FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.18: WATFORD AWAY

WATFORD 1 OXFORD UNITED 0

The result was so very familiar. Lost again on our travels. Oxford and Plymouth have the worst away record in the Championship having each picked up just 2 points. We’ve played 7, they’ve played 8. The only draws we’ve managed were at Pompey and Luton, teams below us in the table. Only one of our defeats has been by more than one goal. That was inflicted by Sunderland who are still top of the league.
Watford have the joint best home record along with Sheffield United: won 6, drawn 1, no defeats. So we came away from Vicarage Road in no way disgraced. That was more than evidenced by the appreciative volume of noise coming from our fans after the final whistle. They’d given absolutely tremendous backing throughout. Much louder on Sky than the home fans apparently. It’s hard to tell when you’re actually in the ground. This was Watford’s second highest gate of the season and was only 67 less than for Sunderland’s visit. We sold out our allocation but I can’t find the official figure as it doesn’t seem to be published anywhere. It’s not in Martin Brodetsky’s match report on the official site. It usually is so I assume Watford have not provided it.

There are worse grounds around than Watford’s but it has to be somewhat lacking by Premier League standards. They were last at that level in 2021/22 and have spent 60% of the time over the last ten seasons in the top flight. Presumably they have the ambition and expectation that’ll soon return. Oh, and like at the Kassam, there was a dead pigeon for decorative effect.

I was told that no beer was being served in the away section. That doesn’t bother me personally but partaking of a pint or two once inside is very much a part of the match day experience for some. The gangways from concourse to the stand are way too narrow. If a speedy evacuation were ever to be required it could be problematic.

To get in there was quite a long queue but to be fair it did move reasonably quickly. Probably the most stewards I’ve seen at a ground for a while. Almost everyone was being searched. I’ve got no problem with that. “What’s that?” a youngster said as he felt my pockets. “An old type of camera” I replied. Why I said that I don’t know. It was a Panasonic digital camera not something George Eastman had produced in the late 1800s. When I showed it to him I got the impression that he’d never seen such a thing. I know mobile phones have top quality cameras on them but I’m hopeless trying to use them. He must have thought what an old twat.

Another steward, a burly shaven headed one, gave me a talking to whilst I was queuing because I’d voiced an opinion about people queue jumping. He told me that I didn’t know what the situation was and mentioned possible disability. Fair enough. I went into grumpy old man mode and said people were always pushing in. His last words to me were that if he’d been stood where I was he would have said exactly the same as I did.

I got the impression a fair few of our lot were getting a bit frustrated with what they had to go through to get in and this might actually have helped the support to be as boisterous as it was.

As is the case with many clubs in the Championship we’ve not played them for many years. Our last visit to Watford was 26 years ago. Was that the season we were in the ground before they called the game off because the pitch was frozen and then when it was rescheduled the floodlights failed? None of that seems so long ago. That age old question, where does the time go?

Not having been there for such a long time we didn’t really know our way around. Where best to park? What are the best pubs to use?

We found the recommended car park with no problem. A quid an hour or seven quid for 24 hours. In the dark and with no cards accepted at the meters this turned into a bit of a cock up. Although I think we’d been done with it being privately operated, the risk of getting a £100 fine was too high to take. The plan was to use an app to pay for the extra time needed later. Except the app refused to play ball.

Sat in the White Lion logic kicked in. We needed to get enough pound coins together to start again and pop back to the car park en route to the ground. When a mate and his son joined us in the pub we got the required coins together.

Not a great start to the evening as we’d almost paid double for the parking and the beer in the White Lion wasn’t the best although the Harvey’s was a great improvement on the first pint.

The only other pub we visited was the Mad Squirrel. It was vibrant. Packed with fans of both clubs. It’s anything but your traditional pub. Open plan, modern, very well-lit and with lots of Mad Squirrel’s (expensive) craft ales available. There were though three hand pumps serving real ale at under a fiver a pint and with allegedly a 5% CAMRA discount. Top notch it was too.

