I had arranged to get away early from work for this match and so at just before 4 p.m. Will and I negotiated the M25 for the 45 minutes trip to Watford where we picked up Chris at the station. We parked up in the town centre and headed to The One Bell, not the most salubrious place we’ve ever supped in as we awaited the fourth member of our party in the form of Rob. We decided to move on after a few minutes as one of the locals, a Rastafarian gentleman, looked as if he was about to kick off in the bar, complaining loudly that his pint had been nicked and no doubt contaminated by now and demanded a fresh refill. We didn’t hang around to listen to the outcome of the conversation and retreated to a Wetherspoon’s pub, the Moon under Water (rather apt at present, I thought). Rob eventually joined us there and we were early enough to enjoy a lovely rare rump steak with fries, peas and grilled mushrooms which – with a pint – came to £7.09 each! Difficult to see how they make a profit on that deal but we weren’t complaining. The ground was a short walk up from there and we had visions of grabbing another pint in the ground only to find that there was no alcohol being served! Chris was particularly put out by this development and grumbled that ‘had he known’ and all that, but a hot cuppa sufficed instead.
The game itself lacked quality throughout and could be summed up by a sterile, midfield battle on a bitterly cold night, punctuated with poor passing which disrupted the build-up play of both sides, a lucky goal which proved the winner in a game neither side deserved to win and cussed resolute defending from the home side when they got ahead which they saw out because Blues were simply not good enough in the final third to break them down. Watford are a pale shadow of the side that went to the play offs under Zola. They lack the flair and movement of that team and moreover it is clear why they appear to have under-performed compared to last year; they are nowhere near as good.
Brian Howard and Albert Rusnak came in for Lee Novak and Olly Lee as two changes from Saturday’s 2-0 win at The Valley. The opening tempo was slow and the game hardly fluttered the heart but Blues if anything were on the front foot and Chris Burke nearly scored in the first few minutes with a whipped in cross which was moving at pace into the near top corner before Manuel Almunia’s intervention. From the resulting corner Aaron Martin volleyed over from close range. Watford’s efforts were fleeting and when Birmingham born Troy Deeney headed down to Merkel on ten minutes, his first-time volley from 25 yards fell comfortably wide with Randolph having the shot well covered. Two minutes later Paul Caddis cut inside from right-back to send a rasping long-range shot from 30 yards crashing off the angle of bar and post with Almunia nowhere near it. Watford were forced into an early change through an injury to defender, Joel Ekstrand. He limped off to be replaced by Lloyd Doyley on 18 minutes.
Very little happened for the rest of the half and it was out of congruity with the match that there was actually a goal scored. Deeney who scored the only goal against Blues on the opening day of the season repeated the feat in this game. Blues deserved at least a share of the spoils that day and the same can be said of last evening. The one and only real sight of goal by the home side came in the 33rd minute when Forestieri slipped a clever pass into the feet of the striker 15 yards out. Comically, the Brummie born boy swished at the ball missing it completely and then snatched at a second effort, having wasted a lot of the time the quality of the pass had afforded him. He mishit the shot in truth but hit it well enough. The effort was going wide from our angle but it took a cruel deflection and flashed past the helpless Randolph who stood no chance. Picking the ball out of the back of the net was the only real significant thing that the keeper had to do in the whole game and certainly from then on. Then Deeney charged towards the Blues fans and proceeded to goad us to a cacophony of boos. This was a wholly unsavoury, unsportsmanlike incident that we could all have done without; it was disrespectful, stupid and totally unnecessary. Troy Deeney should be grateful for the good fortune that fate had bestowed upon him and be thankful that his original air shot is not the subject of a Christmas video blooper DVD. It was completely out of order and most referees would have booked him for it; sadly not the one on duty last night. Very little happened for the rest of what was a poor first half apart from a Forestieri shot from the edge of the box that threatened the advertising hoarding more than the near post.
Lee Clark substituted Reece Brown for Albert Rusnak at half-time and Blues started brightly. Blues applied some pressure with two Emyr Huws corners but Watford defended these well and they came to nothing. Blues were dominating the exchanges in what was proving to be a better half but that wasn’t difficult to be honest. However, Blues lacked penetration and it wasn’t looking likely that we were going to score. Federico Macheda tried a shot from 30 yards on 53 minutes but the tame left-footer was collected comfortably by Almunia.
Blues were enjoying most of the ball but repeatedly gave it away at crucial moments and therefore continually let the hosts off the hook. Watford were confined to sporadic chances and should perhaps have done better with a chance that fell to Forestieri who shot straight at Darren Randolph when Merkel was better placed to his left. The game became disjointed with a number of irritating stoppages for injuries to Watford players that appeared out of all proportion to the original slight. It was clear that the home side were deliberately breaking up the rhythm of the game and slowing down the tempo to prevent Blues building up any sustained pressure. There were a number of free kicks awarded and the gamesmanship exhibited by Forestieri especially standing nowhere near 10 yards from the ball lead to irritated howls of derision from the away support as the game became feisty. The Watford player should have been booked at least once for such antics but his name did not go in there until the 94th minute. A farcical incident occurred after a free kick awarded to Blues when the referee paced out the ten yards and Forestieri still failed to retreat and when the official’s back was turned the forward edged back to where he came! Coupled with going to ground easily (in defence of the referee he wasn’t conned by this generally) and writhing around in agony at the slightest provocation, Watford achieved what they were after:- a scrappy 1-0 win.
