A good day

Watford v Coventry City

Saturday 5^th April

For the second home game in three there were ridiculous queues to get into the Rookery (named after a silk mill at this end of town) and fans were getting angry with the stewards, especially after one directed us through previously shut gates telling us that she’d managed to get another turnstile open, only for us to be turned back again and have to hear her apologies. Last time it was due to a power failure but it seems to be down to the building work now. Why fans weren’t warned in advance if that is the case, I don’t know, but have mailed the club to complain.

We were in our seats five minutes into the match and had the surprising greeting of a goal from the perennially uninterested Duke, Nathan Ellington. If he is indeed a confidence player, the level of his self-belief can be no higher than the shot he had that slid along the turf and into the back of the net past Kasper Schmeichel, who was making his second visit to the Vic after blowing a kiss to a heckler near us in his previous loan spell (Cardiff on Boxing Day). Waving flags that had been given out before I got there, the fans cheered on the team as we dominated the rest of the first half and had a couple of good chances but only took a single goal lead into the break.

I used half-time to have an each-way flutter on a couple of horses in the Grand National (based only on their names) and watching Sky Sports News on the screens on the concourse stands so as to stay out of the rain, we were pleased to see Bristol City losing at Southampton. The other teams at the top weren’t playing: WBA had lost their FA Cup semi-final to Portsmouth earlier and Stoke host Crystal Palace on Monday. Other fixtures were affected by the fact that two more Championship sides meet in the other cup semi tomorrow.

Coventry took the game to us after the break and on about the hour mark they equalised, resulting in the predictable frustration from the less than faithful among the Watford “supporters”, and soon there were shouts for the manager to make the sort of changes he has failed to inspire with on too many occasions this season. As we got close to the eightieth minute I’d heard that Comply or Die had won the National so went to collect my winnings in the belief that I wouldn’t be missing much. Slim Pickings, my other horse, had come in fourth so there was money due on that too. I was watching on the screen as Tommy Smith latched on to a Richard Lee punt and put us back in front. I shouted first, alerting all the other frustrated fans around, and collected more than £50 winnings as the team took all three points.