Do you use footballgroundmap.com to track this? I've just checked mine and I've seen football at 105 grounds*, 99 of which have been following Watford. The other 6 are: St Albans, the new Barnet ground, the current Wealdstone ground when it was home to Ruislip Manor, Benfica and two grounds in Inverness. *I'm not entirely happy that footballgroundmap.com categorises the current Bournemouth and Spurs grounds as different from the old ones. As I understand it the new Spurs one is partly on the same land as the old White Hart Lane and Bournemouth was just turned through 90 degrees when it was redeveloped.
'Don't believe I'm taken in By stories I have heard, I just read the Daily (ahem) Mail And swear by every word.' (Moonlighting from the Politics section.)
I very much hope that the players have learned that with effort and application they should beat at least 75% of teams in the division with ease. Please no more post Stoke and Norwich false dawns. Time to kick on now and take the rest of this season by the scruff of the neck.
Interesting poll this week. Last week over 3/4 said we would lose - we won. Now we are predicted to win, and we _______ <fill in blank as appropriate>
This could be the most important game of the season, the result depends wholly on the attitude of our players. It's all well and good getting riled up for a derby game but Wigan away is a different proposition. The players have to go into the game with the same mindset as Sunday. At this moment in time, I don't fully trust the players to do that. I trust Bilic will attempt to instill that fight but the shirkers, I am not so sure.
My thoughts exactly. We have a lot of players who will decide to "turn it on" for a game then just turn it on and off like a light switch - as we have seen so many times this season. Ironically, our best form has been right at the start of the season where we picked up a healthy 9 points from our openning few games. We have failed to win back to back games all season and we will never be in a with a chance of the top six if we cannot string wins together (like Burnley are now). Bilic has the presence of a well spoken manager who doesn't hide behind good results - I just hope the WTE "talk" has a similar effect like previous.
Also, the mindset of the Wigan players will be important. How will they react to the club's apparent financial difficulties? (our players stepped up 20 years ago, but is that guaranteed?)
Bayo it is then. Unless we play Pedro more forward, but Sarr needs to stay in his natural position to be effective. I was really hoping Davis would be able to start but as with our luck so far with injuries it's another on the "how long will he be out list".
Would prefer we played Pedro upfront and put Asprilla in the Pedro/Louza role. Then Bayo on as a 70th minute sub as we chase a way back into the game 2-0 down after having 75% possession and zero shots on target.
The train bore me away, through the monstrous scenery of slag-heaps, chimneys, piled scrap-iron, foul canals, paths of cindery mud criss-crossed by the prints of clogs. This was March, but the weather had been horribly cold and everywhere there were mounds of blackened snow. As we moved slowly through the outskirts of the town we passed row after row of little grey slum houses running at right angles to the embankment. At the back of one of the houses a young woman was kneeling on the stones, poking a stick up the leaden waste-pipe which ran from the sink inside and which I suppose was blocked. I had time to see everything about her—her sacking apron, her clumsy clogs, her arms reddened by the cold. She looked up as the train passed, and I was almost near enough to catch her eye. She had a round pale face, the usual exhausted face of the slum girl who is twenty-five and looks forty, thanks to miscarriages and drudgery; and it wore, for the second in which I saw it, the most desolate, hopeless expression I have ever-seen
Feels like if we win this our season is finally up and running. Lose and we 're back one game on / one game off which maybe enough for play offs...maybe.
Every game we have at least 5 injuries, it's f*cking ridiculous. Clearly the master of squad building Mr Gino Pozzo will push the blame onto someone else, rather than admit that he's filled the squad with players incapable of handling a Championship season. Maybe he could blame the medical staff, who chose them? Oh wait it was Pozzo. POZZO OUT
Gladys deserved the fan of the season award. I think that it was a great shame that she missed out. She was always at away games despite her age and medical problems. A true fan.
Depending on his fitness we could also put in TDB and then have either him or Kayembe getting a bit more forward. That way we might keep things tight enough in midfield that we don't go in to the 70th minute 2-0 down already. Asprilla has often been bullied out the games a bit too much, especially away. If Bilic trusts Gaspar enough we could also put Gosling at AM, though I'd rather he continued his solid enough job at RB if possible.
Sometimes our players aren’t so reliable, yes, but sometimes just bad luck. Davis got injured last week. Maybe you’d like to tell him to his face he’s not up to a Championship season? Choudhury too? Sema also got a knock, because Luton kept on kicking him. Meanwhile 9st of Asprilla leaves the field after each game he plays unhurt. It simply comes down to whether they are good enough and motivated enough. Doesn’t seem like we know either yet, which is frustrating. The biggest problem, as far as I can see, is that as a team, we don’t pass the ball well enough or with sufficient tempo. Heads go down when we face those who can.
We all know that Davis has a poor record when it comes to injuries. Hause is even worse than Davis. Cleverley is finished. Wigan have been awful at home, but l can't see Watford making any impact against them.
Sounds like fun but we would have to start looking up who plays for the U18's and U12's soon the rate we lose players each game. I thought Cleverley was "short term"? Obviously sprained his toe nail so that means another month or so out. I think part of the reason we have such rotten luck with injuries especially this season, as RS2 alluded to also, is the calabre of the player we have. Not many of them can play a 46+ game plus season due to fitness, background or medical history etc. We get players on the cheap (or pay too much) so it's no wonder they break down so often. We don't have billions to splash on a new team every transfer window like some clubs do hence why we are almost playing our what we would have put out as a Cup side in 17/18 in 22/23 as a league game side. Player recruitment has been very poor and stagnant but that is all down to us having little to no money, paying agent fees's for over-priced players and whatever else we seem to throw cash at. All we can really do is get loan players. Nothing is going to change unless we get new investment, which seems pretty unlikely at this point due to our ever-increasing debt.
https://www.watfordfc.com/news/team-news-wigan-athletic-v-watford Davis out, I hope Clevs can get back to playing football at some level, sadly I think his time with us must be over now. Cathcart is 50/50 by the sound of it. It will be all about team spirit and if we do the basics right tomorrow, the same as any game I suppose, but, get those right and we win. Wigan 1-1 WFC
Never heard of Footballgroundmap before, but it looks interesting. I’ve got a spreadsheet of all the matches I’ve been to (unusual I know) plus I’ve made my own map, as shown.