Birmingham did try and get back into it and with quarter-of-an-hour left to play brought on Peter Lovenkrands and Novak for Howard and Tom Adeyemi and played three up front. Two minutes into injury time Lovenkrands raced clear and should have shot rather than taking an extra touch. He forced himself wide and tried to cross to Macheda but Doyley got back well to concede a corner from which we failed to benefit. A final free kick on 95 minutes was met by Will Packwood whose flicked header from 12 yards dropped an inch the wrong side of the post with Almunia blowing out his cheeks in relief. The last chance for a deserved share of the spoils was gone.
The Good: The rump steak in the pub before the game.
The Bad: The disrespectful celebration by Deeney following the goal which was an own goal in my opinion anyway. Treating people from your home town in this way was unforgivable.
The Ugly: The blatant time wasting antics of the Watford players in the second half.
WATFORD: Manuel Almunia 6, Gabrielle Angella 6, Marco Cassetti 5, Joel Ekstrand 6 (Lloyd Doyley, 18, 6); Davide Faraoni 5, Cristian Battocchio 5 (Sean Murray, 62, 5), Daniel Tozser 7, Alexander Merkel 6 (Hector Bellerin, 83, N/A), Daniel Pudil 6, Troy Deeney 6, Fernando Forestieri 6.
Subs not used: Jonathan Bond, Chu Young Park, Tommie Hoban, Luke O’Nien.
Goals: Deeney (33)
Booked: Bellerin (84), Forestieri (90+4)
BIRMINGHAM CITY: Darren Randolph 6, Paul Caddis 7, Will Packwood 7, Aaron Martin 6, Paul Robinson 6, Chris Burke 6, Tom Adeyemi 7, (Lee Novak, 75, 6), Emyr Huws 6, Brian Howard 6 (Peter Lovenkrands, 75, 6), Albert Rusnak 5, (Reece Brown 45, 6); Federico Macheda 6.
Subs not used: Colin Doyle, Tyler Blackett, Olly Lee, Andrew Shinnie.
Goals: None
Booked: None
Attendance: 13,904 (574 Blues)
Referee: Mark Haywood 5: There was good and bad in the referee’s performance. The good was that he didn’t allow players from either side to buy cheap free kicks. The bad was that he failed to enforce basics like making players retreat ten yards from the ball from the free kick position. He could have booked Forestieri at least five times. He should have done so for constant infringement and also for kicking the ball in the net when the whistle had blown. This was deliberate time wasting and the officials allowed only four minutes at the end which was a joke. It should have been a minimum of seven with what went on. He allowed 30 seconds for each of the five substitutions and the rest for stoppages. Two of the occasions when the trainer was on for Watford players merited at least four minutes alone.
Bazza KRO SOTV
Must have gone to a different game to me. Nonsense.
In fairness to Deeney, I’m sure you are aware he is a blues fan and you people were giving him some stick, placing his finger on his lips, to quiet you lot dosent really goad you does it? It may have been a few years back but getting bricks thrown from you lot was deemed the norm, so don’t tell me he offended you. Have to agree we are no where near what we were like last season and a draw would have been a fair result. Ref was awful, how you can award him 5, I can not see. Steak and a pint for that price! Who cares, just enjoy it, all wether spoons pubs do that on a Tuesday. We gotta have some enjoyment in life, football or steak? Hmm
I am a Watford fan and actually agree with the Birmingham fan that is was a shame we had to resort to time-wasting and cheating to play out the game.
We had enough quality to get another goal or two rather than allow ourselves to come under pressure once more.
Deeney’s goal did sum up a scrappy game but they all count!
BTW I doubt Deeney really cares for you fans – afterall he’s a footballer and they only worry about themselves.
Don’t forget this is a bloke who has been to jail so clearly not exactly a good role model.
Neil, I stand by every word. No doubt you are a Watford fan? There is an article written by one of your number: behappy.wordpress.com which although containing an expected bias is in agreement with me about Forestieri and some of the more dubious tactics and that it was a poor game. He also mentions the two footed tackle by Merkel on Chris Burke which was a clear red card on any other night. What he doesn’t emphasise is that Watford are a poor team too. We know that we are Neil but we have an excuse given the extreme difficulties our club has had to face for the last three seasons. I doubt that your team has such justifications. I can assure you I watched the match discussed on this blog so kindly don’t patronise me. You are entitled to your opinion that what I’ve written is nonsense as you clearly don’t agree with me but quite frankly I don’t care; I’ve presented what I believe to be the facts as I see them.
Lets just say it was a poor game between 2 average sides who fully deserve to be in mid-table settled by a scrappy goal.
Whilst Deeney’s initial airshot was laughable, I’m not sure how the eventual goal can be described as lucky? Bad defending to allow him time for a practise swing first and then the eventual shot, yes, but the strike that hit the back of then net was well struck and if it did take a deflection it was a very slight.
We’re very much at that stage where we win by any means, take the 3 points, string a couple of those together and hopefully in a few weeks the gloss starts to return. The type of football we played last season is very much confidence based, whilst we definitely miss Vydra, Chalobah and the eternally injured foot of Abdi, we do still have a very talented side. The next few weeks will be very interesting, although I have said that a lot this season.