The Pozzo Era Mini League has a familiar look to it..... 6 Watford 11 pts 16 Leicester 4 pts 19 Bournemouth 3 pts 20 Palace 0 pts However, the governing body of the PEML held an emergency meeting earlier today and the following press release resulted: "Due to recent speculation about the long term viability of the league, the governing body draws attention to the following rules which have been reviewed and confirmed. 1) Membership is only open to the following clubs: AFC Bournemouth Crystal Palace Leicester City Watford No additions or replacements are permitted 2) Membership only applies when one of the above clubs is a member of the highest league in the English football pyramid 3) One of the above clubs re-entering the highest league may apply for re-admission to the PEML - such re-admission will not be unreasonably refused 4) Should the number of above clubs in the highest league reduce to 3, the league format will continue with the reduced number. 5) Assuming a membership of 3 or 4 clubs the team with the highest final league position will be declared PEML champions for that season 6) Should membership reduce to 2 clubs - the format will change to be a two legged tie with an aggregate score (away goals will not count double) 7) Should only one of the 4 clubs remain in the highest league - they will be declared winners of the PEML in perpetuity 8) The PEML will be dissolved immediately should one of the following situations occur: - Rule 7 is met - Ownership of Watford FC is relinquished by the Pozzo family
I've had the privilege of reading this page knowing the result of the Liverpool game, but without knowing whether you cashed out or not. That was tough for me to read. I was stressed for you. I have no idea how stressful it must have been for you. Well done for being brave and sticking with it.
Match highlights. 4 mins. Good move started by Marriappa, feeding Carrillo who plays a perfect through ball for Fermenia to run on to. He cuts the ball back to Gray who hits it first time and is unlucky to see the ball deflect for a corner. 12 mins. Goal. Poor play by Swansea and Bony gives the ball away when under pressure. It goes straight to Gray who feeds Carrillo out wide. Carrillo plays the ball back across goal and Clucus attempted to intercept but only manages to divert it into an area where Gray was first to the ball and he made no mistake from close range scoring his first goal for the club. 14 mins. Swansea had a great chance to equalise. A basic corner is met by Fer and his header falls to Fernandez to prod home, but Gomes makes a courageous save to deny him. 15 mins. From the resultant corner Swansea work the ball out wide and deliver a very dangerous cross. Marriappa does extremely well to head it away and gets fouled in the process. 17 mins. Richalison plays the ball inside to Capoue who unleashes a fierce shot from distance just wide. 31 mins. A lovely direct run from Carrillo sees him cross the ball which is cleared. The ball falls to Fermenia who shoots but his shot is parried. Richarlison fires this across goal and Carrillo taps home only for it to be correctly ruled out for offside. Shame this linesman didn't officiate last week's match. 38 mins. Swansea play the ball wide left. A dangerous ball is crossed in but both Kabasele and Mariappa throw themselves in front of Bony who could only half shoot towards goals and Gomes makes a comfortable save. 40 mins. A bad Swansea back pass sees Gray latch onto the ball very quickly. It is a tight angle and he does well shooting past the keeper but just misses the far post. 43 mins. Carroll floats in a perfect ball from a free kick. Watford defence are a little out muscled and Bony has a free header which he steers wide of goal. 44 mins. Some wonderful trickery from Carrillo sees him weave into the Swansea penalty area but his low cross is deflected wide for a corner. 53 mins. Swansea corner is headed over by Fer. 55 mins. Goal. From a throw in, Swansea are allowed to hook the ball in with no challenge from Wague. The ball bounces and is miskicked by Bony, but he is allowed another chance and fires in a shot low to Gomes' left. The keeper does well to initially parry the shot, but the only reaction is from a Swansea striker and Abrahams stabs home the rebound unchallenged. 63 mins. Carroll sends over a good cross from open play. Kabasele defends the ball very well under heavy pressure from Bony, but the ball falls to Abrahams with the goal at his mercy. Mariappa makes a brilliant lunge and blocks the fierce shot preventing a certain goal. 69 mins. A great mazy run by Richalison sees himself in the Swansea penalty area, but just as he's about to pull the trigger he loses his footing and the chance goes begging. 82 mins. Another mazy run from Richarlison sees Naughton foul him in the box. Clear penalty but not given by referee Mason. 85 mins. A good challenge by Deeney, sees Watford turned defence into attack. Deeney plays the ball to Pereyra who plays a clever ball into Doucoure. He lays this off to Deeney who tries to wrap a right foot the ball but doesn't quite get the power and Fabianski makes a comfortable save. 89 mins. Goal. Pereyra plays the ball upfield from the left back position. This is chased down by Deeney and Mesa. Mesa tries to play the ball across to a team mate but Deeney intercepts sending the ball across to Richalison. He takes a heavy first touch but this draws in Mawson who makes a powderpuff challenge and Richalison is through with just the keeper to beat. He fires in a powerful shot past Fabianski to give Watford back the lead. 90 mins. Pereyra receives the ball wide on the left and takes it into the penalty area. He cuts back only to be fouled by a nasty challenge by Fer and goes down. The second clear penalty of the afternoon, but again not given.
