United’s latest pre-season friendly ended with a 2-0 defeat at home to Watford this evening. The Hornets took the lead after just six minutes when Danny Webber was allowed too much space on the left, and his cross found the unmarked Bruce Dyer. Alex’s cousin powered his header past the diving Chris Tardif. Seven minutes later the away side doubled its lead. Barry Quinn’s poor back-pass left Tardif in all sorts of trouble, and his attempted clearance rebounded off the pacey Webber who had the simple task of tapping the ball into the empty net. Ten minutes before half-time a Dave Mackay header rebounded off his own crossbar. Watford goalie Alec Chamberlain hardly had anything to do in the first half, but in the second period he had to be alert to save a deflected Tommy Mooney effort as an improved United started to mount some serious pressure. However, it was to no avail and United failed to get the goal that their second-half display arguably deserved.

Tardif played the full 90 minutes in goal, and Mackay also played the full match at right back. In the centre of defence Leo Roget was again given the captain’s armband, and alongside him was Jefferson Louis, preferred to Dave Woozley, who has a slight knock. Roget was pretty solid for the whole game, but Jefferson was too often caught out of position, not marking his man, and with wayward distribution. He still has a lot to learn. Terry Parker played the first half at left back, and ROS Chris Hackett was wide on the right. His pace worried the Watford defence on a few occasions, and his delivery is fast improving. This could well be a productive season for our boy. Quinn, Paul Wanless, and Rob Wolleaston made up the remainder of the midfield up until half-time, with Wanless as the lynchpin, tackling and distributing well. Wolleaston again showed touches of class, but Quinn has a bit to do to get back to the form he showed at the end of last season. Up front Steve Basham and Tommy Mooney started, but never really looked like rekindling the partnership that had worked so well in previous matches. At half-time Matt Robinson replaced Wolleaston, with Parker pushing up to the left-winger position, Mark E’Beyer came on for Quinn, and Bash was replaced by the now recovered Lee Bradbury. This gave United more width and they looked much better than in the first 45 minutes. With quarter of an hour remaining Julian Alsop came on for Mooney, and he proceded to batter Sean Dyche into submission.

The referee was J Farries, who was possibly overly picky, considering it was a friendly match. The attendance was a paltry 1,842.

There wasn’t a huge amount for the few spectators to get excited about. A couple of second-half runs from Chrissy and some good touches from Wanny, Mooney and Bradbury aside. Louis was, unfortunately, the weak link in defence, and he and Mackay were certainly not getting along too well. United won’t come up against players with the pace and off-ball movement of Dyer and Webber too often, which is good news, and players such as Chrissy, Mooney, Bash and Bradbury should have more joy against the less mobile defences of the basement division. There were several useful lessons for Graham Rix here, including the knowledge that with two first-choice central defenders unavailable we’re a tad weak in that position.