Here it is!

The Seagulls, currently atop League One, play a vibrant brand of passing football and looked to impose themselves early in the game, playing keep ball and forcing Watford to chase and harry with little reward.

Talking of rewards, Brighton got theirs, and ultimately the winner, from a pot shot 20 yards from goal that stand in keeper Rene Gilmartin failed to hold onto, with the ball inconceivably spinning into the bottom corner. Think Rob Green and you’ve got it.

Brighton continued to dominate into the second half, but Watford began to make chances that had no cutting edge.

The main source of entertainment for Watford fans came as the power failed, turning out the floodlights, “Are we Scunthorpe in disguise?” was scant consolation for a below par performance.

The poor Troy Deeney was replaced at half time by Matt Wichelow, another youngster who continues to show promise. Deeney has had a tough time so far at Vicarage Road, struggling to get any playing time and as a result, goals. Indeed, his being played out of position on the wing is reminiscent of Steve Kabba who forced to play wide and was consistently frustrating for the home fans, for whom he never lived up to the hype associated with his purchase. The same must not be allowed to happen with Troy.

Gilmartin continued to have a torrid time in goal as the away side sought to enhance their score.

The score remained and the Golden Boys were dumped out of the cup by a better side who fought and passed, two things the Horns struggled to do throughout.

As the boos, directed at the match officials, rang out across the Vic, Danny Graham cut a forlorn figure as he trudged from the pitch into the dressing room which must now be picked up as we head into Tuesday’s league fixture against Crystal Palace.

Watford: poor, must do better to sustain a playoff push

Brighton: look certain to get promotion playing some great football

Now, the community around Leyton Orient are facing the same prospect.

This was originally posted on Seldom Seen Kid, my professional blog, but I wanted to share it here too.

West Ham and Tottenham Hostpur are both vying for rights to take over the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, in a bid to preserve a lasting legacy for the games.

But, the movement of either club to East London would not only rip them from their heartlands, but also threaten the existence of London’s second oldest football club, Leyton Orient.

The club this morning released an empassioned statement calling for neither club to move to a venue that is around a mile from Brisbane Road.

Orient are a club whose voice has not been heard throughout this shambolic affair, deemed, probably, not large or wealthy enough to grace the corridors of power with their influence. The shifting of a large club on to the door step of a smaller one, may indeed lead to their extinction, and with it, an effervescent community club that treasures the people who live and breathe it.

I have experienced this first hand. For the last couple of years the Dale Jacobs Trophy has taken place close-season – a match that takes places at Brisbane Road in memory of an Orient fan who sadly lost his life to cancer.

The club allows use of the pitch and corporate facilities with a game between the supporters’ trust and fans the highlight of the day, often featuring ex-pros, kind enough to give up their time to get involved.

The club make little money from this, but give a little something back to their community with this gesture.

If this happens at larger clubs, i’m certainly not aware of it.

To disrupt a community like this is socially wreckless. That the government is complicit in the decision over who should take over the stadium after 2012, with their ‘big society’ posturing, is a damning indictment that shows no change: money still talks, no matter what the cause.

I am not a Leyton Orient fan, the better half is and alerted me to this morning’s statement, but I can see, especially given the MK Dons debacle, how reliant a community can be on it’s football club.

Leyton Orient already have a small catchment area in which to try and gain support, do not let that become even smaller by moving one of the giants of English football just around the corner.

In time, I guess we will find out if English football has a conscience, or if it’s just a game of pound signs and egos.

Update: John Beech has a rules and regualationa perspective on his blog, via @kevinrye.

Watford’s best run in a decade came at the expense of (the recently dumped from the FA Cup by Crawley) Derby, a team lacking in confidence.

Robbie Savage played a wonderful pantomime villain, falling ballet-like to the floor within 120 seconds of kick off after a clash with Stephen McGinn. As the game went on his giving the ball away, falling over and backchat provided much amusement to the home support.

The first 20 minutes passed with little event, bar a heart-fluttering mix up at the back between Bennett and Loach, and it wasn’t til the opening Watford goal that the game came to life.

Within moments, the Hornets were 2 up, and then 3 up, in the space of ten minutes Watford obliterated any hope County may have had of fixing what was undoubtedly left broken following their cup exit.

