10 men hold on

1881 has flags out every home game and the little man enjoys waving them. Unfortunately that one was one of the highlights of this game for him, as the 'Orns, down to 10 men after a Britos foul that - from 100m away - drew a collective intake of breath from the Rookery, held on to get a point in a goalless game with the yet-to-score Seagulls.

A Day Long Awaited

I took my son to the Vic for the first time. I don't want to overstate it. It's a moment I have been anticipating at least since I asked my wife to have my baby, always hoping for a boy. However, "dream come true" is perhaps a bit too much like hyperbole. I felt proud and excited to take my little Watford Boy to the ground I'd been to probably a couple of hundred times with my dad (though not one stand remains from the first matches I went to) and then taken my nephew to sixty or seventy times.

This was my first visit - and I was in the Rookery again - since The 1881 were formed, a group which I heard about from Luke's friend David. They had placed flags around the stand, which were waved ahead of kick-off by those closest (I have to admit I didn't realise at the time that they did not belong to particular people and we didn't wave one. Next time we will.) It looked great but the chanting/singing seemed little better than I remember. The swearing was pretty much the same, though. I'm not complaining - just wondering how long till my 5-year-old picks some of it up.

Despite the exhortations of my Watford Boy (which made me prouder), Bournemouth went ahead and stayed there till after half time when our talisman and captain scored. I threw the little man into the air several times to ensure he remembered the moment. After Bournemouth had gone ahead again, I was fearing a second defeat in two matches for the little man, who'd seen the Crystal Palace semi last year, and was admittedly more rapt then (Wembley Stadium does have something on Vicarage Road, after all).  
 
Luckily, substitute Isaac Success rose high to head in a second equaliser. My little man went up and down again and loved it. It was end to end stuff and there were four goals. A good first home match. Since our opponents hit the woodwork three times, a draw was ultimately


also a good result. Hopefully we can do better in the next match he sees, against Hull.

New Watford Boy

I have brought new support - in the shape of my son - to the Watford family.  Today we went to Wembley for the Semi-Final of the cup. There was no way I could have got him tickets for the quarter final - up the road from us - but we were within roaring distance of the Emirates Stadium at the Sobell Centre and then the Finsbury Park bowl when The 'Orns got a surprise 2-1 victory on the holders' turf six weeks ago.  We watched some of the second half at the bowling centre and celebrated, with Gooners everywhere. I promised him then we would go to Wembley and he has been singing the song ever since.

When I saw how the tickets would be released, I felt I had to play down the possibility that we could go in case my lack of a recent buying history (last match I went to was against today's opponents in the same stadium three years ago). I got online at the right time and sweated through minutes of waiting to get three tickets. Later that evening I saw tickets were still available and today anyone could see hundreds of empty seats in our half of the stadium.

My son loved it. When we went out to our seats an hour before kick off and with mere hundreds in their seats, he opined, "Best place in the world". At four and two-thirds, he wasn't expected to stay interested but he managed it.

It was a much better game today than three years ago but our defending was a little poor and though we countered well at times, we never really troubled the Palace keeper. They scored early and then again straight after Troy Deeney had equalised in the second half. Three headers.

My little Watford Boy sang "Watford till I die" and his cute, solitary voice turned a few heads. I let him down a bit on the singing, a headache developing once I started shouting off my big mouth and making it painful to continue to do so. I hope to have plenty of opportunities to make up for it in the future and also hope he will have the chance to come back to Wembley soon. It's my fourth time (Everton FA Cup final, 1984; Bolton Play-Off Final, 1999 and the two Palace games) and I've also been to three other FA Cup Semis (1984, 2003, 2007 at Villa Park) and a 2006 Play-Off Final in Cardiff. 8 big games in 37 years or so of supporting the Yellows, but with 6 since 1999 so he should have another shot by the time he's 10...

Unbeaten in seven

Watford have not lost since the day of my birthday party when my 'Boro friend John came and delighted in seeing his team triumph 1-0 at home. It had been a mixed handful of games before that, with wins punctuating away defeats in "the most competitive league" in the country (TM). Since then, however, it has been mostly draws that have kept us unbeaten and as a consequence we have hardly moved in terms of relative league position. On Boxing Day we went one up but were held by Cardiff on Malky's first return. Clearly, if we keep this up, we will finish exactly where I predicted. I've still yet to go this season, though. Mediocrity rarely felt so rewarding.

