Preston North End 3-0 Watford Fc 2/10/24

I decided last minute that, as I had a bit of time today, that I wanted to write this preview and post something to remind us all of what Bayo’s capable of. You know, somehow invoke that mystical power again! I’m not superstitious and can’t take full credit for 2 of the best away wins last season (PNE and QPR), but I am taking some credit. You see, those were the only previews that I wrote. Just saying. I owe it to myself, you, and everyone else associated with our great club.

Imagine being a PNE fan last year when Bayo and Kayembe came to town and tore up the script. It was a weird game and we weren’t great. We conceded first. Something that we started to take to another level this year, but happily avoided against Sunderland.

Imagine being a PNE fan lurking on this forum or elsewhere to read our opinions about the striker whose goals range from good to spectacular, but only happen every 6 games. I know very little about most championship players outside of our own squad, and if my experience of Vakoun Bayo was limited to being on the receiving end of a 5-1 home defeat, with him scoring 2 and being involved in another, and close to scoring more, I might be confused. But that is basically it with Bayo. I think he’s a confusing player because he doesn’t really know what he is himself. Says he wants to play at the highest level, and on his day he shows quality that could be worthy of a top level team, yet also seems woefully lacking in any consistency when it comes to actual goal scoring.

Bayo v Jebbison

A lot of opinions amongst fans about who’s worse. A bit unfair on young Daniel who’s not had the game time to show what he’s capable of. Against Sunderland, Bayo had much longer on the pitch than Jebbison. He was involved in the build up to the first goal, and didn’t have a terrible game to be fair. I think the work he put in, especially in the first half, was decent. There were no glaring misses on the level of his poor efforts against Sheffield Utd. I think the problem with his game is that he’s not nasty enough. Every striker misses good chances, but he wants to score beautiful goals and doesn’t trust himself to get really stuck in and make the other team sweat when under pressure. He presses, but he’s not enough of a nuisance for my liking.

Although Jebbison is raw, when he came on, I think we actually looked more like scoring. DB just looked like he was happy to be involved, and I felt that our attackers could read his game more than Bayo’s. He didn’t do anything spectacular, but he battled, and even before Baah came on, it seemed that other attackers were pushing up the pitch a little bit more because they felt that DB’s movement was more reliable than Bayo’s.

Bayo needs to go back to basics. He needs to be willing to gain a reputation for scoring uglier goals and so-called easy tap ins. And he needs to stick his legs out and let the ball bounce off him a bit more, without being scared of getting the next bit wrong.

I haven’t seen much of Jebbison, but here’s what I like: he gets stuck in. He was there on the goal line to miss horribly against Norwich, but equally this Saturday he was there, forcing the ball higher up the pitch and gaining a corner.

We’ve currently got two very different strikers to rotate, and it’s easy to say that they’re both a bit lame. But they have both got valuable qualities and I actually think that Bayo could turn into a really decent player with a different approach. Jebbison is very young and WILL improve (hopefully with us). Bayo CAN improve. Maybe Luther can get at them. Go on Luther, send Dux another email and cc TC.

So, that’s the strikers. Plus maybe Doumbia might be trusted soon.

The current regulars:
Bond has been good.
Sissoko has been great.
Georgi Chaka Kahn has been magical.
I hope there’s no more need to be bashing Tom Dele. (Nothing bashful about that boy’s spot kick.)
Baah has been far from sheepish. (Nothing woolly about that guy’s cameos.)
And nothing fishy about Pollock’s performances.
Morris didn’t put a foot wrong on Saturday. I would say that Morris is no longer a minor player.
End of puns. Ogbonna’s experience is welcome.
Ebosele and Larouci are both strong assets. Hopefully the former can keep his head and not get any more needless bookings that can soften his impact.
Kayembe m’Lord, Kayembe.

Personally I don’t think that Ken Sema is far off the player that he can be and I don’t think he’s past it. I still think he’s important to us as a squad player, but it’s a sign that we’re a stronger outfit this year that he is less likely to shine.

Looking forward to seeing more of Vata. I think he’ll be involved in this game.

I like Ryan Porteous. Come on, so do you, really. Can’t be that bad. A bit too bonkers sometimes but good character. Not the wingback that we needed on Saturday mind you.

Like many Watford fans, my heart is fast warming towards Tom Ince. And for one of the older players, he showed a decent amount of running on Saturday when he came on. And scoring any goal, not just a wonder goal, against the heinous Abu Dhabi outfit…well, that’s nothing short of heroic in my book.

Tom Cleverly. I genuinely love the bloke.

And it’s the well navigated trip to the Etihad that gives me as much confidence going forward as anything else. We were always going to lose, but we are a championship club now. It was the Premier League Watford that got savagely raped and destroyed by them in recent years. But
Cleverly has done excellently so far, and I think he’s going to be a top manager. You can tell from the way he talks that he knows exactly what he wants to do. Even after the Norwich debacle he gave a good indication that he believed that was not a sign of things to come. He’s not dictated to by the past and he always has a plan. His plan to play Porteous as a wingback must not be repeated though.


