Blast From The Past -Watford

[terrierdaz]

Posted By Terrierdaz on behalf of Owd Jim




Town’s opponents-Watford

Record is:

League	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD
Home	11	6	1	4	18	13	5
Away	11	4	3	4	12	14	-2
Total	22	10	4	8	30	27	3
League Cup
Home	1	1	0	0	2	1	1
Away	1	0	1	0	2	2	0
Total	2	1	1	0	4	3	1

Gates have been:

League	Best	Worst	Average
Home	1969/70=27,916	1975/76= 3,787	10,869
Away	1969/70=17,548	1974/75= 4,345	9,044
League Cup
Home	1983/84=10,631		10,631
Away	1983/84=13,006		13,006

The Hornets were formed in 1881, 27 years before Town, but our paths have crossed only rarely in all that time. There has been only one Cup tie, in the League Cup in 1983/84 in Round 2 which was a home and away affair. On 4th October Town won at Leeds Road 2-1 thanks to goals from Cowling and IR Bolton (og). The return match on the 25th finished 2-2 with Sutton and Jones scoring for Town. They lost to Stoke City in Round 3 with an away draw 0-0 but a 0-2 home defeat in the Replay.

League games began in the promotion year of 1969/70 in Division 2 and then a 5 year series from 193/74 through 1977/78 in both Division 3 and Division 4. All the remaining games have come in Division 2 (old money), in 1995/96, 1998/99 and 2000/01 but both games came in the last century, so this will the first game in the 21st Century.

Strangely we have often met either early in the season or late in the season. In 1969/70 Town went to the Hornets on 17th September and drew 1-1 thanks to full back Dennis Clarke in front of the biggest away gate of 17548. The return fixture was on the last day, 14th April, in front of the best home gate of 27,916 when Kryzwicki(2) and Lawson scored in a 3-1 win. Town had already won the championship so it was a nothing game for Town and Watford was safe as the Addicks had a vastly inferior goal difference and were already doomed.

We next met in the early middle of The Great Slide, in Division 3 in 1973/74 when Town finished 10th and Watford 7th. The away match was on opening day, 25th August watched by the worst away gate of only 4,345, Hoy scored in a 1-1 draw. The return match in mid January ended in a 1-2 defeat with Gowling netting for Town. The next season saw Town end up 24th 5 points below 23rd place which happened to be Watford. The home game was in fact the second hone fixture and ended up 3-1 to Town (Chapman, Hoy and Dolan). Town lost the return match on the last day of February 0-1 at Watford. In Division 4 in 1975/76 Town actually won its first of two “doubles” so far, 2-0 at Watford in the first away game of the season and 1-0 at Leeds road in the penultimate game of the season before the worst gate ever between the sides, a miserable 3,787. For the record Goldthorpe scored the winner. The next two seasons resulted in 0-2 away losses and 2-2 draw (Johnson 2 (1P)) and 1-0 (Gray). Watford went up as Champions in 1977/78 11 points clear of second place.

The next league meetings came in 1995/96 with Ronnie Jepson scoring the only goal in a 1-0 first home game of the season and in mid January Bullock scored at Watford in another 1-0 win earning Town’s second “double”. Watford was relegated in 23rd place.

In 1998/99 Watford won promotion in 5th place but not before Stewart and Alliosn scored in a 2-0 home win in mid September and Beech scored in the 1-1 draw in mid February. Just at the end of the last century came the final games to date after Watford’s brief flirtation with the big time had ended in May 2000. An opening day loss came town’s way at the MacGalphSmith Stadium 1-2 and Watford had to score for us through a Palmer SL (og). A pre Christmas, 23rd December 2-1 win away avenged that defeat thanks to Ndlovu and Facey but did not save Town from that cruel final day relegation with the 1-2 home defeat by Brum.

We next met in 2012/13 when Town returned to Division 2. A lack lustre effort by the home side saw the Hornets win 3-2. Norwood saw Town ahead at the half but Watford then led 2-1. Alan Lee equalised almost immediately but a late penalty sank Town, it was a fair result. 19th January saw the return game at vicarage road, Town played well in the first half but were hurt by an injury time penalty to trail 0-1 at half time. The second half saw the usual gutless, passionless, rubbish Two nfans are familiar with and the Hornets ran out easy 4-0 winners which meant 12 games without a win and in a relegation dogfight.

In 2013/14 Watford came to Town and played very well basically outplaying the home side for long periods, but Town scored first through Ward. The lead lasted only one minute because of an error and then a second slip late on by Smithies saw Town trail 1-2 at the break. This stood up as the result as Town could find no way through in the second half. After a dismal second half season Town ended up at Watford on the final day and turned in a great performance. Joe Lolley made his first start and scored in the first 30 seconds of the second half. Wells had had to go off after half an hour and Ward replaced him to score a magnificent second half hat-trick. A last minute penalty ruined the clean sheet but it was a great 4-1 to end the season on a high note. The question was, why could Town not have done this throughout the second half of the season?

Watford currently lie second in Division 2 with wins, Home to Bolton 3-0, away to Rotherham 2-0 and home to Leeds 4-1. The second game was a loss at Norwich 0-3. Goals appear easy to come by for the Hornets and it will be a vastly different game than the nothing match to end last season. Still town has a reasonable record at Vicarage Road 4-3-4 12-14. My main concern is the apparent lack of fitness among the players with so many already sidelined by injuries. Lillis seems to have got the players believing in themselves, although the wheels came off on Tuesday, but then Watford lost at home 1-2 to Doncaster so who knows. I find it impossible to come up with reasonable forecasts so far. With new midfielders and defenders I’ll stick my neck way out and suggest a 1-1 draw.