Watford has just one pub in the Good Beer Guide, The Two Trees micro pub. It is in Vicarage Road and less than a five minute walk to the ground. My nephew, who lives in the town, told me it is “the size of a bathroom” so I never put it on the itinerary. Walking past it clearly wasn’t huge but much bigger than my bathroom and the queues for an ale were no longer than in the Mad Squirrel – and there was a drinking area outside.

Next time perhaps? But when will next time be? The Hornets are currently in the final play-off place but most bookies are offering odds as long as 16/1 on them going up. They’re usually right. So if we stay up we’ll likely be back quite soon.

Staying up? If we don’t start picking up more points on our travels than we have been doing we won’t stay up. All this putting up a good show and only going down by the finest of margins is all well and good but a 1-0 defeat brings in the same number of points as a 5-0 hammering. None. This is not intended as a criticism but facts are facts. And they’re harsh.

And again proud as we were in our team’s efforts I don’t think there’s any denying that Watford were better than us. I think they’re a very good outfit. Well at home they seem to be although Leeds, Sheffield United and Burnley are yet to visit.

In League One there was obviously unbelievable tension at the end of last season but not the pressure in each and every league fixture as feels to be the case now. It feels so much more intense than it did a year ago. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be in a position to enter any fixture feeling relaxed. Oh to be safe from the drop with a few games to go. The likelihood of that being the case is very low I think. And on what I’ve witnessed thus far the same can be said of just about each and every 90 minutes. On edge drawing, holding on to a one goal lead or trying to pull that regular single goal deficit back. Two down at Luton we weren’t out of it. Oh to be three or four goals clear in a game when we can then just chill and enjoy in the stands. Can’t see that happening either, looking at the teams we’ll be facing.

Watford provide their fans with entertainment. They attacked from the off, looking much more dangerous than us. I though Giorgi Chakvetadze looked pretty impressive with his direct running. We though were organised and determined. Combative when we didn’t have the ball. Mistakes that had been very evident recently were largely absent. Jamie Cumming though did play a very poor ball out which could have cost us but such is the measure of the man he redeemed himself.

And we did have chances. Peter Kioso, having played a one-two with Ruben Rodrigues, put the ball just across the goal and wide. Dane Scarlett slid in and wasn’t that far away from making a connection. It was one of those that was neither quite a shot nor pass whether one had been intended or not. Playing either perfectly would have resulted in a goal.

The home side came out for the second half with even more attacking intent. If we’d been second best in the first half it was by the tiniest of margins. Now that margin was growing.

They cut through us in the blink of an eye from back to front, Festy Ebosele getting the better of Kioso. The Watford striker couldn’t finish but should not really have been put off by the chasing Kioso’s arm on his shoulder. “Not enough in that” as the saying goes. Probably about a quarter of a foul but it was a warning sign.

Less than ten minutes after the interval we went behind. Rodrigues picked up the ball in midfield and his pass to Will Vaulks was moved on immediately. The recipient was Scarlett who made a good turn. This looked promising. The ball needed moving quickly. That’s when we look more potent. Same goes for every team at this level. Greg Leigh had made ground down the left and had plenty of space in front of him. At the time I was really critical of Scarlett for not immediately feeding our no. 22 but having watched a replay that route may have been partially blocked by Tyler Goodrham’s positioning for a second or so. When the pass did come not only was it too late it was inaccurate. Easily cut out and passed with proper accuracy to Kwadwo Baah on the halfway line. He went past Ciaron Brown. Neither Sam Long nor Elliott Moore, who were around, marked the scorer Vakoun Bayo. Chakvetadze was also unmarked. Cumming made a superb save from Bayo’s first time connection of Baah’s pinpoint square ball. Our keeper nearly did the same with the follow up effort but not quite. He didn’t deserve to concede.

One misplaced pass nowhere near our goal allied with one instance where our normally reliable defenders weren’t quite on it and we were undone. That’s all it takes at this level. Are other teams making similar errors? Because we’re not scoring goals like this.