Anyway, there’s gonna be rotations because of the busy schedule. Not much recovery time and another game a few days after Preston. And Preston is a long way to go midweek. Hats off to you if you make the trip.

Here’s some reaction from here to the 5-1 win, which was less than a year ago:

The above from the former forum regular, Hornetboy. Like Bayo, he divided opinion. But unlike Bayo, he was prolific.

And this

from forum mother and overseer, Skyla, referencing a joke that has not yet set sail this season.


I have been critical of Bayo like everyone else. But while he’s our player I want to see him flourish. He’s best mates with Kayembe off the pitch and the latter is recovering now from injury and probably helps Bayo on the pitch. They certainly showed good understanding last year at Deepdale.




As for Preston. Wonderful club. Fantastic history. And, in my experience, lovely fans (I’ve never actually met a Preston fan, but I imagine they’re lovely people). Deepdale is the longest serving ground in English football, where football has been continuously played. They are a founding member of the football league, and until the 60s were a regular top flight team. But they haven’t played at the top level since then. They now have a manager who has overseen promotion to the Premier League with Sheffield Utd. His name is

and at the moment, his team is near the

I predict that to be compounded this week. We will outscore them, but concede in the 6th minute of the second half, which will be considered acceptably late in the circumstances.

Preston North End 1 (Bayo o.g.) Watford 6 (Bayo near post header, Bayo penalty, Bayo halfway line screamer, Bayo goal scramble tap in, Bayo 20 yard volley, Bayo’s bum).

 

It's true that Bayo was brilliant that game. Really really good. Not just the finishes but his all round play. It's such a contrast to what we see week in week out, now and even back then. Maybe it's a confidence thing ?

 

Agree that Bayo was decent on Saturday, particularly in the first half. I'd start him here. Going to be a difficult turnaround between Wednesday night in Preston to a very tricky one against Boro on Saturday. Suspect TC makes four or five changes for both but I'd be tempted to put more eggs in this basket and rotate the team if need be on Saturday.

Bond;
Pollock, Ogbonna, Morris;
Ebosele, TDB, Sissoko, Larouci;
Kayembe, Bayo, Chakvetadze

Subs: Marriott, Porteous, Andrews, Sema, Louza, Ince, Vata, Baah, Jebbison

Andrews is fit so we can make sensible changes to the WBs early in the second half and get Baah on against tired legs for the last 25-30 mins again.

 

Excellent write up

 

Probably the best preview we'll get this season. Stirling effort @Vic

 

I actually think we’ll win this relatively comfortably.

Sorry all.

 

Sterling.

 

Raheem? Is that you?

 

I agree that TC shouldn't try the Porteous experiment again. But he should experiment. He will get it wrong sometimes and sometimes that will result in goals against but it is good that he wants to try new things especially when it isn't in times when we are desperate. He now knows not to use Porteous as a right wing back. That is useful information when he has to juggle his squad. Hopefully a TC experiment will work and surprise everyone. Bayo as a right wing back

 

Using Morris as a LCB rather than LWB was an experiment and has worked really well.

 

I was at that game last season and TBH we were pretty atrocious for 35-40 minutes .
However the 2cnd half we were absolutely fantastic on the counter attack mainly led
by Kayembe .
But that team performance actually sums Bayo up . A false dawn .

 

Realise HornetBoy is / was a bit Marmite but that meme was top drawer.
Enjoyable preview.
1-3.

 

Preston South End 0-7 Watford

Pretty much confirms our promotion.

'ORNETS!

 

After losing to West Brom, Norwich and a Man City 3rd string made up of children as young as 16 years old, this is last chance saloon for Cleverley and the players.

Must win game. End have story. Failure is not an option.

 

We don’t play West Brom until December… time travel confirmed

 

Who did we lost to then? In any case, if we did play them, we'd of lost, so it's a moot point.

 

*mute point

 

Mute Swan

 

No need to be so pacific.

 

Whooper.

 

*Stirling

I was referencing David Stirling, the pioneer of the SAS during WW2. I feel Vic's preview is similarly pioneering and successful

 

Swans were a sequence on Only Connect last night.

 

Which inspired me!

 

I know that a lot of people worry about playing with WBs as it looks like we've only got a 3 man defence, but to my mind that shouldn't be the case.
If you have a basic rule that when one WB gets down the wing then the other WB stays back and your middle three shunt over.
When I played LB we did the same, the defence pivots when a FB goes forward and the remaining FB comes inside to cover the CBs as they shunt over.
I know there's more to it than that but WBs shouldn't make a defence weaker..

 

Is that godawful Coren-Mitchell still presenting it? Unwatchable.

 

In the prediction league you have forecast 0-1, is your memory loss short temp or permanent! or are you hedging your bets!

 

Quite an easy one that, I thought.

 

That, and the capital cities one, were the only ones I got last night. Blaming tiredness.....

 

I chose Lima and Sarajevo…and the music one was easier than usual.

 

On the flip side, neither Andrews nor Ebosele would've scored recently if we played like that!

 

I'm a fan, actually - just don't mention her brother.

 

She is marginally preferable to him, but it’s a close-run thing.