The match has been moved to midday which will allow the travelling support and those daring to watch on the abomination that is Hive Dead two things. Firstly less time to appreciate the wonders of Luton itself. No loss as there is not much to appreciate unless you wander into the surrounding countryside. If Betjeman were around he'd probably recommend the RAF bomb it as with Slough. Second more time to drown their sorrows back in Watford after what will probably be another shambolic limp, rudderless display from the side with a few exceptions. My own recommendation is to do something more useful for those two hours or so than suffer the agonies and indignity of watching a bunch of overpaid mercenaries do precious little to justify their exorbitant wages. Watching a carthorse like Davis pretending to imitate being a footballer will only bring tears to the eyes. Or seeing yet another misplaced or backwards pass, another piece of appalling control and yet another head dropping onto the shoulder. It's hard to believe we beat this lot earlier in the season. This ridiculously easy Championship would be a walkover. The handsome Edwards with his beaming smile and infectious enthusiasm would take us back to the bloated, moral free Premier League. Yes that corner on Gino's Monopoly board. If only to make sure the club would not be bankrupted by his incredible business acumen and foresight. That dream has disappeared into the ether. The roots were laid yet again in another appallingly incompetent summer window. Thus the can has to be carried by Pozzo, his lapdog Giaretta and Mr.Mum Duxbury. Suddenly Gino realized in January it's not going to be like last time. No sirree. In came Ubenga and a sprinkling of signings. There's not a chance we will get into the playoffs unlike the eternal enemy but at least we can hope Ubenga is on the right path. Building from the back with the signings of Hoedt and Porteous and Ferreira. It's a pity Gino didn't realize this earlier obsessed as he is by finding the latest Richarlison from South America. I do wonder if Edwards will have a pop at the ignoramus in his press conference. He would be well within his right to do so. Bilic was hardly a success and Wilder is yet another temporary stopgap although you could describe the managerial role as being a temporary stopgap. Something that allows the players to put in minimum effort knowing full well the incumbent manager will carry the can for their failings. So this summer the dressing room needs a major clear out. Far too many old players sat comfortably on extended contracts well past their sell by date. Far too many injury prone players. Far too many who lack any courage or leadership qualities. A new medical team, a team psychologist, a set piece expert who knows what they are doing and indeed a new chairman and owner preferably. Let Ubenga and the new young manager get on with it Gino. Keep your meddling nose out of it. All you touch turns to dust for the most part. Grudging praise to Luton who have solidified their Championship status and have an organized, motivated group of players and a decent manager. They'll have a new stadium soon as well which will also help them. It's a pity most of our players can't show a fraction of the effort and desire they put in to each match. Something that will translate into the result for certain. Anything other than a Luton win will be a shock. I mean we cannot beat the mighty Wigan at home. I'd also recommend watching the u17 CONMEBOL matches in Ecuador to spot some of the latest South American stars of the future. Not our dreadful sorry excuse group of players who suck the life out of anyone who watches and supports them. This ought to move you though. Wonderful rendition of one of Claude's Arabesques:
I recently discovered it's the source of the River Lea (I quote from this site: Luton is a corruption of "Lea-ton" meaning farm by the Lea). A river I was thinking of exploring as some of the Lea Valley is beautiful (especially the bit north of the M25 up to Broxbourne) and the final stretch from Hackney Wick to Bow Creek towards the great Thames looks fun but I'm not so enamoured at the thought of walking through Luton to do that, especially as for the most part there's no river walk there and you have to go through the town itself to keep in the right direction!
It's going to be a very one-sided contest again, but not for the visiting side. Luton (as much as I hate to say it) are right now, better than us. They have a squad of players who are united under a good coach who can get the best out of an average squad. We could be there now, looking forward to the playoffs with hope and expectation. Instead, we are clinging on with our finger tips to an almost impossible task to making the top six. Only five points outside the last place, but most of the teams try a lot harder than we do. Our lacklusture finishing and almost Sunday League way we have let leads slip in so many games to only get a draw or lose is why we are sat as rank outsiders. I hate Luton, but I don't hate Edwards for what he has done there. He could of built something here instead, but instead he was shown the door and replaced with a grizzly serb who did the bare minimum to get by. Our form post WC break has been attrocious. I agree with Smudger that the vast majority of the blame goes right back to last Summer with a limp Window with awful signings (bar a few). Last time we went to the dog kennel we lost 1-0, with a much better side than we have right now, in the middle of our charge to automatic promotion. We had a team of try-hards that game, who rolled up their sleaves after the game and went on a string of wins. This bunch cannot even win twice in a row more than a few times. If we do win or even draw, it's going to the shock of the weekend. If we do lose however, then we can watch all the thee o'clock games where sides around us win and finally put any faint playoff hopes to bed. Lootown 2 Watford 0
Great preview. And that wonderful clip of Lucy a perfect antidote to the vengeful thoughts I still harbour towards the knuckle-dragging Scummers who attacked families in the Lower Rous in 2002. I wasn't at the game, but extended family were, and I know what they went through. Pedro to be our Kennedy on Saturday...
If we come back from Little Islamabad with 3 points it'll be some recompense for the most depressing season I can ever remember. Unfortunately I think we'll get gubbed. All aboard the fun bus!
Edwards to administer the death blow to the wretched Pozzo’s hopes of saving himself with another round of premier league cash. And good for Rob.
Surprised Sky haven’t got this. Surely they would have loved pointing out how well Edwards is doing and how stupid understandably we look .
Are you old enough to remember the 1974/75 season? If not, I would've thought at least one of the Bassett season, finishing bottom half in the third tier in 1996/97 and some of the second tier seasons from 1989-2012 would be more depressing, but different strokes and all that...
