Me too. Crap game but in hindsight I'm just pleased I got to see one game even though it was under very weird circumstances.
Demetrius? I challenge you to a duel for the love of the fair Hermia....or should it be Helen? Curse them damn fairies.
Since covid reared it’s ugly head, we’ve actually only lost three of our 25 home league matches we’ve been forced to play behind closed doors.. Man City (naturally lol), Southampton and Cardiff. We’ve managed to win 20 of them. And I remember during the first lockdown, Duxbury doing an article in the media saying he thought we would be very disadvantaged playing without a home crowd. In fairness to him, our last home match with one was the Liverpool win so I can see where he was coming from.. But happily he was wrong!
Very good in the air, was Carroll. Must be that cake he ate as he seemed to grow as the ball came in from a corner.
We had quite a few final day wins before that - some of these meaningless end-of-season games have been quite enjoyable, which is why I didn't understand why many people couldn't care less about the games post-promotion. Ending the season with a win or two gives you a good feeling going into the season ahead, unless you've been relegated from the Championship, in which case the feeling would be bittersweet at best. My favourite wins in dead rubbers: - Beating Coventry 1-0 in the sunshine in the Premiership to prevent them from getting an away win all season - Beating a very decent Sheff Utd side who were favourites for the play-offs 2-0 to cap an enjoyable first season under Lewington - Winning 1-0 at home to a decent Reading side in 2003/04 to put some gloss over a crap season - Doyley returned after a two-month absence and being injured most of the season to give a MotM performance, and an 18-year-old Ash scored his first senior goal at the Vic (amazing to think he could be returning to us, that era for Watford could not be more different from the current one) - Winning 2-0 at Reading in 2006/07 while already relegated, meaning they missed out on a UEFA Cup place by one point, lol - Winning 3-2 at Coventry in 2008/09 from two goals down as part of a fine second half of the 2008/09 season - then Rodgers left to join two clubs smaller than us, b@stard - Winning 4-0 at Coventry after beating Reading 3-0 at home in 2009/10, those two convincing victories ending the season in flattering style.
No, Ash did score vs Reading, as shown here: http://www.bsad.org/0304/reports/reading/hrstat.html His first senior goal was indeed at Millwall, but this was his first goal at home. This game was also the most minutes he'd played for us up to that point, as he came on as a 19th minute sub for Lee Cook.
None of those games were great - Rotherham, poor second half, Brentford, very poor first half, and Cardiff poor all round. But I don't think the fans not being there have made a difference as even since the creation of the 1881 our home fans have been pretty meh on the whole - I literally can't recall any home game I've been to where the fans were instrumental towards the result. We had a good home record between Flores's sacking and the first lockdown, culminating in the 3-0 destruction of Liverpool and dropped points at home to Bournemouth and QPR without fans. Just hope we can continue to make it difficult for away teams next season as it could be key to staying up (like with Burnley in 2016/17).
The players look starstruck with Elton in the dressing room! Great to see. We wouldn't be anywhere near where we are without him and his vision of us as a top 30 club. Well we're back in the top 20! Youuuuu Ooooorrrrrnnnssss!
No, not from the perspective of what’s best for us. From the perspective of who deserves to be there and whose football I enjoy watching the most of the clubs in the playoffs. As for us, we’ll be good enough to stay up or we won’t - not subscribing to the “who might we scrape some points against” view re who I want to come up with us.
I remember that first home goal. First time I'd seen Ashley play - suddenly we see a small, skinny young guy getting stuck in down the left and before long he belts a great shot in the back of the net. Loved him straight away.....
Very glad Success and Gray scored because that might just mean we get something for them. A swap for Moore? One can dream! As mentioned by many others, I'm not sure Armstrong would be a good signing mind you. Zinckernagel will be a fine squad player next year, he's not been bad by any means while adapting to a different country, and with more time on the ball in the Prem he might thrive. Similar story for Gosling, I think he'll be alright as a backup, but thanks for everything Sanchez, it's time to go.
Pretty sure it was Danny Webber who got stamped on. Remember the game as we wore our away kit despite being at home, which I think was a thing in the Championship back then - you were allowed to wear your away kit at home once per season.