The second half was largely a non-event, with Watford containing and frustrating their opponents whose confidence-less performance will be a worry to Rams fans.

Watford haven’t had much luck of late, with dodgy penalties awarded against, a bunch of goal of the season contenders conceded, and the ball not bouncing in quite the right way.

And do it was with Reading’s opener. A lifeless first half punctuated with another controversial goal,a hand used by Shane Long in controlling the ball before squaring for Hunt to score.

Watford, despite a 4-3-3 formation, looked limp and it took a corner before half time for the Hornets to get back into the match. Deeney nodded in from a corner to tie the game shortly before the break.

Troy needs goals and slowly he’s notching them up. But for an investment of half a million quid plus, much more is needed.

The second half started with a blistering pace, Watford tearing into the reading back four time after time again. Reading were rocking but Watford couldn’t find a break through.

1-1 was, in the end, probably the correct result, despite both teams huffing and puffing to try and find a winner.

Watford: It’s now six games without a win, this isn’t a time to panic of course, but 3 points sooner rather than later would be quite nice please thanks very much. Martin Taylor had his best performance in a Watford shirt, complete with broken nose, an injury sustained in the first half. It is exactly that sort of fighting attitude we’ll need through the cold winter months.

Reading: A poor away record indicated they’d be happy with anything from today, they probably will be. On today’s showing they don’t look a playoff worthy team, but on that note, neither do we.

Following the win against Ipswich on Tuesday night, Watford fans could be forgiven for getting carried away with being third in the league.

Thankfully, as one fan shouted at the end of a lifeless encounter at Vicarage Road, ‘back to life, back to reality’, the Horns were brought down to earth with an almighty bump as the Iron fought their way to a deserved 2-0 victory.

Maybe Tuesday’s heroic win had taken it out of them, but Watford just did not get going, despite periods of intense attacking pressure, in a scrappy game on a sun drenched Vicarage Road pitch.

Of the three chances Scunny had, they scored two. Watford were unimaginative up front and rarely looked like scoring.

It was one of those days when it became apparent early on that things would not fall our way. A great strike putting us behind was followed by a golden opportunity to equalise – it fell to Lloydinho who headed over from 10 yards with the goal gaping – and hence the game was summised.

A second goal essentially finished Watford off and a team who had started the day looking uncomfortably low in the table, scraped three points from a dejected Watford team.

We never looked like fighting back, and that will be more worrying to the Hornets’ coaching staff, than the result itself.

Watford: Injuries to Danny Graham and Marv are a concern, Matty Wichelow barely had a touch and Troy Deeney is still yet to convince. Michael Bryan had a good game, but needs to stop over complicating his runs – just get in the box! A tough defeat, but one to take and learn from.

Scunthorpe: Came with a plan and stuck to it. Tony Warner was the main man when it came to time wasting – a tactic liberally employed and dutifully ignored by the referee – and enjoyed a verbal challenge with the Rookery front row. They’ll be ok this season and will beat many a team better than us.

So, to beat and outplay them is always going to be somewhat special. Especially with Roy Leaned in charge.

The tie had further significance given the presence of Tamas Priskin and former L***n kid, Carlos Edwards.

Watford started nervously,misplacing pass after pass. The usually reliable Martin Taylor was among the worst of the culprits as we struggled to get a foothold in the game.

Gradually we settled and began to knock the ball about, pretty well in
fact, and looked dangerous going forward, albeit rarely.

Then we somehow found a goal.

Right on the stroke of half time, up popped little Stephen McGinn with his second goal in two games. He had been playing with confidence before the goal and continued to.improve as the game eventually unfolded.

Before we had taken time to start singing 1-0 to the Golden boys, it
became 2-0.

A glorious leaping looping header from Sordell finding the net. Superb.

Watford started the second half with intent, searching for a third, ripping into Ipswich who, for about 20 minutes, could not cope.

Then, normal service resumed. The replacement of the flacid Priskin brought with it a goal, the Vic drew breath.

30 minutes of gut wrenching, agonising anguish ensued, but a win was confirmed, and with it, another Ipswich defeat at Vicarage Road.

