Match Day Thread Watford v Sunderland

Needed those points. Hopefully I can be there on Tuesday!

 

Will be an interesting last 8 or 9 games as others seem to have been brought into the dog fight like West Ham. Huge game at St Mary's this evening.

 

That is a massive relief - I did not dare hope for it but am glad to take it

 

Goodness knows how we are 10th..

We played ok till the goal went in then tried to sit back again.

Good job Sunderland are so poor that they didn't take advantage!

 

Great head to far post from Cathcart for the goal - just as well we didn't have to rely on our strikers today.

 

Can we get through a game without getting any injuries?!

Another one today ...

No wonder we have been so disjointed!

 

Just a couple of random thoughts on the game.

23 shots with 10 on target. This seems to be a step forward, but how much was due to Sunderland giving us space as they knew they had to try and win?

Not much was said, but I did see that Holebas didn't like it when he was bundled over, and took a sly kick at the opponent. He really seems to me to have an attitude problem.

Our ref for the day did little wrong and tried to keep the game flowing. As he had been away from the PL for so long a decent performance?

 

I noticed that too - and it didn't escape the commentator on the stream I was watching, probably because he was an ex-Sunderland player though.

I did think we played a lot better than of late & even though we had 23 attempts, thought that we were shot shy on occasions. I do like the way Doucoure is willing to try shooting from anywhere, and usually on target - starting to cement his place?

 

Would like to see how many of the shots on target had any hope of going in. Sometimes a shot leaves the ball trickling goalwards. Other times it is a stinger that even if at the goalie might create a rebound. Guess I'm saying I can't remember 10 oooooooaaaaggghhhhh moments.

Yes glad you mentioned it OFH. I thought he was excellent. Firm but fair. Well done Lee Probert.

 

A couple of minor niggles about Probert's performance but more to do with technical issues than his overall judgement calls which were excellent on the whole from my lofty perch. Apparently we might have had a penalty for a foul on Amrabat in the first half? No complaints though.

 

Not a penalty, it was outside the area but the foul was given against Amrabat for use of him arms.

 

Haven't seen it, got a text message at half time from a pal watching it on a stream.

 

Useful 3 points. Just seen MOTD and we seemed more positive than of late. As usual MOTD focussed on how well their goalie played rather than anything We tried to do. It would be nice to give us a decent bit of analysis, good or bad.

Just back from a ski holiday by the way, it was so hot 15C+ on mountain. Came back with a stinking cold though, no idea where I caught it, not had a cold for 2 years

 

Seen again, it's on the extended highlights. There is an incident inside the box where both were holding and Amrabat rolled him, the defender held on slightly longer but Amrabat didn't go down, just crossed the ball. At the time and even after seeing it again I don't think it was a penalty, it would have been very weak. About 5 mins earlier, same situation but outside the box, the foul was given against Amrabat.

 

Lee Probert was the nearest thing to a homer ref we have had at the Vic in years. I thought Sunderland were unlucky on a few tackles that normally would have been considered fouls.

 

Big goal that one.

Thanks god for those 3 points.

 

It was the first paragraph I 'liked', not the second, Scullion.

 

I would say a better performance, and on another day, could have had 3. Pickford made a number of good saves, and Success should have buried his 1 on 1. Don't like it when we just stop playing when we get the lead though

Thought Doucoure was excellent and my man of the match - but thought Niang and then Britos weren't far behind. When Britos concentrates on defending and stops thinking he is a ball-player, he is much better. Although think it helped after the first 10 minutes of Sunderland closing down and causing a little panic, they got a little lazy and wasn't so intense

Was glad when we brought on Janmaat and pushed Cathcart centrally. Cathcart looked good there, and nice to have a proper RB who will get forward. We didn't need to go defensively against Sunderland - they look very poor and can see why it looks like they will go down.

As for the ref - not the greatest. Thought he missed a bit for both teams really. We had a good shout for a penalty in the second half - their defender was trying to take Okaka's shirt off, but then looked like they had a good shout for a penalty of their own. You can probably see why he hasn't reffed in the Prem for 2 years - game seemed a bit too fast for him, too much going on

At this stage of the season, just glad to get the 3 points - and lets hope for 3 more tomorrow night!

 

I thought the ref let things flow i.e. not like a Prem league ref. much better for the game. it seems to me very unfair in FA cup when a small team comes up against PREM league opposition, they always choose a Prem league ref, and it's quite different refereeing.