This form table is from @matt_furniss on X but worth sharing: https://x.com/matt_furniss/status/1738609175351988308?s=61&t=n0dBF7HSu_RxVm41qwi4kQ
Val will be the first manager since 2018 to have managed the first match of the season and the Boxing Day match
From what you're saying it doesn't really sound like you were wildly wrong. It sounds like we're a crap team that has inexplicably managed to get some results. It's pretty gracious of you, but I reckon you're doing yourself a disservice as if results had gone as planned you would have been spot on.
Facking get in! Disgracefully hungover so missed the first half, but I loved what I saw in the second. We looked bright, competitive, resilient. More over, we look like a team fighting and player for each other. Been a while since we've had that. Kayembe and Livermore solid again. The back 4 looks more secure with Hamer behind them. Rajovic, the enigma that he is with all his faults, grabs another goal. Healy with another huge impact off the bench, might have had another with his 1 on 1 but his first touch gave the defender a chance to get back with a block. Seeing Yaser pickup the ball and drive with it, jinking in and out of players is a sight I'll never tire of. For a young player, he had a massive influence in that second half, teeing up chances for all 3 strikers. What a player he could be. 'The cause is often the cure' they say, so I'm off to have another 10 Guinness and see where the night takes me. Merry Christmas all, sláinte!
. True. Let’s hope there’s more chance of some large white-bearded chap getting the sack tomorrow evening!
Just also want to say thank you to @Mike Graham for participating a lot to this thread. Some great insight on the club and town.
We are looking like a team that could make a playoff position with the results of late. May not be good enough to beat the likes of Southampton and Leeds at the business end but you gotta be in it to win it.
If we ignore that we are 7th And subtract all our goals we are baiscially relegated with no wins and many losses Sad times
I did not see this match, as I had to choose between cancelling my plans to stay and watch, and getting on the Anglia to the big smoke to meet my friends for the carol service at St Paul’s. I’m still glad I went, but I’m not sure I witnessed anything as miraculous there in that most gilded of god’s houses as what is happening with this Watford team in recent times. As I said last week but even more so, the capacity to come back from setbacks and keep fighting is as un-Watfordy of the modern era as it’s possible to be, and marvellous to behold. I’m still cautious and suspicious like a woodland creature caught in a hunter’s trap but freed by a kindly passing Samaritan, but could something actually be happening here? January remains a very important window. Step up Gino, ready to give us another reason to hate him.
The bit I definitely agree with you about is our second half run of fixtures is, on paper, harder than the first lot we've just completed. And realistically to challenge for the play-offs we probably need to get a better points haul than we did for the first 23 games. My best guess at the moment is we eventually fizzle out into mid-table mediocrity, though at least if something really crazy was to happen from here on in the only way is up.
Blackburn are a very definitive side. They either win or lose. They don’t do draws. I remember they were like this last season too. So once it got to 1-1 with just 7 minutes remaining, there was a high chance of another goal being scored.
Bit of a gamble of V.I. To take Kone off with 7 minutes left to play and use his last sub, but boy did that gamble pay off!
Let's hope Gino has been a good boy this year, so when Santa Claus (Uncle Mogi) climbs down the chimney he has a sack of decent players in January and not cast-offs or over-priced OAPs.
As of boxing day we would have played each team once. Everyone said we'd struggle over the last few weeks but we only lost once to Ipswich. I'm confident of continuing our momentum.
They need to be current first 11 players that are fit and raring to go otherwise there's no point buying anyone. 6 months of contract types like Whiteman or Mowatt
Watching this team reminds me of watching a GT team. No matter how badly a game seems to be going you always think that we have a chance right to the end of the game. If I were a Blackburn fan I would be quite upset at loosing that. They seemed to be able to snuff out anything that we tried to do and we were making some bad mistakes as well as poor decisions. They should also have scored at least another two goals. It was the worst we have played since the Sunderland game. It's exciting stuff.
VI got it wrong first half. I would imagine he was trying to keep the winning side together from Preston but he has to start our best team. Blackburn did their homework and doubled up on Sema & Lewis. Martins and TBD were all but useless on the right. With Andrews and Asprilla on, we looked likely to score and Hamer again made up for the 1st goal, keeping us in the game. Asprilla just keeps getting better and better. He had the blackburn defence on toast, a top quality player destined for great things. We are desperate for a RB in January. Ngakia is a crock and we cant afford to be experimenting. Livermore is a prime example of when you have quality and experience in a dedicated position. Im happy with Andrews, but he is still young and can only get better with competition for his place. Someone like Gaspar would be ideal to help nuture Andrews and learn whilst fighting for his place. We have 3 strikers who can score goals and we are looking up the table rather than down. A couple of quality players coming through in January and who knows where we could end up.
VI was pretty livid at HT and laid into the players' about the performance. He said something like "we cannot go into games playing 80% and thinking it's enough to win a game. You need that 100% mindset to win the game". He said he was 'loud' so I am guessing not quite the Fergie "Hairdryer" but I think the players' responded well second half. Blackburn probably should of got something out of that, and Hamer made some quality stops. I don't think it was as bad as Sunderland first half, but we certainly were not at the races and perhaps the way we won at Preston last week gave the players' a sort of 'invincible' thought? Don't know, but we do have to stop starting games slowly. Even during this run we are on, we have lost so many goals within the opening half hour. Norwich got two and the only reason we came back is because they remembered they owe us six points per season.
