I'm getting worried ... my £30 (matched by Sky) bet, Ighalo Championship top scorer @ 80:1 is back on.
I think today in the space of 90 minutes we saw our entire season summed up rather neatly in just one match. It had all the ingredients of season 2014-15 so far..namely unpredictability...poor defending...a tendancy to look like losing games we really should be winning.....followed by blitzkrieg firepower, great attacking play and optimism restored again. Has there ever been a season in recent memory like this one, where events both on and off the field continue to surprise us, make us happy, dismay us, and quite often leave most of us completely unable to truly assess us and where we are heading?! We seem to lurch from triumph to disaster and back to triumph, with little in between! There'll be lots of stats posted I'm sure about today but in short.. Ighalo became the first player since (loanee) Chopra to score 4 goals in a match. That's 8 goals in 4 matches for him now..has any player ever improved quite so rapidly in front of our eyes in his first season for us? Today was the first time we've scored 7 in a match since the Chopra match at Burnley in 2003. Today was the first time we've come back from 0-2 to win a game since Dyche's side beat Burnley (ironically) in March 2012. All 9 goals today were scored at the same end, which must be some sort of record at the Vic! Deeney and Ighalo have now scored 9 goals between them in the last 2 1/2 matches that they've played together up front, since Ighalo came on as a sub at Huddersfield. Deeney, Ighalo and Vydra have now scored 30 goals between them this season. Ben Watson's WFC playing career so far has seen us score 7 and conceed 0 during his time on the pitch! Today was the 5th match in which Angella has scored in which either us or our opponents have scored 4 times or more. All in all, a memorable day (nice words Smudger about Ken Furphy)...but NEXT week will be the real test. Play like we did first half on Friday night and we'll get mullered. Play like we did second half though and that gap to 1st place could be down to just a point. But that's the thing isn't it..who'd actually like to try and predict it? Not me, not in this crazy season.
What the hell happened in that second half, we were absolute dire in the opening 45 minutes and thought it was going to be Yeovil all over again from last season. Would like to think that Joka didn't have to say too much in the dressing room at half time and it was left down to the players to sort out the shambles. Was very impressed with Watson, he's exactly what we've been missing for some time with regards to getting stuck in in the centre of the park. Bring on Bournemouth(but only if we bring our 2nd half performance!!).
Needed a miracle at half time. Got one. Play like the second half against Bournemouth we beat them. Play like the first half, long evening for the Hornets.
Just emerging from a darkened room. Seriously guys, we cannot go on winning football matches like that! Let's make it less a game of two halves eh? I hear the queue for the cardiac ward behind the GT stand is around the block ...
Thank God it's a game of two halves. Very happy to have been so wrong. Looking forward to the reports from those who were there.
Joka so far Played 16 (league) Won 8 Drawn 2 Lost 6 Goals 36 Against 19 Points 26 (out of 48) So, he's won 50% of his league matches so far. We've taken 54% of the points available in that time, which isn't automatic promotion form. But we've a plus 17 goal difference in that time, scoring 2.2 goals a match! I'm still non the wiser as to whether we've appointed a genius, a journeyman or a bad appointment. You?
When the players follow his instructions, they wipe the floor with teams. Keith Andrews believed that the players felt that they were responsible for the league position rather than the manager's tactics, and I think there has been a bit of "we'll do it our way" amongst the squad. Whatever was said at half time today, will hopefully be the turning point of this season. It's got to be the Joka way from now on.
Not a bad day. football was okay, too. Only bets that didn't come in were Troy Hatrick and 3 first half goals. [TABLE="class: tableData tableList, width: 100%"] <tbody>[TR] [TD]24 Jan 15 / 17:17 [/TD] [TD] Bet Winnings [/TD] [TD]Watford v Blackpool – Odion Ighalo @ 35/1 [/TD] [TD]+ £108.00 [/TD] [TD]O/1526114/0002258/F [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]24 Jan 15 / 16:58 [/TD] [TD] Bet Winnings [/TD] [TD]Watford v Blackpool – Watford -3 goals @ 7/1 [/TD] [TD]+ £24.00 [/TD] [TD]O/1526114/0002252/F [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]24 Jan 15 / 16:58 [/TD] [TD] Bet Winnings [/TD] [TD]Watford v Blackpool – Watford -4 goals @ 16/1 [/TD] [TD]+ £51.00 [/TD] [TD]O/1526114/0002251/F [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]24 Jan 15 / 16:58 [/TD] [TD] Bet Winnings [/TD] [TD]Watford v Blackpool – Three Or More @ 6/1 [/TD] [TD]+ £21.00 [/TD] [TD]O/1526114/0002254/F [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]24 Jan 15 / 16:58 [/TD] [TD] Bet Winnings [/TD] [TD]Watford v Blackpool – Four Or More @ 4/1 [/TD] [TD]+ £15.00 [/TD] [TD]O/1526114/0002255/F [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]24 Jan 15 / 16:57 [/TD] [TD] Bet Winnings [/TD] [TD]Watford v Blackpool – Over 5.5 @ 9/1 [/TD] [TD]+ £40.00 [/TD] [TD]O/1526114/0002260/F [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]24 Jan 15 / 16:57 [/TD] [TD] Bet Winnings [/TD] [TD]Watford v Blackpool – Over 4.5 @ 4/1 [/TD] [TD]+ £20.00 [/TD] [TD]O/1526114/0002261/F [/TD] [/TR] </tbody>[/TABLE]
According to the Beeb we scored the seven goals in 34 mins, 3 secs. So a challenge for the Stattos of this world. In a league match, in the top four divisions, has that EVER been bettered?
That 20 minutes to start the second half was amazing. So happy Vydra scored. Ighalo had easy chances, 2 tap ins and one of his face. But FOUR goals. We could've had more. We were AWFUL first half. Second half BRILLIANT. Angella excellent. The intensity we started the second half was amazing to see, if only we could do that all the time. If we can cut out the inconsistency we're a real problem for the rest of the league. Beat Bournemouth then who knows, bit of a gap below us now, Wolves & Norwich both got bad results today. Keep pushing!
We've managed to evolve from being inconsistent game-to-game to being inconsistent half-to-half... The firepower this team has is incredible.. but then we already knew that
For a nasty moment, it looked as if we would keep up our proud record of managing to lose to the side most likely to finish bottom of the Championship for the THIRD season running. Bristol City in 2012-3, Yeovil Town last season..
