Rained on and rained off

Watford v Wigan Athletic

Saturday 30^th December

Joss cycled from his place and I cycled from the station and we met, dripping, to lock our bikes up outside the stadium 20 minutes into the game because I’d got on a slow train at Euston by mistake. We got in and within two minutes Heskey had turned Shittu and put Wigan one ahead. We pondered, superstitiously, on the negative effect of our presence. Within ten minutes they’d hit the back of the net again but had it ruled out for offside.

A good move including Mahon, Priskin and Mcnamee resulted in a Stewart cross. Tamas Priskin, making his first Premiership start, showed why Betty should have dropped Henderson sooner by meeting the cross with a head and seeing the ball slip under the lanky Wigan keeper, Chris Kirkland. Considering how many sitters Doris missed, it’s a wonder the young Hungarian wasn’t given a start sooner.

It rained so much at the beginning of the second half that it was hard to see the other end of the pitch. There was standing water all over the pitch and the ref took the players off for 10 minutes. Betty came out to try to bounce a ball to little avail and responded to a Rookery build-up by planting the ball in the back of the net. Wags behind me started a “2-1 to the Golden Boys” chant but the match was abandoned (I didn’t see the ref come out again). The players came out to applaud the fans and throw shirts into the crowd. Then we all went home early.

Charlton, Blackburn, Sheffield United and Man City all won so we are further adrift at the bottom. However, the two games we have in hand are both at home so there is still the potential for us to catch up a bit. The proof that Priskin can do it at this level is good news when you consider it is unlikely we’ll get the players we want in January given that other teams may want them too.