One hundred percent

Watford v Sheffield United

Saturday 18^th August

Cycled to Euston and shared a carriage to the Junction with singing Blades fans. Back on my bike, I arrived at Kerry’s about quarter past two and Joss and I began the walk soon after but Doggy picked us up in the spitting rain and gave us a lift to the top of Harwoods Road. Z-Cars was going as we went into the shop, where we got Joss a new top with his name and 13 on. Missed the kick-off.

Watford were defending the Rookery end but the first half saw United with the better chances, one of which was off of Watford defender Jay DeMerit’s head. Mart Poom in goal was equal to the challenges though and Lloyd Doyley had the run of the half when he won a ball by our corner flag and made it to the other end of the pitch. Marlon King was out on the right for some reason, which didn’t seem to afford him many shooting chances though he danced around one of their men a few times.

In the second half especially, Lee Williamson shone with some great little runs and it was fitting that it was he who received a Tommy Smith pass and hit the back of the net with our only shot on target of the game. Watford bossed the second half and could have had another goal but Darius Henderson’s header was wide. Steve Kabba came on with twenty minutes left for Tommy Smith, who doesn’t look on his game but had cleared a James Beattie free-kick off the line as well as setting up the only goal of the match.

Knowing that the ex-Hornet Danny Webber had scored a last-minute winner in this fixture last year I was a little nervous as the clock wound down but he’d already gone off when we got to stoppage time and we deserved what we got. Six points out of six against two of the division’s fancied sides. Come on. As we walked out, we were able to check on the other scores of the day on the numerous flat screens the club has put up. At least some of the millions we’ve received over the last year have now been spent.

Today would have been Luke’s 21^st birthday so I wrote in a card that Kerry will take to the crematorium tomorrow. He is loved and missed.

Life is just a game

Watford v Gillingham (Carling Cup 1^st Round)

Tuesday 14^th August

When I bought the tickets on ebay, I didn’t think that Watford might be playing the same evening and so it was that Prince came first. This time I went with Julie. Prince has said that it will be a different show each night and began with 1999, which got the evening off to a more upbeat start than Saturday. The set was better too, with longer guitar solos that left Julie wanting to come back.

We went to the after-show party at Indigo2 and the purple one turned up about 1 and jammed and played some more of his tracks. We danced near the front for a couple of hours and left satiated about half four. It was only the following afternoon that I found out Watford had changed ten men in their starting line-up (Tamas Priskin remained from Saturday) and cruised 3-0 past Gillingham with Priskin, Douglas Rinaldi and Alex Campana scoring and Richard Lee saving a penalty at 0-0.

Joy in repetiton

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Watford

11^th August 2007

My brother Trevor and his girlfriend Sarah brought my niece Kasey over last night and we stayed in, chatted and played Risk. After a walk along the canal and through Regents Park this afternoon, we had a pizza at a chain restaurant near Euston and ended up resurrecting last year’s argument about the amount of money Watford earned from TV by being promoted. This time, Trevor claimed my position had been his, which I guess is a form of admission that I was right…

Anyway, afterwards I headed over to the Greenwich Pensioner, a pub in Poplar that I’d rung in the week and whose landlady had agreed to show the match live. I chose the pub for its location close to the O2 Centre (Millennium Dome), where I was heading for my second concert of three in a month. I turned up ten minutes into the game and felt the eyes of the locals on me. The game was goalless and Wolves slowly seemed to be having more of it, with a great chance being put high over by Olofinjana.

Just before halftime though, the Wolves midfielder made amends by lobbing Mart Poom after being put clear through with only our keeper to beat. The second half started with them threatening to increase the lead and narrowly missing twice. Jobi McAnuff had a chance too but fired straight at the keeper. The landlord, who I’d chatted football with, came and sat with me and I told him (a United fan) about Joss’ conversion (“Nah, that’s out of order as it happens”). In the meantime two other locals rehashed an argument they’d obviously run through before (Arsenal a foreign team) and one that I’d used on Trevor when he was being racist about Watford players.

