It'll be interesting to see if Gracia can help Richie find solutions to being marked out of the game and get the best out of him, just as Sir GT did with Barnes. Richie has got so much raw talent and it would be a shame to lose him to a bigger club before we see him flourish.
For some reason this made me chuckle. http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/watford-time-wasting-stoke-moss-1151144 I know it's not something to be proud of but I was so desperate for us not to lose at the death that I was willing to put up with any antics from the boys.
I don't know about our penalty shout, but Stoke should certainly had one. Kabasele deliberately punched the ball away in the penalty area instead of heading it. It was as blatant as the Doucoure goal the other week. Maybe our luck is finally turning?
The commentary I was listening to (who hated both sides) thought it was a penalty for us and that wasn't one. I think both weren't pens.
Because Stoke have never time wasted have they? From the moment they scored at the Vic (about 15 mins in) they time wasted. Absolutely disgraceful. Not interested in the slightest about adding any further to that game. There was the man nearest the ball lining up to take a throw only to put it back down after dithering for 30 seconds to leave it for the centre back to waddle up to take it. Then there was the winding up Watford players for a reaction tactic (which worked spectacularly well). Repositioning the ball to the other side of the 6 yard box for every goal kicks and then taking an age to actually kick the bloody thing. Then near the end, the absolute masterpiece, Shakiri walks to the furtherst corner from dugout, away from where play had been stopped knowing full well he was going to get subbed. He clapped the fans, strolling along, shook players hands, shook the refs hand and dawdled off the pitch. Poor poor Stoke eh! Had to suffer a little bit of their own medicine. Tossrs
It was as accidental as the Doucoure goal. Dermot Gallagher thought it was a penalty, when it was reviewed on 'Ref Watch'. They didn't show the Watford penalty appeal.
Anyone remember the sh*t feeling after losing to terrible excuse of a football club stoke only a handful of matches who, because we were bitterly disappointed at not getting an expected win. God I miss that feeling.
24 hour delay on posting...its taken me that long to defrost! What a waste of a night. Wish i hadn't bothered. If 0-0 at a dreadful Stoke is the limit of our ambitions then we're doomed.
The Kabasele one was never a penalty, he had no time to move his arm out of the way. Think he's lucky that the guy (Diouf?) didn't get sent off for the push though. I suspect that had he been sent off, Kabasele would've been the first player banned for simulation for a non-penalty incident.
It was nothing like the Doucoure goal. If I remember rightly Stoke didn't even really appeal for it, which says a lot in a game where both sides were protesting everything.
Bizarrely no one saw it in real time that's why no one appealed. Even if it was accidental, it was handball and would have been appealed by all the Stoke players had they seen it.
I didn’t see that and don’t remember a big shout for them. Just watched our appeal again and it would have been a very soft one
It was on Ref Watch on Sky today. I'm sure there's a clip on the net showing it somewhere. Dermott Gallagher said it should have been a penalty to Stoke. They didn't show our one, and I've only just seen it on BBC when Murphy did an analysis on Deulofeu. They didn't even show it on the club's own highlight's package. But the Watford could easily have been given as well, but it would have been quite soft. I think it is one of those that the big clubs get at home.
When things are going wrong the first thing to fix is the defence. If your house has a burst water main, the first thing you do is turn the water off. Silva s plan was to concentrate on refurbishing the decor in the hope you wouldnt notice that the house was 3 ft under water. We ve called in the emergency plumbers. Lets concentrate on turning off the mains, and then assess the damage.
Whatever way you cut it the evidence that this was the match with the least in-play minutes in the Prem. this season (in real time and as a percentage) isn't open to dispute. These are objective figures provided by Opta. Whatever we might say about their tactics at the Vic. and they say about ours two nights ago will be subjective. Everybody does it but the Opta evidence is incontrovertible. We were up to it on Wednesday and were rather good at it. As for the other matches where we feature. Everton away - mostly down to us. Leicester at home - mostly down to us. Huddersfield at home. Down to them.
