Obviously not a 'nice drunk' nath, just hope you wake up this morning with a hangover and are suitably embarrassed with yourself when you read the vitriol you have spewed on here last night. Then again, judging by the intelligence of your posts, I very much doubt it. We have play-offs to win in case you had forgotten. As an aside, since you seem to have a problem with your drinking, may I suggest you read AA's Serenity Prayer for some reflection on yesterday's game. What's done is done all your anger and hatred won't undo it. All any of us can do now is carry on supporting the team to Wembley.
The main thing I've learnt this season is Leeds have 2 animals in their team which should have been put down at birth in Diouf and the 'aimless step-over' canut. Disgusting people.
If we had to lose out on automatic promotion that was the worst possible way.I wouldn't feel half as bad this morning if Hull had won because then it would never have been in our hands. And I feared losing out to Hull in circumstances like yesterday panned out (I had in my mind a last minute winner by Leeds not far off in that prediction in fact worse given the injured goal keepers and the sending off) because that would be the worst possible way psychologically to go into the play offs. And so it transpired. Leicester have the psychological advantage over us in that respect. They thought they had blown the playoffs a week ago but were handed a lifeline with the other results yesterday. They will be buzzing. Zola and his staff will have their work cut out this week in trying to lift the players for Thursday.
Dirty Leeds. The moniker was given by Brian Clough and rightly so. Some things will never change. It was a season in microcosm. A pretty decent first half spoiled by some appalling refereeing. Goals change games. An award for a blatant penalty affects not just us but Dull ****ty. As transpired when news of their second came to the Vic turning it into a mausoleum. Then to have to lose Bond. And thrust Bonham in. Some people take to pressurized situations but unfortunately he seemed to crumble. I don't know what he was thinking when he saw Ekstrand and that ***** Poleon charging at him. But I am sure he must have been thinking about Bond's injury and what that ***** had done previously and hesitated slightly and the rest is history. Leeds were awful but once again defensive sloppiness cost us. Nonetheless we cannot mope and feel sorry for ourselves. Yes we were almost there. It was tantalizingly close but the players and supporters have to raise themselves again. They need to remind themselves that our record against sides in the top half of the division is the best in the Championship. As Diamond and Malteser have pointed out it's our efforts against the bottom third and our home form that has cost us dear. Dropping needless points against Burnley, Ipswich and Charlton for instance and being cheated against Blackpool. Refereeing decisions have also had a disproportionate effect on our seasons final outcome. We need to take whatever anger there is and channel it wisely. Sides that finish third are usually the ones that get promotion. We can if we raise our passing game create chances at will. No one can live with us not even the famed Brighton as we saw earlier this season. But we need to take those chances. Fingers crossed Matej can find his scoring boots. However we do have goals available in the form of Abdi who was superb yesterday and Nando not to mention Chalobah although Deeney of course will be missing the first leg Geijo can pop up I am sure with assists or a goal.
The players should have no worse of a mindset as after the Peterborough game. At that point we'd thrown it away and any decent team would have secured 2nd long before yesterday, but instead Hull managed to limp over the line without facing any pressure; that's not a good sign for them. The final day was an added opportunity we missed but it shouldn't have existed to begin with. We're going into the play-offs with what is in effect already a 'play-off experience', and for that if we happened to play Brighton/Palace in the final I would fancy us.
Totally agree Carlos, we'd have been in a very similar situation before. You have to believe that'll stand us in good stead for the next two games. Plus, getting so close and being so gutted and frustrated can build a fantastic mentality where the nerves and apprehension subside for an "I'm not ****ing losing out again" mentality. Let's hope this is the case. I think our players have already proved it will be.
Time to fly in Demerit and some of the other old muckers like Mooney to talk to the players about the playoffs. Just some pep talks. Lloyd of course won't need any but the others might.
One of the few positives from yesterday was the presence of the Pozzos at the game and they showed genuine appreciation of the applause from the fans after the final whistle.
