'Doris' has his day By Tony Francis Last Updated: 12:41am GMT 13/02/2007 Your View: Football fans' forum In pics: Premiership action Sorry I'm late, but we've been potholing in the Pennines to celebrate Watford's possible deliverance from a fate worse than Scunthorpe. If we can extricate ourselves from a geological fissure several hundred feet below the surface, clawing our way clear of the drop zone should be a breeze. OK, we lost a couple of players in the process, but that's potholing. In case you hadn't noticed, this rediscovered optimism is down to a goal-shy centre-forward who lost his virginity. To Premiership defenders he's "that big sod with elbows". To the Spanish tutor he engaged to make better use of the spare time only footballers and politicians know, he's el Rubio (blondie). To regular cruisers of the supporters' website, he's Doris. His real name is Darius Henderson, a 6ft 1in Yorkshireman destined to spend his days in the lower reaches until Watford gave him the sort of opportunity you only read about in boys' comics. On Feb 10 2007, el Rubio officially entered the Pantheon of Premiership Marksmen when his penalty exploded into West Ham's net with chilling finality. One swipe of that lethal left foot not only defied cynics who believed Tony Blair would stand down before Henderson got around to nudging the ball across the line, but also condemned the Hammers to another week of misery and opened up a tiny chink of daylight to the bottom club. That's the only incentive potholers need. adverti*****t Unfortunately, Jordan Stewart was unable to catch up with Henderson in time to repeat the break-dance routine we'd savoured two weeks earlier when Anthony McNamee's goal knocked West Ham out of the FA Cup. Considering that el Rubio worked his butt off for 30 games to get on the score sheet, he shouldered his responsibility with sangfroid. The potential for performance anxiety must have been huge when the referee left him standing on the spot for what seemed an age while he booked a West Ham defender for stepping into the D. If Doris was bricking it, he didn't let it show. Now wait for the hat-trick against Ipswich on Saturday as Watford march on to the FA Cup quarter-finals. You think I'm joking? The mood has changed at Vicarage Road. Nobody seems frightened to utter the "R" word any more. Aidy Boothroyd told us he didn't care whether we went down or stayed up. The most important thing was for the players to enjoy match days in a more relaxed frame of mind. "The pressure's off," he announced. "Everyone and his dog thinks we'll be relegated, so there's nothing to lose." To be honest, the only pressure on Watford came from within. Talk of finishing in the top half of the table - even pressing for a place in Europe -raised expectation levels needlessly. These were uncharted waters for a fledging manager; there was precious little time after winning the play-off final to prepare for the most expensive league in the world, and survival was always going to be a bonus. By the way, I had a word with my dog but he only speaks espaniel. Darius will understand. Anyone who thinks footballers belong to an artificial society out of sync with the rest of civilisation will be interested to know that the Watford example was used to inspire staff at West Herts College in the principal's opening address of the academic year. Elizabeth Rushton told her lecturers that the club's transformation was a model for them to follow. College morale had been as low as Watford's after a shocking Ofsted inspection dismissed them as the Torquay United of further education. It could find no redeeming feature. Now their mantra is "Good to great", a catchphrase you'll often hear around Vicarage Road. It's borrowed from an American business solutions book of the same name. The fundamental message is to recognise where you are, where you want to be, and how to get from one to the other. Impatient chap that he is, Aidy wants the graph to show an uninterrupted line climbing at 45 degrees, whereas Watford's chief executive officer, Mark Ashton, can tolerate a temporary flattening-out here and there. Relegation, for example. Several months down the line, West Herts are on a roll and three of their most senior staff are season ticket holders. Elizabeth hasn't gone that far, but her interest in football has been stimulated by Watford's struggle. "There's such a big fan base in the staff room that the first 10 minutes of every Monday morning are devoted to football," she said. With the business solutions bible by her side, she'd probably be as adept at steering Watford clear of relegation as Boothroyd would be at improving the college pass rate. If they fancied giving it a try, C4 would bite their hand off.
I just read it and was about to post it too. nothing controversial or frankly that interesting this week.