Strange how contact has become p By 'most people' I assume you mean pundits that also reckon players are 'entitled to go down' like somehow whether a player winds up still standing or on the floor determines whether or not a foul has been committed. Contact has nothing to do with fouling. A player can attempt to trip an opponent, make no contact at all and still have committed a foul.
It’s on his stories...and I don’t know how to link to them. But I think someone has screen-shotted it and posted on his page on ‘The Team Bus’ section....
But then we do have the chance of being certain about these split second decisions via umpteen replays in ultra slow motion concentrating on one particular question of contact - whilst the referee sees it once, at full speed, and has to try and watch everything else as well. That said, he probably gave about half a dozen free kicks to Swansea based on the merest of touches, or even no contact at all.
Ourselves and Spurs are the first teams since Derby County in 1912 to win our first three opening matches of the season away from home in the top division while failing to win any at home.
Another friggin internatinal break, what a pain. I will never hold England in such high esteem as my beloved Watford.
The rumour is he has a fractured kneecap - it may only be a hairline fracture though. So maybe a 10 day layoff only, if it worse you are looking at surgery, pinning and 3 months out.
I’m not sure playing up top precludes him from dropping deeper when needed to pick up play. Pereya is capable of picking up the left AM duties. I have a feeling like Henry and Ronaldo he will be lethal in that role. Not saying he’ll reach such exalted heights as those two but the signs are certainly there he’ll be bloody good.
I love the guy in the crowd with his head in his hands and his girlfriend sitting next to him smiling and having a great time.
Is that a smile or some sort of gormless grin.... The lad on the left looks like he is trying to recreate the figure from "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. I like the studied indifference of the boy in blue behind the girl in yellow - its the look I am aim for when we go 1-0 down at home
All the younger fans have the look of "here we go again - another defeat looming" (could be at home doling something better!)
You and I fell out on another thread a few months back which was a pity. I always appreciate another who shoots from the hip. So on all this negativity stuff. Who are these *******? There's a bloke who sits next to me in the Rookery who, when Kaboul went down towards the end of last season, stood up and said he hoped he was crocked until the end of the season. One of our own players. Effing tosser. Came within half-an-inch of getting a smack and knew it.
It isn't baffling at all Hb1. Your specs are so yellow they're positively opaque. Please stop doing this stuff. It's very wearing. What are you suggesting? That officialdom has it in for us in particular? Give me a break. And please save me from another pseudo-scientific big analysis.
You're putting words in his mouth to fit your agenda of a perfect world where we're cads for even dreaming that we've had a bad run with refs; fact is we haven't had a single decision in the last two matches. No conspiracy, but we've obviously done something to upset the CBRA or Crap Bald Refs Association, as they prefer not to be known
No mate. You're doing what every football fan does (including you and him) which is to dream up some sort of conspiracy against you and yours. None of these conspiracies actually exist. Get a grip. What might we have done to upset them (whoever they are) to cause them to have a vendetta against us?
Try reading it again, including the words 'No conspiracy'. Doesn't alter the fact that we've had crap decisions in the main for the past two games. Spoken objectively and as an ex ref.
OK. I take the 'No conspiracy' point which you did make earlier. Maybe we have got the 'rough end of the stick' in the last two matches. Maybe we'll get the better end of it in the next two. But Hb1 claims this sort of stuff all the time. What's the motivation? Three seasons back he mounted a pseudo-science exercise to justify his contention that we'd been on the wrong end of penalty decisions for two whole seasons. Drivel. If I wanted to see an analysis of that then I'd look to see it from a neutral, not from one of our own. Which is the whole point. When it's from our own, it's always biased.
Wasn't able to see the game, am currently in New York. News reaching manhattan's streets is Richarlison's incredibly small nips!
