Watford v Reading
Saturday 9th December
I got on the slow train and off at Bushey to cycle the rest. The roads down the lower end of the High Street have changed beyond all recognition and I was going in a reverse-S under arches around warehouse chain stores and despite getting further away from where I’d wanted to be arrived at Kerry’s by 2.15. Joss let me in, Phil was getting Joss’ bike out and Trevor was playing with Casey, but Kerry and Sarah were sleeping off the excesses of the getting-no-darker hours. There was overhang in the atmosphere. Joss asked who we were playing.
Reading came up as runaway champions last year, 16 points clear of Sheffield United and a further 9 ahead of us in third. They have thrived in the Premiership and with almost half the season gone are 15 points ahead of us in 6th with one of the league’s top goalscorers, Doyle, who famously cost them £78,000 from Cork City a year and a half ago, in scoring form. Watford have scored once in the last four games. Joss thanked me for the programme I bought when we’d got through the turnstiles. He has been careful about that since I brought it up a few matches ago.
The match only reinforced our knowledge that the cutting edge, or the lack of it that Darius Henderson possesses, is decisive if you need to make the cut. If Priskin isn’t good enough to come on for a misfiring striker, we might need to buy two in January. With King as a partner, Henderson scored 14 goals in 2005/6. This season, he is yet to get off the mark. I don’t doubt his desire, and realise that this, of course, is the other side of ‘the rule of the ex-player’: that YOUR player WON’T score against his ex-team. So as inevitable as Helguson’s goal for Fulham and Webber’s goal for the Blades, was that Henderson would take none of three good chances against the club he started off at.
Reading’s best strikes had gone wide in the first half but we just about shaded the match, I’d say, largely by stopping them getting any flow going. The couple of chances that didn’t fall to Henderson didn’t go in either. The whole team put the necessary effort in: our performance was better than in either the Charlton or Sheffield United match but we didn’t break through and it ended goalless. That despite the longest continuous chanting I’ve experienced from our fans, who, even without Curly, were excellent tonight. The winning litany was “Aidy Boothroyd’s Yellow Army”, “We hate L’t’n”. Joss even asked when it was going to stop.
We got frozen fingers cycling back down Ebury Way in the dark and I promised to get him bike lights for Xmas. I will not stand accused of frivolity. From being an uncle who was never around at Xmas, I’ve slowly grown more conscientious about presents. Fortunately, kids have short memories so it’s sufficient to get it right when they start comparing. Kerry was up, the others had gone to Tesco but were soon back. Casey, now 10 months old to the day - as Trevor pointed out - is cute but doesn’t like me holding her. I fuelled up on onion bhajis and samosas before leaving them to their meals.
Heard some scores before we’d left the stadium area but it wasn’t till later that I heard Tim’s Hammers had gone down 4-0 at Bolton. I wanted to text him to say “Do you know that song the Bolton fans sing…?” but settled for a thank-you instead. I only want to see them go down if it is instead of Watford. Frankly, that’s still as committed to optimism as I can be.
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