[Lord Snooty]

Watford v Huddersfield Town
The Premier League
Saturday October 27th - 15:00 ko
at Vicarage Road

Huddersfield Town travel to play Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday. They go there full of confidence following some superb displays of late, even though the wins haven't been forthcoming, the team have been performing really well and that positive result surely is just around the corner. We went down to Watford last season on the back of seven straight away defeats and came away with a resounding victory. This time we travel south with nine games played and no win on the board. History to repeat itself?
Well this season is following a similar pattern to last, in as much as the corresponding fixtures have yielded the same amount of points. If you swap the Swansea result for the Cardiff result, both goalless draws, we would've been in the same position last year, if we had started with these fixtures:-

Last season:
Chelsea (H) Lost = 0 pts
Man City (A) Drew  = 1 pt
Swansea (H) Drew  = 1 pt
Everton (A) Lost  = 0 pts
C.Palace (H) Lost  = 0 pts
Leicester (A) Lost  = 0 pts
Spurs (H) Lost = 0 pts
Burnley (A) Drew  = 1 pt
Liverpool (H) Lost  = 0 pts
Total = 3 pts

This season:
Chelsea (H) Lost = 0 pts
Man City (A) Lost = 0 pts
Cardiff (H) Drew  = 1 pt
Everton (A) Drew  = 1 pt
C.Palace (H) Lost  = 0 pts
Leicester (A) Lost  = 0 pts
Spurs (H) Lost = 0 pts
Burnley (A) Drew  = 1 pt
Liverpool (H) Lost  = 0 pts
Total = 3 pts

So what do we deduce from these amazing stats? Bugger all! Totally meaningless, but it does just give us another reason to believe we can win on Saturday if this pattern is to continue.

So what of team news? Town will still be without Terence Kongolo, Tommy Smith and Danny Williams, whilst Ramadan Sobhi has returned to training, he's unlikely to make the team yet.
Watford have doubts about Troy Deeney, Nathaniel Chalobah and Sebastien Prödl.

Tickets: It's a sell out!

A brief history of Watford FC: formed in 1898 when two clubs merged. They were Watford St. Mary's and West Hertfordshire Sports Club, who had earlier been known as Watford Rovers. They joined the Football League in 1921 with the introduction of the Third Division and stayed there, in Division 3 (South), until the introduction of the Fourth Division in 1958.

They were only in Division 4 for one season though as they won their first ever promotion. They then followed that with their highest league position to date, 3rd in the 3rd division, under the management of former Town captain, Bill McGarry. This was bettered in 1969 when they won the 3rd division title and got promoted to the 2nd division for the first time. This lasted until 1972 when they dropped back down again. And then in 1975 they were relegated back down to the 4th division.

Things were about to get better though for Watford. Firstly millionaire pop star and lifelong supporter Elton John became chairman and made Graham Taylor the manager. Not only did they win the 4th division title in 1978, but they followed that up with another promotion and then in 1982 made it all the way to the First Division. They finished that first season in the top league as runners up to Liverpool, meaning that in just 7 years they had gone from bottom of the Football League to the very (almost) top.

They made it to the FA Cup Final in 1984, but lost 0-1 to Everton. And inevitably in 1986 Taylor left to join a bigger club, Aston Villa, and Watford got relegated. He returned in 1997, but the club were by now back down in the 3rd tier. He waved his magic wand again and promotions came and by the start of the 1999/2000 season they were playing in the new Premier League for the first time.

The magic ran out though and they finished bottom of the table in that first season back at the top and Taylor retired. It got worse. They went into administration following the ITV Digital collapse, but managed to stave off relegation.

They weren't on a downer for long as in 2006, under the management of ex Town full back Aidy Boothroyd, they won promotion back to the Premier League by beating the mighty Leeds Utd 3-0 in the Play Off Final. But again, it was straight back down as the wooden spoonists. They did reach the Play Offs again but failed in 2008 (lost to Hull City 1-6 agg), and 2013 when they lost to Crystal Palace 0-1 in the final.

