My team would be: Bond Thompson ??? (Taylor if fit) Mariappa (to cup tie him) Doyley Whichelow Eustace Murray Forsyth Sordell (to cup tie him) Roll a dice to pick the other striker
NNW - I doubt that Taylor will be fit, so - keep Hodson and have Thompson partner AM? Midfield looks ok. Have Garner partner Sordell up front - what we lose in height should be covered by Forsyth. 3-0 coming up
Good Win for us, albeit 2-0 to Portsmouth was a flaterring scoreline if the stats reflected the match. Loach sending off was a harsh decision. Best of Luck for the rest of the season Watford Fans
Re suspensions: I thought straight red was 3 games which rules Loach out of Bradford, Reading (home) and Birmingham (away) or a replay at Bradford. From yesterday, isn't it 10 yellows now before a ban? The last few games they've shown on Sky they've referred to it. I thought it would apply to FL as well as PL. If I'm right, then Dicko is OK.
I'd go with that BB. Mirfin is always an option I suppose. Barry, I thought 3 games was only for violent conduct?
Not sure on the straight red Barry I thought the ban was just 1 , as for the yellows I think (hope) your right!
No I dont think it was flattering from the twitter feed recieved from several at the game ! Pompey deserved the win! Best of luck to you too!
But on live text it says he was sent off for deliberate handball. So they are as clueless as we are. We can only wait to see the highlights and what the club say.
To be kind, the highlights are inconclusive! Can see why handball was given, but there certainly was a push although it's hard to say if the push had enough force to knock him off balance. If were up to me, I wouldn't be appealing the decision.
Looked like deliberate handball outside the area to me - didn't see it as a foul on Futacs to be honest.
They targetted Hodson coz they had about a foot advantage...he was a complete short ass today! Not a lot better... I did not understand this substitution at all! Apparently he wasn't at fault, but we'll have to wait and see the replay to decide. He didn't seem to argue it much. Loach took a flying leap, after that, i think it sounds like he was fouled. Whether he handled the ball or not i don't know, it was up the other end, but lots of people seem to think it was a very harsh red. Maybe though, for the Loach haters, it's a blessing in disguise...personally, i think he had his best game of the season today...very very annoying. So, truth be told, we were a bit rubbish today. The only one who seemed to be having a good game was Deeney, and for some reason he was taken off. Marv wasn't awake, Iwelumo?? Well, nuff said. Yeates didn't have a great game, the crosses were wild, the corners were bad...even Kightly and Hogg had a bad day. Dickinson made a couple of bad errors and got jeered by the Pompey fans for the rest of the game. Truthfully, we didn't deserve to win, but the ref was definitely playing home advantage today. Not just with the Loach decision, but i haven't seen the stats, but i imagine they were probably about 5 to 1 when it comes to free kicks, if not more. Nothing worse than an inconsistent ref. Their first goal was very bad defending on our part....great defence of the first corner, and then we fell asleep when they took the second quickly. Silly error. However, the 1190 Watford fans were very loud today, we were fab (even if i say so myself lol). I don't get why their GK was MotM...he honestly didn't have too much to do! And...Jonathan Bond did seem to feel quite comfy when he came on...it'll be interesting to see how he copes with Loach on a ban. (i thought it was a 3 match ban but i could be wrong). Oh yes, and Buaben did have a better game, but still he has moments of genius...and then schoolboy moments..but he's young, it's early days.
I think you're wrong about Iwelumo. I went with a guy who used to go every week for 30 years, but has had other committments, and only goes rarely the last couple of years. He had not seen CI this season, and with no preconceptions, commented about several nice knockdowns and wondering why there was noone on the end of them. On another note, don't know if it's been mentioned before, but what a complete arsing shambles Fratton Park is. 35 minute queue for tickets; would have missed the kick off if not for the minutes silence; a tiny refreshments window that ran out of food. Shameful.
Pompey looked like they wanted the ball more and caused us real problems out wide with 2 international wingers whilst we had Mark Yeates... Loach's red card looked harsh but their 1st goal was poor play by us falling asleep at a quick corner. Shame because we had a decent number in support. Even Marvin and Hogg were off form.
H - from the highlights it certainly looks like Loach handled the ball - Jon Marks said as much on 3CR too. Jon also reckoned that Deeney was a bit out of sorts today, not his usual effective self - mentioned that a few times throughout the game. As for CI - well, I would have preferred to see Garner come on - really don't know why he is out of favour.
