Tuesday 24th October
Watford’s biggest defeat of the season I started watching them was away at Hull but we beat them by the same 4-0 scoreline on our last match of that season and I haven’t seen us play them since. Tonight was a Carling Cup match that I told both Kerry and Joss on Saturday that I’d be taking him to so I wasn’t expecting my arrival at theirs to be a surprise. Joss, not long back from bowling 106 with the alley-rail up, said he didn’t want to go. Having walked the 30 minutes from the Junction, I wasn’t letting him off that easily. After a quick beer and a chat with Kerry, I left with Joss about twenty-past seven for the twenty minute walk to the ground. Joss was in a very chatty mood, even asking why I’d decided to become a vegetarian, though perhaps not so interested in the response. He was also happy to tell me that he would eat peas now and carrots and peppers too, provided they were cut small enough.
Z-Cars was playing as we walked past the 3rd corner of the ground towards the crowd-less turnstiles and two minutes into our usual seats we were on our feet cheering an Ashley Young direct free-kick as it rolled down the back of the net. Sat opposite a less than 25% full Vicarage Road end watching a full-strength team playing well, it was 9 minutes into the second half that we saw Hungarian under-21 international Tomas Priskin score our second after picking up a bad back-pass. Henderson was guilty of another bad miss early on, though. Nick Barmby came on for them and scored an overhead kick that went under the vertically jumping Foster and they forced him to make 2 good saves after that. Nevertheless, we deserved our first win of the season, over a team at the bottom of the division below us. Tottenham will not be quaking.
When I got home and turned on Sky Sports News, the first image was Hammers boss Alan Pardew saying “we are at the bottom now, we need support” or some such and it sank in that they must have lost at League One Chesterfield. The odds on him being the first Premiership manager to go must have shortened somewhat. There is no schadenfreude though, I respect him and feel sorry for that once proud fanbase that their West Ham has become a feeder club of Argentine stars to the top-tier of the Premiership. That contrasts with the pure joy I got from seeing that Warnock’s Sheffield United had lost at home to Championship side Birmingham.
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