Lots of "if onlys" Charlton Barnsley Millwall Peterborough Oh well, like I said to the bunch of Leeds fans who were shouting at a load of kids after the game yesterday, " we're quite good at the play-offs, do you remember 3-0 ? "
Frustrating day in so many ways but the excitement of it all was worth it - never have I had such mixed emotions over a 100+ minutes. I feel very sorry for Jack Bonham, 70 minutes of first team football could actually have a major impact on his long term career - if he can deal with the adversity and come back stronger and better, then good for him. However, if he dwells on this and lets it effect him negatively, his career could be almost over before it's started. I actually think he will learn and come back a better keeper. If he has to play on Thursday, I hope he can put yesterday behind him and come out and play solidly and confidently, as they will chuck the sink at him... Deeney's decision making was disappointing, and why some applauded him off after he had made our cause much, much harder to realise is totally beyond me! Roll on Leicester.
Good Morning. It doesn't feel any better this morning, does it? I was hoping I'd wake up full of renewed optimism, yesterday's hurt banished, the sunshine filling me with new hope for the play offs and the future. But in truth, I still feel in shock at yesterday's huge opportunity missed. And it feels even worse knowing that, quite possibly, by next Sunday there will be even more disappointments to swallow. So now we will see how the players handle the disappointment they will be feeling too. Will it finish them off for the season? Or will it make them doubly determined not to endure another day like that at the Vic next Sunday? It's way too early for in depth discussions about next season, especially when this one ain't over yet. But over the next 2 matches I'm going to be looking for signs of, not only skill, but character too. Who are the big players who will stand up and be counted now? And who will be those who, quite frankly, we might not want next season? Because, have no doubts, there is no reason why next season won't be the great one this one nearly became. We've played some great football this season, yet have had some absolute stinkers too, usually against the lowly sides. We've blown 6 points in injury time against Burnley, Wolves and Blackpool, plus lost to very late goals at Blackburn and Cardiff etc. Imagine next season, with a year's more experience for everybody, plus improvements in the squad, just how good we could be without all those silly mishaps. Never mind worrying about other teams and whether the division will be stronger etc..we already have the base for a big challenge if we are still in the Championship next season. Keep the quality, recruit wisely and eradicate the stupid late goals and poor performances against weak teams..easy!! Anyway, I'm going ahead of myself. Thursday night now. The pundits will tell us that Leicester were already playing sudden death, as their game yesterday was win or bust. But so have we..our matches v Blackburn and Leicester were also must wins. And we did. So we can play this 'do or die' stuff too. Let's see who will stand up and be counted now. Maybe somebody we weren't expecting might yet be the hero. Geijo in for Deeney? Matej to re-discover his golden boots? Bring it on!
I feel strangely optimistic about our chances in the play offs. I just hope Zola can work some magic and lift the team. The atmosphere in the town last night was one of defiance and a belief we've still got a very good chance of promotion. The cruel thing is we wrote off automatic promotion only to be given an unexpected 2nd chance, then only fail at the final hurdle. Whatever happens we've had a great season, seen some incredible performances, goals and results and have chance of going to Wembley. It's not all that bad. We could be Wolves... WEMBERLEE, WEMBERLEE, WE'RE THE FAMOUS WATFORD FC AND WE'RE GOING TO WEMBERLEE!
In all the drama and discussion I may have missed it on here but has anybody mentioned how the team performed directly after half time? I'm unsure of the exact timings as the whole afternoon is a blur but if I'm right Cardiff were winning when Watford came back out onto the field to line up for the second half. I know Hull then took the lead in pretty short order after we kicked off and news of that naturally affected the crowd but were the players aware too? The performance either side of Deeney's sending off was lacklustre to say the least. What was said at half time? It's not the first time this season we've gone in at HT and come out a shadow of our first half selves.
I actually think immediately after HT we weren't exceptional but we were playing reasonably well, but suddenly the Leeds fans started celebrating, it filtered onto the pitch and you could see the team deflate.
As usual, a class piece of writing, as you'd expect, and one that sums up my thoughts too... http://bhappy.wordpress.com/
Did anyone else notice that the Leeds fans sound like they have downs whenever they sang or said the word "party"?