They did eventually win promotion as runners up to Bournemouth in 2015 and this time they managed to stay up and are now in their 4th consecutive season at football's top table.

Head to Head



Town lead in the overall head to head with 14 wins to Watford's 9, with 5 draws.

Well the meetings down at Vicarage Road have been high scoring affairs in recent years. The last 4 have ended up with one of the two sides scoring four goals. Last time, of course, it was us when we beat the Hornets 4-1 in a feisty match just before Christmas last year.
Elias Kachunga put us ahead early on, before Aaron Mooy made it two, just a couple of minutes after Kachunga had been carried off with a serious injury. The ref soon sorted out Watford's rough house tactics though. Big Collin Quaner was lucky not to join Kachunga in the medical room when Troy Deeney went clattering through the back of him and received a straight red card.
Into the second half and it was the brilliant Belgian Laurent Depoitre who made it three, following some good work by Quaner and some really pathetic defending from José Cholevas. Some pathetic play acting as well saw Jonathan Hogg get a second yellow and he had to go. And then suddenly Watford were back in it with the goal of the game coming from Abdoulaye Doucoure. But the comeback never materialised and Town made it 4 when Mooy slotted home a late penalty.
Later in the season we had a famous win at home, with Tom Ince netting in the 90th minute.

But back to Watford's Vicarage Road and the 4 goals story. In 2014/15 it was they who got 4 this time, beating us 4-2. But the season before, in the last game of the season, it was us again, winning 4-1. The lively Joe Lolley gave us the lead in the first minute of the second half, but then it became the Danny Ward show. He was out of contract and this was likely to be his last Town outing when he came on for the injured Nahki Wells. He scored a hat trick, and won himself a new contract as we completely outplayed the home team, who didn't score until they got a dodgy penalty in injury time.

And the season before that, it was 4-0 to Watford. But earlier in the season it was our first coming together with the notorious cheat, Fernando Forestieri. To be fair to him, he was easily the man of the match, but just a few minutes after Alan Lee had equalised to make it 2-2, (Oliver Norwood had earlier given us a first half lead), Foresty Fairy jinked his way into the penalty area and did the most outrageous dive that the referee unbelievably gave as a penalty, to the fury of us all who saw it. Deeney slotted home the resulting spot kick and the Hornets won 3-2. Karma came back to bite Cheaty McCheatface on the arse though, five years later on a wonderful night at Hillsborough.
That game had been the first meeting of the two clubs for eleven years. Town won down there 2-1 (Peter Ndlovu and Delroy Facey), but Watford won 2-1 at ours.

We only had one meeting in the 1980s. That was in the League Cup when Watford were one of the top teams in the country, under the management of Graham Taylor. We had just returned to the 2nd division after years of lower league misery. It was a 2 legged match in which we managed to draw 2-2 at Leeds Road with our goals coming from David Cowling and an own goal from Ian Bolton. Footballing legend John Barnes scored one of theirs, an absolute beauty as I remember. But at the 2nd leg, it was us who came out on top and it was both the centre backs, David Sutton and Paul Jones, who got the goals in a 2-1 win, to give us a 4-3 aggregate victory.

Our first ever meetings came in 1969/70. This is so late in the history of both clubs because for years we had been in completely different ends of the Football League, but Watford had come up to the 2nd division and earned a 1-1 draw at their place in September, with full back Dennis Clarke getting a rare goal for us. The next match was the last game of the season and seeing as we had just secured the Division Two Champions title, Watford gave us a Guard of Honour as our brave lads ran out on to the pitch at Leeds Road. And it was a fittingly brilliant performance as Town won 3-1 in front of 27,916 spectators, with goals from Dick Krzywicki (2) and Jimmy Lawson. Happy Days!

So what's happening down Yellow Brick Road?  Managed nowadays by Javi Gracia, who had coached in Spain, Greece and Russia before landing this job. He was appointed in January following the dismissal of Marco Silva, on an 18 month contract.