There is nothing more depressing than what Pozzo has created. Think I went to most games home and away that season down in League1 and it was thin broth indeed. I still loved the club though as opposed to this current monstrosity that Pozzo has created. I’ve finally given up my season ticket. Can’t stand the man.
Yes - I meant as the main game . The Red Button will just be one commentator and camera angle. Maybe for the best !
We won’t score. Pootown are very organised and I don’t think they will have any issues at all in containing our very overrated forwards. The only real question is how many Pootown will score. My guess would be 2
If we win I'll be furious that we can only turn it on against our bitter rivals. If we lose I'll be furious because the stupid ****s don't care. Only a draw will do then. Another dilemma is I like Edwards and wish the club hadn't been so bl**dy stupid. Again.
I think the players will put some effort into this as they must be aware that the fans' patience with them has been thin for some time and we have a manager who won't stand for another display like at QPR. Unfortunately it's likely it won't be enough as we lose to a late goal (the only one of the game) or concede a goal in the dying minutes/seconds after leading 1-0.
The Bassett season had the comedy value of Trevor Senior and, of course, in the January Harrison came in, so, if anything that counts as one of the most entertaining. 96/97 we had Jackett as manager and a squad that included Gibbs, Mooney, Ramage, Noel Williams so plenty to enjoy there. The Perryman, Lee, Roeder wilderness yearsalways had something about them - even if it was a bit thin sometimes. This season has been the first I've come to regard visiting Vicarage Road as a chore. I feel no affinity with any of the players and have come to loathe the way the club is being run. I was 10 in74/75 so results affected my father more than me. I was just glad when the final whistle went so I could get home and go out on my Chopper
Croat rather than Serb, but agree on the rest. I have no problem with Edwards, I'd even go as far as to say "good luck to him" even if it's Luton. Such is my disgust with our owners and their shambolic dismantling of the club.
I think it’s more accurate to say our form since mid-January has been atrocious, although it was hardly spectacular between the resumption of the domestic season and then. It shows the inconsistency of this division that we rose from 4th to 3rd after Xmas despite a run of only 6 points in 4 games and two of the worst displays of the season (Millwall at home, who just before they played us were 2nd from bottom in the away table, and Swansea away). Even after the disappointing draw against Rotherham we remained 3rd after Boro lost at Sunderland (though Luton and Millwall were both just two points behind us with a game in hand by then). However, even when we were that high it felt underwhelming in light of the amazing seasons Fulham and especially Brentford (who we pipped to automatic promotion less than two years ago) and Brighton were having in a division above. You can’t deny though that this has been a season of wasted opportunities - while we haven’t dropped that many points when leading, failing to get wins against teams that were there for the taking, not to mention several underperformances against the teams just above us, is likely to be costly come the end of the season. Those seven points dropped against Swansea, Reading and Wigan, teams in 16th-24th place, plus just a slight improvement on one point and one goal against Blackburn, Millwall and Coventry would have had us sitting pretty in the play-offs with probably the easiest run-in of the top teams. These three plus Luton have gone on good runs of late but they’re still not tearing teams apart - it’s frustrating to see what we’re up against, which ain’t much, and still see us likely to fall short.
Particularly at home - not lost much but drawn far too many and I don’t think we have won 3 games in a row all season ?!
Totally agree, maybe it's because that's when I started properly following the club but relegation escapes were my favourite type of season, there was something wonderful about being crap all year then suddenly a run of form out of nowhere propelling you to safety against the odds. A great shame that we didn't have one in the most recent spells in the Premier League, we were always either safe shortly after the New Year or went down like a bunch of wet lettuces. Anyway, this season is almost over - if the players could just turn up for this one, do the double and then the Scum miss out on the play offs by one point, that would do me. How far we've fallen...
If you mean at home then yes - moreover, we’ve only won two home games in a row twice - Sheff Utd and Burnley (wasn’t a great performance but there was a good atmosphere and the fans felt really connected to the club that evening, a feeling that alas has been so rare ever since), and Norwich and the Scum back when Bilic was still in favour despite those awful performances against Blackpool and Millwall. So since October we’ve not won back-to-back home games once - quite pathetic, even in 2007/08 when our home form was terrible for a promotion-chasing side we won three in a row at the Vic once.
Surely you understand this is something that is a relative thing? Below the top few teams in the championship the standard is fairly crap and the players are mostly crap, it then all tends to blur into one as you go down the leagues. The PL is starkly different to everything below it, so having experiences the most successful period in our history, to then quickly becoming a mediocre mid table championship team on its third manager of the season could easily be the most depressing season many fans have experienced. Most depressing doesn’t have to correlate with lower achieving seasons, there is so much more to it than that.
What is is with this RE love in ..he is tainted forever joining that lot , inhertied that squad from NJ..cant stand the smiling smug ****..TBH maybe he should of been given more tim ,but its old news .we will beat them sarurday i have no doubt
The thing about those seasons in the early 90s was that, although there was a disconnect between fans and club (as now), there was still a connection between fans and players in spite of the way the club was run. We knew they weren’t very good (and so probably did they), but we also knew they we were trying and with our support they were able to sometimes achieve unexpected results. In short, they weren’t the bunch of mercenaries we mostly have now.
When Black Saturday at noon comes,I'll be in my tennis shoes, With nothing to do but pray to the kangaroos. Sorry Donald. I went to see Gordon Buchanan on Sunday at the Spotlight in Broxbourne. When he came on stage we applauded. He thanked us and said everyone had done the same, apart from Dunstable where he was met with silence. You can imagine my comment! May the Thunderer and all other gods have mercy on our wretched souls. 'Libations, sensations. That stagger the mind.'