Watford: Look good going forward, bad at the back. Maybe Stephen McGinn will start proving his worth to the team? Where is Will Buckley? 31 points from safety.

Ipswich: Will feel unlucky not to have got a draw, will play worse and win this season. They’ll be outside the playoffs but won’t trouble mid table.

The remarkable start to the season has come against media mumblings of having a young squad and no money.

Just because a squad is young doesn’t mean they are inexperienced.

Just because a team has no money doesn’t mean they can’t win.

Work has meant I’ve missed recent victories and, hopefully, these two factors are not linked.

I’m excited for the winter and the football it will bring, let’s hope Watford continue to defy, well,

everybody’s

pre season predictions.

I hate missing Watford games, particularly matches that are at home or very easy awaydays. So imagine my non-plussed hysterical reaction as I learned the final score of Saturday’s away game against Millwall, our first for several years against our South London neighbours.

A lack of awayday partner meant I was at a loose end, so making the most of the decent weather in NW6, the missus and I went for an afternoon walk to get out of the flat, scope out her new place of work and find a decent spot for a coffee.

It was only at a little past 6 0′clock when I dared to check my phone to get the result from The Den, expectant as I was that it’d be a tough game, I’d put it off.

6-1! 6 bloody 1! And I missed it, they’re only down the bloomin’ road!

Radio
Sometime in the mid 90′s, I remember being told that we were going on a family holiday dragged to Wales for a family holiday. Happy times as they were, it meant travelling on the first Saturday of the season and missing the first home game of the season. As we got our journey under way we tuned into Five Live to get up to date with the scores. For some reason, for the majority of the trip I kept missing the Watford score and as we crept into Wales I was none the wiser. A week passed and we couldn’t find out the score. To this day, I don’t know how we got on or who we played.

TV
Soccer Saturday has revolutionised the armchair tellybox gazing experience of a Saturday afternoon. Jeff Stelling with his amazing knowledge of the game and love for Hartlepool, make this the best place to keep upto date with the latest scores. On the final day of that triumphant 1997/1998 season we were away to Fulham, a win would confirm our place a top of the Second Division table and promotion as Champions. I didn’t have Sky – a friend of mine down the road did – queue a game of football in the back garden and an afternoon in front of the TV…

Internet

You could spend the afternoon hitting F5 on the Watford Observer’s sketchy match day coverage, hitting F5 on the BBC website’s text updates which always focus on the Premiership, or use your Internet connection to just listen to the radio. I used to work Saturdays in a shop and the only access we had for minute by minute updates was the BBC’s text update service. Every few minutes, one of us would sneak behind the counter to check the latest scores, avoiding a customer’s gaze or the bosses and their beady eyes watching from on high. An afternoon could be made or destroyed depending on the balance of a Watford score, and the inevitable failing accumulator that was the result of a result either way.

Text Updates

A mate at the game, what better way is there to make sure you know the score as the game progresses. A trusty source of information about red cards, injuries and the score. Doncaster at home last week and a family commitment meant this was the technique I was forced to use. A trip on the train and a text. “1-0 Doncaster”.

Time passed, a LONG time passed. Another text. “2-1! We love Marvin Sordell!!” All is good, there’s not long left, a much needed home win.

Another text. “2-2 last minute goal, same bloody Watford, happens every time, so predictable.”

I hate missing Watford games.

For a year or so, the centre back pairing of Shittu and DeMerit were formidable for the Horns and gave us many memorable performances under the stewardship of Aidy Boothroyd.

Who can forget big Dan being the makeshift centre forward in the dying moments when we were scrapping for a goal?

For these two players to now be without a club as the season starts to ease into full flow is a shame. They both play with heart on sleeve and, although not the greatest of ball playing centre backs, they do not deserve to be out of the game for long.

We cannot forget either of course, that both consistently represent their countries, indeed both played at the World Cup, so their predicament is even more puzzling.

As clubs now begin to finalise their squads there will no doubt be a gap big enough (and boy it’s gotta be big) for Dan and Jay to fit into. Indeed, Jay’s recently been linked with Wolfsburg.

Lets hope that they’ll both find themselves with a team sooner rather than later.