Rod and Air turned up with about 30 mins to go and Rod proved to be a lucky charm again. The two live matches he’s been to have resulted in Watford wins and with three minutes left on the clock Watford won a free kick just outside the box that Jordan Stewart took. He’s got a mean shot on him but the deflection was probably what took this one in for his first Watford goal. Earlier today I’d read that the latest goal scored in the Premiership last season was by Bolton against Watford in the 96th minute. So it was that balance was achieved with the foul on Steve Kabba leading to a penalty at a similar time of the game.

Marlon King strode up to take it and blasted high into the net and I was up on my feet in the pub. One of the older locals smiled at me. I shook the landlord’s hand as I left a few minutes later. Football’s great.

Rod dropped me off at Canary Wharf station where I met Faisel and we caught the tube one stop to North Greenwich. I gave him the Prince ticket I bought on ebay and we went in to see the man, who opened with Purple Rain and played many of his hits but not all of them all the way through. His show is flawless but leaves you wanting more when once he delivered it all.

Franchise football

Milton Keynes Dons v Watford

Wednesday 1^st August

stadium:mk is so new that I had trouble locating it before leaving London and got off at Milton Keynes only to discover a taxi ride was required to complete our journey. Being driven between the new town’s roundabouts feels like a giant version of join-the-dots but it’s not a pretty picture that you’d see from above. I’d been told that tickets had been sent back when I phoned Watford and that we could buy them “on the door” but a queue of hundreds snaking round the car park indicates the length of the wait we’re in for. Several fans just decide against the debacle and leave but after about fifteen minutes’ in line, sections of the queue start to break for the turnstile on the other side of the ground, so we do likewise only to find we have joined another queue for a poorly-staffed and incomplete ticket office which runs out of tickets twice before I pay £10 & £5 to get in twenty minutes after kick-off. My frustration is compounded by the fact that one of the electronic ticket readers isn’t working but the steward standing next to it can’t even be bothered to tell people.

The tempers of several large men made to wait had been rubbing up against each other and the stewards but when some of the latecomers started singing “We’ve got too many fans”, the mixture of pride and humour saw off the resentment that lingered. The outside of the stadium was more impressive (though, in black, it felt a touch like an 80’s dream) than the unfinished inside which lacked easily-visible signs, seats in the upper tiers, a scoreboard and a home crowd. Watford, in their Beko sponsored shirts and black shorts, were defending the goal we were sitting behind and were forced to do so when Dons’ players broke through on a couple of occasions. The new keeper Mart Poom,, the Lativan international we got from Arsenal, looked steady (if old – Joss commented that he looked tired).

In the break Joss got Jay Demerit’s autograph on his shirt and there was a ginger guy in the stand signing too but I didn’t know who he was… The second half saw us in their area for long periods and we struck the frame of the goal twice and forced saves from their keeper. Although it was a friendly, there was a least one significant scuffle but no cards were shown. Tamas Prisking missed a second chance and was replaced with Henderson, who received a standing ovation from some fans which may have been down more to his devotion in refusing to consider going to Preston rather than his successes of last season.

Hameur Bouazzaa, who didn’t play tonight, has let it be known he’d like to go to a Premiership team and Fulham have shown a £4 million interest. Danny Shittu didn’t play either (Clarke Carlisle was in the centre of defence) and I am still wondering about him. We spent a million and three-quarters on Jobi McAnuff from Crystal Palace and brought in Matt Jackson from Wigan. This game ended 0-0 and although we were the better side, we hardly outclassed them. The Championship is a slog, though.

Afterwards, Joss and I walked past oversized stores to Bletchley station and practised Spanish on the platform. He can say “Would you like a pizza?” and “What nationality are you?”. We head to Barcelona at the end of the month, returning just before the Ipswich home game.