17/3/2012 WFC 0-0 Coventry City FC
On Saturday Watford host Coventry City at Vicarage Road in a NPower Championship match. Both teams come into the game on the back of good results, with Watford ending their winless run at Pride Park with a 2-1 victory and Coventry drawing with promotion chasing Birmingham City at the Ricoh Arena. The last meeting between these two teams was back in August with a 0-0 draw at the Ricoh Arena. Coventry lie eight places below the Hornet's in 23rd place taking up the second lowest placing in the division, behind Portsmouth who had been deducted 10 points due to being placed into administration. The Hornet's are currently 15th in the table 17 points above their opponents.
Watford welcome back Britt Assambalonga, a first year scholar, who was on loan at Conference side Braintree, where he scored 5 goals during his stint, to help bolster the Hornet's forward line. Troy Deeney has now scored 4 goals in his last 7 games is likely to lead the forward line against struggling Coventry with Joe Garner playing the supporting striker role. Alex Kacaniklic, who has started to find his feet in the Championship is likely to start on the left for the Hornet's with fellow youngster Sean Murray likely to start on the right. Prince Buaben is pushing for a start but is finding it hard to dislodge the current partnership of Eustace and Hogg. It is not yet known whether Hodson has recovered from his illness that has kept him sidelined for the past couple of matches with Lloyd Doyley starting at right back and Carl Dickinson playing at left back. Kuszczak is likely to play in goal again with Loach staying on the bench. It is not known whether Britt will make the bench in place of Iwelumo or Trotta. Martin Tatlor is looking to regain a starting place after playing 90 minutes this week for the reserves against Reading. Steven McGinn is still recovering from his knee injury but showed that he is on the mend when he played 60 minutes against Reading. Dale Bennett is also looking to try and dislodge Nosworthy after recovering from concussion against West Ham.Coventry are a physical side who will try and push us off the ball and as a result it may be an idea to play stick with the Doyley/Dicko full backs as they are strong enough to withstand the pressure.
A key player for the Sky Blues is Alex Nimely, a striker on loan from Manchester City, who has tormented Champion ship defenders since he joined Coventry in January of this year. So far in his ten game stint at Coventry he has scored one goal which was on his debut against Middlesborough and has three assists. Nimely has also won two penalties whilst at Coventry. From this it shows that he has contributed to 6 of Coventry's 11 goals that Coventry have scored since he joined. If Watford are to beat Coventry this is the man that needs neutralising. Richard Keogh is likely to start against Watford, a club with whom he was linked with in January. Coventry have only scored 31 goals this season and are poor on the road. Andy Thorn expects Gary McShefferey, Cody McDonald, Carl Baker and David Bell to miss out.
At this point last season Watford are 6 points behind where they were then, with 14 wins last season compared with 12 this season.
Likely starting XI:
Watford:
Kuszczak
Hodson
Marriappa
Nosworthy
Dickinson
Murray
Hogg
Eustace
Kacaniklic
Deeney
Garner
Subs: Loach, Taylor, Prince, Britt, Trotta (if he hasn't been sent back yet)
Coventry:
Murphy
Keogh
Cranie
Clarke
Cameron
Clingon
Baker
Norwood
McSheffery
McDonald
Nimely
Subs: Dunn, Christie, Deegan, Thomas, Platt.
Referee: TBA
Score Prediction: 3-1 to Watford. Despite Coventry drawing with ten man Birmingham, a side who recently beat us 3-0, I think we should have enough to beat them. I would happily take a point though.
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Originally Posted by Elz
