Given that the weather was good, I thought that we might just be in for a repeat of the Easter Monday game, when we put 4 past David James. I left home late, as my brother who I was meeting at Euston couldn't be bothered to get into London any earlier. When I got there, he was nowhere to be seen. He texted me to say his train was delayed, and so I left for Watford without him. I got to the ground with about 15mins to spare, and waited for him there. At 2.55pm he sprinted down Occupation road, to arrive in time to see the players coming out onto the pitch. Well, what can I say about what happened after that? Aidy really shook up the team by replacing the full backs, bringing in Bangura for the injured Smith and replacing Priskin with King. Up until half time it was awful, painful, horrible, boring. The atmosphere in the seats around me in the Rookery was the type you get 10 mins before the game, let alone at half time that was how bad it was. The second half was better-ish except for Foster's casual prod of a backpass from Doyley straight to Vassell, who curled it into the corner of the goal. 1-0 to City and they had barely earned it. Priskin came on 10 minutes later, linked up with Rinaldi and fired past Isaakson to level about 15 minutes from time. Much better - A goal!! After that the game just descended into a competition to see who could see out the remaining time the quickest except for a flash from Marlon King who put a header wide when it seemed easier to score, then blamed Priskin for not putting it in. If we had won it then, it would have been a travesty given the quality of the match, it had bore draw written all over it. So we were relegated. Not as if we hadn't seen it coming or expected it. As I walked back to the Junction with my brother, we reflected on the loss to Sheffield United earlier in the season when we were found to be severely lacking and mused that it was probably that point onwards when we never really looked like turning it around. Taking Boothroyd's optimistic approach, my brother and I compiled a list of 4 things which pleased us about the match: 1. Tamas Priskin can be dangerous when the ball is played to his feet. Not his head, but SHOCK his feet. If we can do this in the remaining games and next season he will do well for us. 2. Rinaldi looks like he has something we have been lacking this season and that is the ability to drive forward with the ball and look to make penetrating passes. I do hope we sign him permanantly when his loan expires as I believe he could be useful. 3. The re-emergence of Bangura. Seemingly banished forever, he came back and didn't do too badly on his return despite not getting too many games recently. My Brother and I disagreed as to whether Bangura (me) or Mahon (him) should play in a 4-4-2 but did agree that Boothroyd shouldn't have played them both. The fact that Bangura looked to pass it around was pleasing too, definately progress. 4. Doyley did his job well enough, and had Foster not made a hash of the backpass then I doubt there would be any glaring mistakes to look for. His throw-ins were wayward, but if we do make that gigantic leap to playing the ball on the floor, then lumping it up the line to no-one will no longer be part of the plan anyway. There you go, my thoughts on the day with a little help from my Brother.
