compared to the 8,900 fans at QPR i think we did very well! (that's home and away, total btw!) it was a great day out...we didn't expect to win i suppose, so in that respect it didn't disappoint. We certainly have nothing to be ashamed of...just a shame that two of the goals were fairly soft, because 1-0 would have looked very respectable! We definitely miss Fitz Hall and Hogg...but Doyley played really well today...as did Bond...two mentions, but nobody was bad..though i didn't understand the half time substitution of Neuton for Pudil... Great fans, great atmosphere, great day.
Its always hard to swallow a defeat, but if we can play like that against other teams then we will be hard to beat. We created chances, but unfortunately we didnt take them. Forest should have burried that one on one to level things up, and on any other day Deeney would have smashed his chance. But these things happen in the cup. It was a good day out, and I have no voice left and a throat in shreds as a result, but it was well worth it. Its just a shame a few got carried away, one man pissed himself cos he was so drunk, another was kicked out for telling Zola to "punch the wog" and a few fans seem to think that we were appalling.
Great support from the travelling fans.. .I was at the other end and you looked and sounded great.... City were another class .... we only had about 3 decent shots... they could have had 6 or 7 goals if it wasnt for our defence and some glaring chances just going wide etc. Forestieri was the best chance in the first half... but when I looked again on TV the goalie did very well to get down... Shame as it was just after their goal. erm..... Can we sign Tevez pls
Totally agree with Yorkie was hard to keep quiet, thought the fight fight fight chant when ballotelli came on was funny.
Overall it was a great day, shame about the result but I thought we played quite well. Our 3-4-3 was bold and we seemed to have a bit of threat up front, but in defending it was shredded apart with through balls down the channels. The amount of dangerous crosses they put in was worrying, and we were lucky to only concede one goal via a cross. At the end of the day though teams like Man City are a different class. We had our chances, Foresteri in the first half and Deeney in the second. If those went in its a different game. But when you get one sight of goal each half you need to try and take it against a team like City. There were some good performances. For the likes of Bond, Doyley, Nosworty and Eustace to come in without having played for a while, I thought that they did as well as they could. Doyley had to face the likes of Tevez and Silva running at him and he held his own. Nosworthy was the physical prescence we needed in the centre of defence, with a couple of absolutely crunching tackles. In midfield Eustace done well considering he looked a little off of the pace having not played for a while. In goal Bond was quite an assured presence for someone only 19 and coped with the atmosphere a lot better than I thought he would, so plenty of positives. Up front, Vydra and Forestieri showed their class in being able to hold up the ball and produce something with it, even against teams like Man City. Deeney wasnt totally bullied out of the game by Lescott and Kompany and the three of them work well together. Chalobah was a bit hit and miss. His control was excellent in a congested midfield but some of his passes went astray and he got more frustrated than he needed to. But like I said, we acquitted ourselves well against such a strong team. I felt after the game that Premier League teams will come to the Etihad and play worse than we did. With Almunia, Abdi, and a fully match-fit Eustace/Nosworthy I think that game would be a lot closer. Compare yesterdays performance to when we played Chelsea in the FA Cup a couple of years ago and it just shows how much of a better team we are this season. Fantastic support from the Hornets in terms of bringing 6,000. Brilliant to see our section sold out. Credit to City for getting a fairly full stadium with cheap tickets as well. How did we sound compared to the City fans Norway and Yorkie?? Bit hard to tell from where I was right next to the City fans in the Watford end.
http://watford.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=304722 one person's opinion, though i agree mostly..i just think he has it wrong about Bia, i thought he looked quite good when he came on.
I disagree about Pudil. Neither of the goals that were scored whilst he was on the pitch came from the left. One was a (i though good) tackle from Eustace and the other from a cross on the right and Ekstrand was beaten to it. He was double teamed yet put in several good blocks and actually, I though he did better. 7 for me.
i'm guessing he was subbed at half time coz Zola didn't agree with you....i think he found it difficult to cope...
I think a lot of that was a lack of support. Doyley and Cassetti would back each other up. You would see Doyley point where he wanted Cassetti to go, but Ekstrand was often late getting to back him up, or didnt help at all.
he just couldn't cope, he did as well as he could, and as was said by vital, it wasn't a poor performance, he just couldn't achieve what he needed to, and with or without support, he needed to keep that left side covered...he didn't do that very well. They were just too strong for him on the day..
Fully agree H, I thought he looked very good and was calm and composed considering the game he came into.