I think the commentators on the “extended highlights” have it right in every regard. “It’s been coming since the first whistle of the second half.” “It’s the first time really that Oxford have been stretched.” “It came from giving the ball away cheaply.”

If only Scarlett was as good outside the opponents penalty area as he is in it he’d be some player. He’d also look a better player if there were more touches involved in the penalty area. As a team we only had 12. Watford had 31.

Following this there was more Watford pressure to deal with and there was a handball shout against Kioso.

It wasn’t just one end where there were shots on goal though. The final count was Watford 17 with 8 on target and us 10 with 3 on target. They had more possession too, 60.4%, and were more accurate in their passing than we were. 82% of their passes were completed. We managed 71%. Although stats can lie here I think they are a reflection of Watford being that bit better than we were.

But we weren’t that far away from scoring. We had another couple of times when it was a case of “if only.”
Hidde ter Avest pounced on a loose ball after we’d played our best football of the half when the Watford defence couldn’t get it away. He tried to finish in similar fashion to his winner against Hull. If he’d leaned left and given it some real welly with his instep (I think that’s the correct technical term for the top of the foot) much more chance of a goal imho. But decisions on how to strike a ball have to be made in a split second and who am I to question such intricate detail? I will again note the commentator: “It’s easier to score than miss. He plays it right into the goalkeeper’s hands”. Fine margins but it’s not luck. We’re just that bit behind in what we have at the moment in coming out on top in these situations.

Mark Harris was found on the right by Sam Long. The Welshman had no team mates in close support but three opponents not far away. His control wasn’t bad and his effort on goal didn’t look too bad either. It had Daniel Bachmann scrambling to make the save but a top Championship strike would have put some elevation on the ball and likely have scored. Again not bad but not good enough for where we are in 2024/25.

Fair play to our lads. As the game reached its final stages we gave it a real go. With shirt pulling by both players, Goodrham rightly won a free-kick just outside the penalty area close to the bye line. A few more inches and it would have been a penalty. Fine margins again. But it wasn’t a penalty.

What followed was Harris putting it over the bar with an over-head attempt. A difficult chance yes, but he toed it over, if he’d let it drop an inch or two further and struck it with his instep it would very likely have been a goal. (Instep – not a word you’ll hear very often. Never used it in a FV before now and I’ve done so twice here. What’s going on?). Back to those margins and that little bit of extra class, composure or whatever it may be. We don’t seem to have it. If we were to find it life would be so much more relaxed.

Although we were quite close to sneaking a point we mustn’t forget that Cumming needed to make a few decent saves to keep us in it. He’s been key to ensuring that we remain in games when we’ve been outplayed to whatever extent.

So going into the international break we’re 16th but that’s only two points better off than Cardiff who occupy 22nd. Twelve clubs are covered by four points. Tight, tight, tight.

I’m forever on the lookout and the signs pointing towards three teams being worse than us points wise at the end of the season. For relegation the bookies currently have Pompey at 8/15, Plymouth at 4/6 and QPR at 11/10. There’s your three. I wish. Actually any three will do but I expect every club to have at least a half decent run at some stage of the season. Even QPR who do seem a bit crap at present. They’re seven points worse off than us.

Should Sheffield Wednesday be thrown into the equation with some gusto? They’ve only got one more point than us but have recently failed to pay an HMRC bill which has put them under a transfer embargo. Apparently there were/are cash flow issues at the club due to delayed payments owed to chairman Dejphon Chansiri. If Chansiri stops putting money in to fund the inevitable losses which the Championship brings they could be in big trouble.

We now have a weekend of relaxation with no game. I’ll take that. Can’t be a bad thing. The more time that passes the likelier it is that our many injured personnel will be restored to good health. The other side of the coin being that players returning from international duty might be crocked.

Saturday November 23 will be here before we know it. Middlesbrough at home a three o’clock kick-off. Now there’s a novelty. Bookies have them at 4/7. I’d say at 17/4 we’re much better value than that.