What a brilliant day at the office. 2-0 win on Graham Taylor day and a 17 year old academy player scoring in 72nd minute almost as if GT made it happen. Great to see Jack Grieves come on as well as he is a boyhood Watford supporter and incredibly the fourth generation of his family to play for Watford. I was urging the ball to go out of play so he could be substituted. Six points from our last two games with a completely decimated squad. Was also glad to see Luton lost 3-2 after being 2-0 up which firmly put the cherry on top of the cake for me.
With his appearance as a substitute, 18-year-old Grieves made it four generations of his family to have have played for the Hornets. The lineage goes back to club legend Reginald 'Skilly' Williams, Grieves' great-great-grandfather, who played almost 400 games for Watford. "It was pretty much a dream come true for me - obviously I have family history there too," Grieves told BBC Three Counties Radio. Reg 'Skilly' Williams and son Reg Williams Jnr were the first two generations of the family to play for Watford In addition to Reg Williams Snr, who made more appearances in goal for Watford than any other player, great-grandfather Reg Williams Jnr played for Watford in the World War Two years before moving on to Chelsea. Grieves' uncle, Daniel Grieves, also played for Watford before him after coming through the ranks and his father was on the club's books and also played for Wimbledon. "Making my debut for my boyhood club was something I've dreamed about - it was the proudest moment of my career so far," said Grieves, who had been released by the club as a youngster before returning to make the first-team squad.
Superior? Nope, but a much better way of seeing the world. It’s not blind optimism either, but a hope that he will prove to be adequate at least in a few games. To be clear, I’m not calling out your judgement per se, merely your desire to be so negative so quickly. I really hope you are not a team leader, because working for you would be thoroughly dispiriting! But I bow to your superior experience watching the game - I’ve only been doing that for 50 years.
Great result in the end. Last 25mins of the first half was bloody painful not helped by Blackpool already slowing the game and a god awful ref. The team as a whole looked energised though and didn’t allow the poor decisions to derail them. Having watched Kone at Reading last week, where he was clearly the best player on the pitch despite a fairly strong Reading side, it was good to see him follow that up with another strong showing. Occasionally drifted in and out of the game but that seemed to coincide with the game turning scrappy at times. Morris is starting to show a real awareness and read of the game. The amount of passes he cut out was excellent and he just seemed to be on the front foot to use a cliche. Helped that Blackpool were pretty hopeless but must be a great confidence booster. Also starting to get a good understanding with Sarr which, as shown with Femenia, can bring the best out of Sarr. Ferreira struggled for the fist 10 mins and just seemed to not be ready for the pace of footie in this country but I thought he got to grips reasonably quickly. Time will tell I guess. Similarly Martins. Took time to settle. Hardly touched the ball for a while after he came on but was positive and direct when given the chance and that takes you a bloody long way in this division. Bayo is irritating. Yes he is gangly and not the most skilful of players but he gets himself into great positions and should have scored his chance from Sarr but didn’t quite catch it right. His stroll off the pitch was bloody unacceptable though. As for the Ademeyo’s goal. It somewhat curtailed our “only one Graham Taylor” chant but none of us give a crap and GT would hate that kind of attention anyway. Sure he’d have an enormous smile at an academy player scoring in front of the rookery to send us on our way to victory. Something was clearly in the air from the minute the heavens opened and the rain came down during the playing of Raining In My Heart (yes I know strictly going by the lyrics “the sun is out, th e sky is blue” but still).
That was a very satisfying win! The last 2 wins have been different somehow. The team has fought and scrapped and won the battle and then a bit of quality won the game in the end. I really hope this is a corner turned in relation to the season. We started brilliantly , on the front foot and really pegged Blackpool back for the first 10 minutes or so. Even during the rest of the very dull first half, we were the better side , Blackpool offering nothing. Then we upped the intensity seciod half and deservedly won. Good debut from Kone, he looks decent. Martins made a couple of match winning contributions. He looked a threat and like he had some good movement about him getting ino good positions to receive the ball. Ferrera was mixed. He looked good going forward and very pacy, but a bit suspect defensively (possibly the new Kiko). Sarr had one of his better matches as well. He was droopoing deep to pick up the ball , and using it intelligently. Credit to him for the first gioal as he won the ball and started the move. His penalty style makes me a bit nervous though, but he did nail it. Cathcart absolutely immense at the back. and fantastic to see Tobi come on and score. What a cool finish that was, really pleased for the lad, great to see a homegrown youngster score on his debut and praticularly poignant in the 72nd minute of the GT matchdauy Bayo comes in for a lot of stick . Not one of his better displays and yes the slow walk off was brainless, but I think it is a bit unfair, as you can't blame him for his price tag. I know the ball sometimes bounces off him, and he shouldn't be playing the lone striker role, but he is useful around the box, gets into good positions and has made some important contributions this season. We really need to back that up with a similar display against Rotherham now. No fresh injuries so we should be able to. More than likely automatics have gone, but we could do with building some momentum to take us into the playoffs now.
For those that are interested and may not be aware the championship play off final this year is on Monday 29th May!
agreed not even close to a tap in, was a good shot from a hard angle , nice thing is shows his mentality , get in the box and be prepared for a rebound, too many of our players are not there for the 2nd shot
I’m called Toby and it drives me round the ******* bend when people call me Tony (particularly in emails)
I remember an anecdote from Olly Philips' book about a referee giving an erroneous decision against Skilly. He marched the ref over to the offending player or something and getting him to overturn it.
Looks like you were bang on about this guy. Deliberate attempted manipulation throughout the match. Bad tackles by Blackpool players were either ignored or met with a ticking off. As soon as one of our lads went into a challenge (Gaspar) it was an instant yellow card. I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. There was a chorus of boos by fans at half time directly towards the official. I remember Troost walking off with him asking for an explanation at his unbalanced handling of the first half. It continued in the second half. Again he ignored heavy challenges by Blackpool but instantly booked Ferreira for a late challenge. He ignored a stonewall penalty appeal for us too. I even looked on the Blackpool forum. They were delighted by the ref saying on numerous occasions things like “at least the ref is on our side”. They couldn’t believe he didn’t give that penalty either. What I will say is Gavin Ward was quite smart at the end of the match. He must have known he would be questioned so he gave us the second stonewall penalty of the day and booked three of the Blackpool players in the final minutes. So the stats will show 3 Blackpool bookings, 2 Watford bookings and a penalty to Watford. Once the game is over it all gets largely forgotten and the stats will look like he’s been fair.
he was **** , Mooney was getting fairly exercised on hive live about his decisions. haven’t seen the first penalty claim again , but on first look, looked like Sarr (I think) went down without much help, I fear if it was a penalty that Sarr goes down to much that refs don’t take him seriously. On the subject of penalties , we need somebody else to take them, have no confidence in Sarr scoring from the spot at all
Mooney doesn't have a lot of good to say about officials full stop. Sarr has a reptuation - in the first half half the ref wasn't having Sarr going down injured I remember. Yes must admit wasn't confident Sarr would score but was a decent penalty tbf.
Looks like something Philip Serrell would stoop to guiding the Red team to buy, in a desperate attempt to satisfy Strict Natasha's personal challenge.
