Match Thread: Watford v bristol City

Thanks to the City fans, you have been good. I cannot see either of our two sides being in trouble come the end of the season.

 

Craig Beattie says that the team are very disappointed not to have got all three points. He rates Big Chris as do others, yet as soon as you read the WO they want him out. This is confusing if you cannot see what he is doing.

 

Big Chris wins just about everything in the air, but he is slow and not very graceful. There is not enough understanding between the front line though. I think a lot of people miss the point of CI - generally the ones who have to have a player to moan at. Deeney and Hodson last season, Iwelumo and (soon) Beattie this.

 

Not a great result after being 2-0 up, but we seem to have these stupid errors/wierd own goals just about every season so we're kind of used to it. Respect to the City fans on here, decent bunch.

 

Wait, people moaning about Beattie? He scored, created a couple of chances and generally looked okay.

I guess the no. 1 rule of being a Watford fan is 'never scroll down to the comments below a Watford Observer article.'

A typical example:

"Watford succumb to third straight league defeat"
124 comments

"Watford continue winning run"
7 comments

 

The first twenty minutes were very muted--neither side showing much quality. But then the excellent goal from Dickinson, following a good lay-off from Kightly, seemed to give us confidence and we looked good going forward. Then another good one , when Yeates' dipping shot deemed to catch James by surprise (he clearly thought it was going over) and Beattie was quick to the rebound--home and dry before half-time. Then Bristol seemed to remember how to play, and scored a good goal at a bad time. (Dyche called it a soft goal, but if we had scored it we would have called it a good one--deep cross ,and the striker over-reaching Dickinson).

What can you say about their second? Complete farce. We had been making back-passes to Loach all evening --this time he took his eye off the ball , the ball went under his foot and into the net. Disbelief in most of the ground, delight in one corner of it. After that it could have gone either way. To be fair Loach did make a couple of good saves after his blunder, and kept his concentration despite the taunts from behind him. At the end Deeney missed a golden chance to win it, with what would have been the last kick of the game. Kightly was our most creative player by a mile, Nosworthy our best defender. We need to maximise our points while these two are on board. Dyche is not out of the woods yet.

 

I suppose its too late but at least Loach has been honest enough to accept his error.

Reckon a draw was fair.

We did get 2 good goals but BC looked quite lively and once again our defence had to be strong.

In midfield Kightly and Hoog were excellent but I though the front 2 were disappointing...Deeney made a positive impact.

 

Well it was a pretty poor game to be honest with a distinct lack of quality. Bauben is proving to be a bit of a liability in midfield, however Hogg is really starting to look the part, Yeates is doing well and Kightly is simply class. I'm sorry but Iwelumo doesn't cut it. He is just too static, has a pretty awful touch and doesn't really hold the ball up that well. Beattie seems to have a bit more about him but how is he STILL lasting only an hour after all this time?

I actually think a lot of the blame for the second goal has to go at the feet of Mariappa. You are taught at a young age not to back pass towards your own net, not only did he do this but he pinged a pretty pacey pass as well which caught Loach out. Yes it was a little embarrassing for him but the pass was very poor. Can't get too upset with Mariappa though, he's been immense this season.

Still very worried about Dyche's tactics. Bristol City closed us down better than most this season but we still look lump it forward too often and as a result players do not make runs or make themselves available for shorter passes. It makes us look very static indeed.

 

ok the big Chris issue he doesnt win everything in the air , he does the odd nice layoff or flick and that is all you get! Sorry but in the last 2 games he isnt up to scratch , he is so slow and immobile Al would leave him for dead in a sprint !

Scott did well at donny but dear oh dear tonight!! and it isnt a one off lets not kid ourselves if someone offers 2m then we should take it! harsh i know but that error tonight was so comical i was laughing!

Lee hodson is getting there , i think our dear LD is going to struggle to get back in the team!

Mappy was quality he will be sold soon !

Nyron was immense this evening we will miss him when he goes back!

Yeates (and I know I have slagged him off) but tonight he was very good ,skill effort and intelligence maybe just the pace aspect let him down!

Hogg (again changing my mind ) this lad is a tryer and has great stamina he will come good !

Dicko had a good game , but the brizzle 1st goal he went to sleep on!

the prince was ok in the 1st half but went awol in the second

beattie I thought did well before he ran out of steam!

Troy when he came on was energy personified and lifted the team and was so unlucky not to win us the game with the last kick of the match!


The management wasnt impressed Troy should have been on earlier and might have made a difference
we missed Sordells pace , why did we do so many back passes to the keeper when there were better options !! the freak og imo was rough justice for that!

 

I honestly felt that we were good for 3 points today.....Bristol City had maybe 15-20 minutes where they were the better team but for most of the game I think we had the upper hand and better chances as a whole.