Club Connections:- Jonathan Hogg of the current Town squad played for Watford. He started his career at Aston Villa, making 5 Premier League appearances and one Europa League match. These coming after making his Football League debut whilst out on loan at Darlington and actually scoring in the match, a 5-2 defeat away at Chesterfield.
After another loan spell away from Villa Park, down at Portsmouth, he then signed for Watford, playing two seasons for them without adding any more goals to his account, before signing for us in 2013. Since then he has been prolific in front of goal scoring twice in 169 appearances for us. His first one was when an Oliver Norwood shot hit him and deflected past the keeper, Ben Hamer, in a League Cup match against Charlton. The second one though was a last minute belter in a tense early season game against Barnsley, which kind of set the tone for our Championship promotion season of somehow getting across the line to win, something the like of what we need to recapture.

Barry Endean, started out as an Everton youth, but when they released him he left the professional game for six years, becoming a welder. He was spotted playing pub football by a Watford scout and signed for them in 1968 and was top scorer in their promotion season the next year. He also helped them reach the FA cup semi finals, scoring the winning goal against Liverpool in the quarters.
He then played for Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers, again being a prolific goalscorer, before signing for us in 1975. However, we were in the middle of our tragic slide to the 4th division and he only scored once in 12 matches in his Leeds Road career and left soon afterwards for Workington.

Rob Page: came to us from Coventry, signed by Andy Ritchie in January 2008 and was an instant hit with the fans. He made his debut at Oldham in the FA Cup, a win that took us for a big match down south at Stamford Bridge in the next round. His first four games were all won and with clean sheets, but eventually the results went against us and Ritchie got the boot, to be replaced until the end of the season by Gerry Murphy. Page was made club captain and we went on another run of good results. He was the linchpin of a defence that kept five clean sheets in the last five games of the season, including a famous home win over the Champions of Europe, who strangely were playing in League One at the time, the game where Andy Holdsworth scored the goal.
So all was looking good going into the summer, until the board appointed Stan Ternent as manager and he told Page he wasn't wanted! Our loss was Chesterfield's gain.
Earlier in his career though, he had nine seasons in Watford's first team, one of which was in the Premier League. He made his debut in 1993, but in the late 90s as captain under Graham Taylor, he helped the Hornets get promoted twice, from the depths of League 1 to the Premier League. That second promotion came via a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers in the Play Off Final. Although they got relegated after just one season, Page was the Player of the Season. He eventually left for Sheffield Utd, playing for Neil Warnock, making the Play Off Final again, but this time getting beat by Wolves.
Added to all this, he played 41 times for Wales, once as captain.

Andy Rankin was Watford's Player of the Season twice in the 1970s. In fact he was their first ever winner of the award in 1973, which was also his first season there following his transfer from Everton.
He played in goal 299 times for the Hornets, helping them to two promotions, before joining Town halfway through the all conquering 1979/80 4th Division Championship winning season. He was already a veteran by this stage, 36 years old, and had the experience that Mick Buxton was looking for to stand in for, and eventually replace the popular Alan Starling. He kept seven clean sheets in a row towards the back end of that season and although the team will always be remembered for the century of league goals, we cannot forget the contributions of Starling and Rankin at the other end.
He was the regular keeper for the next couple of seasons, but retired in 1982 to be replaced by Brian Cox.

Iwan Roberts began his career at First Division Watford in the 1985/86 season. He stayed there for five seasons, in which time they were relegated to the second division. He scored 9 goals in his time there and it must've felt like another relegation for him when he was sold to 3rd division Huddersfield Town in 1990. It was a club record for us, spending all of the £275,000 we had just received for the sale of Craig Maskell.
He was top scorer in his first three seasons at Leeds Road, the second of which he managed to bag a total of 34 goals in all competitions as we got to the Play Offs, getting knocked out in the semis. His fourth season though saw the emergence of another club legend Andy Booth and Iwan was allowed to leave in another big money move to Leicester City, who he would help get promoted to the Premier League. With a fraction of the money received, manager Neil Warnock bought Ronnie Jepson and the next great strike partnership was born as Iwan went on to become a legend out in East Anglia with Norwich City.

