out of headers and tackles which was cowardly. Bachmann was poor but how was he cowardly?
The fans that go aren’t any better. This is the fanbase who clapped the team off after a 4-1 home defeat and got the kids to throw up the begging ‘give me your shirt for eBay’ signs. A 2-1 win over a non-league team is like a cup final win to those fans.