The Watford fans were VERY loud emiatss... in fact at my end we rarely heard the city fans at all until the first goal...... then they started...... goodl laugh round the ground too when they sang "UNited..... UNited" Well done one and all....
I didn't come away from the game disheartened. It was a real shame about the third goal so late because 2-0 at Man City did not sound so bad, 3-0 does sound a bit of an easy win! Was very surprised to see the team news, but the league is more important, so resting those with knocks was the right thing to do. It was always going to be a lot to ask Nosworthy, Doyley and Eustace to last the game, and be up with the pace of the game, after being out so long, but I think they all did well, particularly Doyley and Nosworthy. I thought Bond did very well - when he came out at the start of the game I was fearing for him, for a 19 year old with limited first team appearances to come out against the English Champions in front of 46,000 people, his heart must have been pounding. The last thing he would have needed was to be on the end of a trouncing but I thought he did very well. There were times in the match when things could have been different. Forrestieri could possibly have been more clinical with his chance, and maybe going near post was the wrong choice, Deeney had a very heavy touch in the second half when he could have been through, but overall Man City did deserve to win and we did spend most of the game in our defensive third of the field. I stayed the night in Manchester and came back last night. Caught up with some recorded MOTD when i got in and saw Man City 3 Stoke 0 in the league last weekend. After it Tony Pulis was interviewed and said the difference between the teams was about £220M. He said to have any chance there Stoke would have had to played their best game of the season and Man cIty would have have had to have an off day. Puts our result into perspective! Does our result give an indication that we are still a long way from being a premiership side? Not really, as teams like Stoke go there, lose 3-0, and don't seem to think it was anything other than expected.
Couldn't really tell how the atmosphere was where I was standing. Had a group of lads in front of me more interested in winding up the Man City fans than watching the game! I can understand the Pudil sub, as a lot of what they were doing was down their right hand side... but Pudil was often double-teamed by Milner and Zabaletta, who my boss has said have both been very good this season - with Zab in most people's team of the season so far! Cassettt was fortunate to have Doyley over that side, so often helped out. Pudil didn't always have that support As for the game itself. I do think we played well, but caught in possession too many times in our own 3rd. It's good we still tried to play our own game, but Man City had doen their homework on us, and closed us down very quickly. Other than that, they were just a class apart... but so they should be with the players they had. We had some very good chances, and if the FF chance had come to Vydra sraight after their goal, I would be confident in saying it would have been 1-1 then! There was no shame in losing 3-0 at the Eithad... and if we can play like some of that game for the rest of the season, I certainly think we can stay around the top 6!
You must have been close to me Kev, the lot you are talking about were about 3 rows behind me and a couple of seats over. Unfortunately I actually knew a couple of them, they're from Hemel and we played in the same team a good few years back. Haven't seen them in years and they haven't changed a bit, basically drunken idiots!!! Annoying when you get fans like that, I don't mind the banter but I went to watch football not muppets in the stands.
They were right in front of me! At one point one of the guys stood on his chair right in front of me (hitting me on the way up - but wasn't worth saying anything)! Just couldn't understand why they were more interested in the City fan's reaction to their songs rather than watching the match!
You do get some Pill@cks eh..... Football certainly attracts them. I cant see the point in coming to a game, getting blind drunk, and then baiting the opposition whilst actually not watching the game you came to "see". I guess it is tribal stuff and in a battle they are the ones you send out to flush out the enemy.... and .. erm... they die first .
I have read elsewhere some scathing comments today about the behaviour of some 'Watford fans' from other Watford fans. It seems that it wasn't the over fuelled teenagers that should be held to blame, but fully grown men. The comments suggested that they are not wanted by regular away fans as they simply create the wrong image for the club.
Hello all For what it's worth I thought our supporters were pretty good and well behaved. There was a group of drunken bums behind me engaged in the usual banter but to be honest it was hilarious most of the time. Any foul language came from the City supporters who, unfortunately for me were just the other side of the stewards and particlary vocal to anything that resembled Watford support. At my age it's not often I get 'offered out' but I took it in good spirit for each of the twenty or so times some nutter in need of a bath screamed at me!! It was really funny when our drunken bums tried the Poznan and then were shown how to do it, priceless from the City fans and they deserved their applause. As for the game, it's as reported with Milner taking us apart and a magnificent free kick from Tevez and shows us where we need to head for, just £300 million short I guess. I did look around for some of you, looked for Hornettes tribe but no luck, spoke with a guy from Yorkshire but not this one and did see two guys that looked like they came from Iceland but was too afraid to ask..... What a drive out of Sports City, never again.