Our two goals were very good strikes, something we usually struggle with....but they weren't out of nowhere. Both came as a result of good build up play....something which I think we were better at. OK, we did lump it up there quite a bit but it worked (when the strikers actually bothered to challenge for it....) and we made some good chances from it. Defending wise.....Nosworthy and Mariappa were solid (bar the backpass howler), and Hodson was very impressive....neither of the three gave Bristol City anything....but again when Bristol did have chances it was from their right.....Dickinson is proving to be a bit of a defensive liability. Sure...Adomah is not easy to mark but this is quite a regular thing.

To tail off the build up play point....Bristol did ok with the ball but our defenders were generally too good.....where as our players were causing all kinds of problems for them....either the final product lacked or we squandered the chance (Deeney .......)

Kightly was class.....he made a few errors but generally he was running their defence ragged and getting into dangerous positions all the time. Shame he missed that shot on the edge of the box, would probably have scored.

As has been said....Buaben was very poor today. Hogg was working his socks off all game and putting in a real shift....but Buaben was always a step behind Bristol and did nothing inspiring at all. I think Eustace should start next game.....frankly I haven't seen too much of Buaben which I like. To add to this.....I agree with Si that Iwelumo shouldn't be playing 90 minutes. I thought that Beattie was more of a threat.....neither are pacey but Iwelumo really is sluggish. Not that he played badly....he did quite well tonight and was winning quite a few balls which helped gain us some quick ground and start an attack.

Tonight was positive for me. At the beginning we were slow to start, but got into the game well and played some decent football. There were parts where we resorted to lumping it up there but that wasn't our entire game.....the diversity in our game can work in our favour. Hope we showed some of the Bristol fans that they are not THAT great, and that we're not so bad afterall. For me....2 points dropped due to a poor, but not so unsurprising mistake involving Loach....

 

Kightly impressed me although if I were to be critical a couple of his crosses were overhit!, but he does give us quality which we are in short supply of ! I hope we can keep him to the end of the season!

 

Have to agree with Harrow about the strikers. Neither shone, but Beattie scored and Iwelumo did what he is being played to do. If that's a bad day them I'm delighted to have the pair of them.

Buaben had a poor game today it has to be said. Unless Stephen McGinn is closer to full fitness than the (lack of) rumours would suggest, Hogg-Eustace is probably going to be given another chance.

Clearly Dyche recognises that Hogg-Eustace hasn't worked, but I don't see that he has much of a choice on Saturday. Prince needs to be treated as a younger player than he is, and should at the very least be given Saturday off so that he can spend ten days with the coaching staff evaluating the ups and downs of his recent performances. I'm struggling to think of the last Watford manager who would have started an untried Murray, Mingoia or Whichelow ahead of his captain, until one of them comes off of the bench and demonstrates that it's not a risk to play them alongside either Eustace or Hogg.

 

I think it would be unfair to be critical of either Beattie or Iwelumo's performances.

Both played well, and did what they were asked to do quite well. Both are limited players but.....we're on a budget here....both still have good qualities which we are exploiting well. Having players like Yeates and Kightly to work with these players in the centre bringing it down works well.

My biggest concern is that Buaben is not up to standard at the moment, Hogg is a reliable and solid defensive midfielder, and Eustace is up and down....the problem with all this being that we are lacking the ability to take the ball through the centre unless Yeates or Kightly cut in.

 

Seems it's catching

Not just for Gary Speed, but also for Private Thomas Lake from Northwood who was killed in Afghanistan last week...

He'd been limping for a while..obviously a problem with his leg somewhere, but he managed to see the game out with it..shame we couldn't capitalise on it.

Definitely two points lost today...such a shame. And although i'm probably alone, i feel very sorry for Loach. Although ultimately the freak goal was his fault, Mariappa didn't help the situation at all, the back pass was very quick, and badly angled...i was kinda hoping there was a bobble somewhere, but something tells me that's wishful thinking! But as has been said...Mariappa has been our player of the season so far so i'm not going to knock him!

I wonder if we're not seeing the finer details of his game. He seems to be very hit and miss from where i sit...he wins 'some' headers, he knocks down occasionally and sometimes it even falls in the right place, his running style leaves a lot to be desired and he's slow, but something must be going right...because he keeps playing 90 minutes..and the other players seem to rate him...

yep..

 

City fans in the pub after were a good bunch as well I would have taken a point before the start so am not too upset !
I do think city were worth a point even if we handed it to them! they used the wings better , there passing was good and slick , good job for us that their defence needs working on!

 

Our defence had them cornered...sadly the mistake cost us 2 points, but i suppose it's a fair result, even though we should have won! It really was anyone's game from 2-2.

 

If we hadnt gone to sleep just before half time would have helped as well! as well as one stonewall penalty shout that was waved away!

 

Which SD mentioned in his post match interview...it was ridiculous! TD spent the next few mins trying to get his shirt tucked in again! lol

 

The one where he was blatantly shoved out the way as well has to be said as usual the officials were on the poor side of rubbish!