I know statistics can prove anything depending on how selective you are. Before yesterdays game, in the 45 matches we average around 12 shots per game (Leicester similar) and across the whole league c 50% are on target and in our case we score from 31% of those (Leicester 21%) which is the highest accuracy in the league hence 85 goals now. The other clubs vary from 18-28% Yesterday we had 15 shots and 8 on target but only 1 goal. Leeds had 7 and 3 but scored 2 obviously. So rather than continue to the debate around the circumstances leading to the goals i see this a positive note to take into the next three games. Like many stats taken in isolation ie one game they mean little (sometimes because freak circumstances intervene-like yesterday you could argue on the goalie front) but over 46 games you see a trend. Little has been said about the saves Kenny made when it was 1-1 and we had 10 men-lets focus on a few positives and not dwell on the negatives We are not top scorers for nothing and should remember that against Leicester. COYH
Despite the result I thought it was one of the most exciting and fun Watford games I've been to. One thing that put a slight dampener on the atmosphere for me was that when still at 1-1 with us still in with a legitimate chance and almost the whole stadium standing and cheering was hearing the odd voice saying 'sit down', 'calm down' and the icing on the cake when all was said and done 'I don't understand what people get so upset about it for'. I hope these were just odd anomalies of idiots and no one else heard anything similar? Leeds just lived up to being 'dirty Leeds' I have no doubt McDermott will attempt to get them playing decent football next season as opposed to that niggling, shirt pulling display. As mentioned above Kenny made an unbelievable save or two which denied us. I thought players like Chalobah perhaps tried to rush a near impossible killer ball at times which I imagine was down to the occasion getting the better of young inexperienced players. I would have liked to see Batts rather than Yeates and I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned him but I thought Hogg had a very good game yday and hope he can carry that form into the playoffs for us. Although it is easy to say we threw it away and have wasted to many points late on in game (which we clearly have) I think perspective is needed to realise that finishing 3rd and almost very almost second is a great achievement for a side thrown together with a relatively inexperienced manager at the start of the season. Anyway let's pick ourselves up dust ourselves down and make sure we play our part in getting us through the playoffs!
There are 2 separate issues here though. Yes, it's been a good season, better than some had dared. But still, we blew it yesterday.
A Valid point which can't be disputed, we have had various points in the season where I've thought we've blown and more often than not we've fought back and responded in the next few games with good results! I just hope we can do that for the final push we need in the playoffs!
People say the premiership will be boring, and we'll get beat every week. Leeds are a prime example of why I want to get promoted. Terrible football team, no ambition but to kick us off the park and try and nick a goal. Horrible to watch.
Stoke are the exception in the league. In the champ there's at least 7 horrible teams, and more that are rubbish away from home. That's at least 14 games a season of **** football.
I know its academic but does a ref have it i his authority to book a player for the sort of celebration that Poleon did in front of the Watford fans. If so did Mr Salisbury bottle it having already booked him? Not so shy about showing the cards to Deeney though. Also what as fans in the Rookery do we do to provoke such a response from players such as Poleon and Tom Ince? Don't think we are the worst fans for winding up players by any means.
^^^ Referees have booked players numerous times for provocative celebrations in front of away fans and this little **** was totally deserving of a booking. Check it on TV, it was prolonged and could have easily incited an incident. Sadly, the referee was a bigger **** than him; bottled the penalty decision, booked Deeney when there was no contact, let Leeds get away with lots of niggly fouls and shirt pulling and blew instantly when their players went down rolling around the floor yet waved play on (Bond incident aside) when a Watford player was clattered.
That was a yellow card tackle all day long. You'd have been calling for a second yellow if that had been Brown on Deeney.
The referee was unsighted for the 'penalty' and if I'm trying to be objective, took no action on the incident that put Morrison out the match too. Deeney was silly to put himself in a position where he gave the ref a decision to make, regards the 2nd yellow, both with the challenge and the stupid yellow he'd picked up earlier. That said, I do agree with Kismet that we didn't get much off the ref yesterday..or the assistant, who should have helped him with the penalty appeal.
Huddersfield are one of those teams. Battocchio's goal. Sometimes I like playing against those types of teams because more often than not, they're filled with rough players with little ability. That's when class shows. And now, after a season of adjusting to this league, I think we'll see a lot more 4-0's than frustrating draws or narrow defeats against the likes of Barnsley and Leeds.
Not that you'd know it if you watched MOTD where it seems to be the constant obsession of commentators and pundits watching slow-mo replays!
and then hammering the officials based on these when they don't get a chance to have hours sitting on a comfy sofa watching endless replays.. I'd love it if some officials decided to pull out of games and let the supposed experts of players/managers and pundits play by their rules. We might get a game finished in a day..