Lee Sinnott had four seasons in the top flight with Watford and played in the 1984 FA Cup final for them against Everton, before letting his career stagnate for 4 years at Bradford City. Neil Warnock saved him from oblivion by signing him for Town, where he captained the side to Play Off glory at Wembley in 1995. After two seasons with us, Warnock let him go to Oldham.

Recent form: Town are 19th in the Premier League with 3 points, Watford are 7th with 16 points.

Last 6 matches:

Everton 1-1 Town (Billing)
Town 0-1 Crystal Palace
Leicester 3-1 Town (Zanka)
Town 0-2 Spurs
Burnley 1-1 Town (Schindler)
Town 0-1 Liverpool

Watford 1-2 Man Utd (Gray)
Fulham 1-1 Watford (Gray)
Spurs 2-2 Watford (League Cup) (Success, Capoue) (lost on pens)
Arsenal 2-0 Watford
Watford 0-4 Bournemouth
Wolves 0-2 Watford (Capoue, Pereyra)


Watford's line up at Wolverhampton last week:
26 Ben Foster - ex Baggies keeper, played 8 times for England.
21 Kiko Femenía - Spanish right back, in his 2nd season at the Vicarage.
6 Adrian Mariappa - Jamaican defender in his 2nd spell at the club after being at Reading and Palace.
15 Craig Cathcart - Northern Ireland international centre back.
11 Adam Masina - Italian defender who was born in Morocco.
16 Abdoulaye Doucouré - French midfielder who scored a belter against us last year.
29 Étienne Capoue - French midfielder signed from Spurs.
19 Will Hughes - cheating little shit.
37 Roberto Pereyra - attacking midfielder from Argentina.
7 Gerard Deulofeu - ex Everton striker from Spain.
10 Isaac Success - striker from Nigeria.

Substitutes:
1 Heurelho Gomes - Brazilian international keeper signed from Spurs.
5 Sebastian Prödl - Austrian international defender.
12 Ken Sema - Swedish international signed in the summer.
18 Andre Gray - ex Shrewsbury, Telford and Luton striker.
20 Domingos Quina - 18 year old came from the Chelsea academy via West Ham.
23 Marc Navarro - Spanish defender.
24 Ben Wilmot - 18 year old defender signed from Stevenage in the summer.

[theo_luddite]

Got a ticket for a seat, but I'm still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah! Won't see a bloody thing otherwise as everyone else will be too.

---

Nice one Snoots

[jjamez]

Need to start picking up points asap, be nice to go with a more attacking lineup this weekend, however they are not doing too bad, although they seem to go one of two ways, either out play and beat you well and good or get well and truly beaten

[theo_luddite]

According to Carol and her, erm warm front's, on the BEEB this morning it will be bloody freezing this weekend.

Time to blow the dust off yer thermals?



or if you prefer, with fully functioning cat-flap

[theo_luddite]

Fer, fer, fer, fer freakin' frosty this morning. Definitely fer, fer, fer, fer fermals weather. Bbbbbrrrrrr!
But the bells will still ring so merrileeee this afternoon.

[ToonTerrier]

Cautiously optimistic about today. They won’t be expecting much from us but we’ve been playing well and could surprise them if we come out attacking. Unless Waggers reverts to the sort of tactics he tried against Cardiff, in which case we’re buggered.

[theo_luddite]

Well the frost has gone from my windscreen, it's snowing as I catch the bus into town. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Just a mini flurry.

[Lord Snooty]

Good to see Super Coll on the bench.

[jjamez]

Absolutely xxxx abysmal defending on both goals. Inexcusable

[jjamez]

Abysmal.

Interesting to see what wagner says