That was the season that was

It’s been fun. I have, like so many before and with me, experienced these kinds of ups and downs before. I started supporting Watford in 1979 when my dad took me to a 2-2 draw with Rotherham in the old third division. Within the next 5 years I’d seen us beat all the big teams, come second in the league and make up the numbers at an F.A. Cup Final. A few years later we’d started much of the return journey. It’s been like that ever since, so obviously I’ve held out hope that we could scrape seventeenth this season. The Wigan game was one I said we must win before it was first played and abandoned. It was more obviously so today and a draw against ten men was a fair result.

That’s why we’re going down. Even against ten-man Ipswich at home in the FA Cup on Saturday there was only one beautiful piece of football, worthy of a Premiership team (from us at least). When I look back on the season so far, I see few others. Marlon King’s goal against West Ham in the opening home match; Ashley Young produced many of them before we sold him in January: runs and vision; Johan Cavalli looked like quality on his debut in the 1-0 victory in the Upton Park six-pointer, but has not shone in two half-games since. Hameur Bouazza has been up there and elsewhere, as has Tommy Smith. Our defence has stopped many good Premiership sides from getting onto the scoresheet, which speaks for itself about their quality as a unit. In my opinion, Ben Foster, who I regularly chant is “England’s number one”, has managed sublime (as in the double save that got him injured in the Wigan match) but has made a couple of costly mistakes too.

I am not on a witch-hunt. I disagreed with Steve Coppell when he said after Reading’s 0-0 draw at Watford’s Vicarage Road Stadium in early December, that commitment, effort and desire are ugly words. Watford have shown them aplenty and that is what the 12^th man responds to. I think they were only lacking significantly when Liverpool came to the Vic after their 6-2 hiding at home to Arsenal in the Carling Cup. We may have lost that game in the tunnel. A few fans have booed other patches of recent home performances against Bolton and Wigan. Not guilty.

I saw a comment on a West Ham site after our victory there ten days ago that conceded relegation for the Hammers, suggesting defeat by the worst ever team in the Premiership sealed it. I agree with half that sentiment. Charlton are dire and West Ham seem hardly to be functioning. They will both come down with us, statistics will decide the order of the fall. Watford may not be the worst team in the Premiership this year, let alone ever. We might be bottom of the league but three teams have lost more matches and five teams have conceded more goals. It’s just that no team has scored fewer.

On more than one occasion this season, our manager, Aidy Boothroyd, has used boxing similes to verbally portray Watford’s situation. “Muhammad Ali versus Jimmy Krankie” was just the most memorable. So, we have been punching above our weight. Not that well, though. If we can’t – at home – beat the only team it is statistically likely we could drag into the relegation battle should we have done so, and get off the bottom in the meantime, when they are down to ten men after 20 minutes, we are going down. I am throwing in the towel.

I know there are still thirty-three-theoretical points to play for and our season is far from over. The Wembley chants are not redundant yet, not with Plymouth away as our quarter-final draw, though I am not ruling out a “shock” on Sunday 11^th March from 6pm (?). We should probably notch up another two or three victories in the league too, especially with Charlton at the Vic in ten days. Nevertheless, I think I’ll be taking my nephew to Championship games again next year. At least there’ll be more league victories and goals. Yellow army! Yellow army!