In Spirit

I may be 11,358 miles away (or 13 hours ahead) but enjoy the news of Watford's fifth straight win (2-1 at Scunthorpe) and seventh game without defeat. Three wins out of three in December (snow prevented matches) - beating Sven's Leicester 3-2 at home; inflicting QPR's first league defeat of the season (3-1 at Loftus Road); thrashing protion-chasing Cardiff 4-1 at the Vic - have been followed by a 3-0 over Portsmouth before this latest triumph. We are top scorers in the division and now have the prospect of suffering for our success: Burnley are sniffing after our manager and I'm sure there will be bids for top-scorer Danny Graham. As is pointed out with crushing regularity at this time of year, we are "a selling club".

Round up and away

After a dismal home performance against Scunthorpe, which we lost 2-0, it was even harder to convince myself to return to Vicarage Road on my birthday and final whole day in the UK for another year or so. Truth is though that this Watford Boy lost his passion for the matches a while before we left in 2008 and the sole reason for my continued attendance is a bit of time with my nephew.

Nevertheless, with the Hornets involved in a “thrilling” 3-2 away defeat (Portsmouth) and having beaten Ipswich at home in a game I did not get to (rain and broken bike stopped play), I was able to put aside the mauling at Derby and hope for a timely gift from the Golden Boys in the match against Nottingham Forest.

Jordan Mutch provided one after three minutes and my optimism held out another quarter of an hour before the Reds equalised. Another dull game finished all square but at least it was not as excruciating as the previous home match. A second “thrilling” 3-2 defeat (at Selhurst Park) since then has seen us slide into thirteenth and though the number may not bode well, most fans would take that as a final position, given a choice.

Eight hours ahead of GMT as I now am, many of the scores for the rest of the season will be looked up after a night’s sleep. This blog has become less a football diary and more a travel journal. Until the younger Watford Boy takes over the match reports, it will remain so. In the meantime, I cross my fingers for today’s trip to Turf Moor and hope for the fans’ sake that we can win a thriller again.

As Good As It Gets?

Another month has passed in the Hornets´ season and I have heard nothing from the younger Watford Boy about his views on how our season is shaping up: we lost 5-0 at West Brom in early November but followed that up with two home wins, against Preston (2-0) and Scunthorpe (3-0). Loanee Heidar Helguson got three of those goals, Danny Graham and Tom Cleverley one a piece. The two home wins were followed on successive Saturdays by defeats at Crystal Palace (3-0) and Newcastle (2-0) before victory at home to billionaires QPR tonight, 3-1 – with Lloyd Doyley scoring his first professional goal – took us into the play-off places (albeit for no more than 24 hours).

That, I believe, is probably going to be the highlight of our season. It is true that the Championship is looking very much like a two-horse race at the moment and Newcastle and West Brom will likely end up in the 90 to 100 point zone, while the other four places look increasingly open as teams stutter, start and stop again. Although we seem, in theory, to have as much hope as Leicester, Nottingham Forest, QPR, Swansea or Blackpool of a top six position, (Cardiff and Middlesborough may be inconsistent but have more in reserve), I am just happy that relegation this season now looks highly unlikely and will not be complaining about a mid-table position come May.

It is not that our present position is undeserved, or merely the fact that Watford are the only team in the top half of the division to have a negative goal difference. It is not simply that we have been thoroughly outclassed by other teams in the running like Cardiff and West Brom. It is more to do with the fear that we have a thin squad already and it will probably only get thinner come January. Apparently we are playing some of our best football ever (let´s hope Hoofroyd´s tactics are gone forever) and with a Chelsea 3^rd round FA Cup tie on the horizon and Luton languishing in the Conference, Watford fans should enjoy what we have. Keep the expectations low and we cannot be disappointed. And Malkay, I owe you an apology for doubting your managerial abilities.

Schadenfraude too

I have been gone too long. After two months of insufflation in La Paz, we have all but completed two weeks of volunteering at animal refuge La Senda Verde near Coroico in Bolivia (the website will be improved in the near future). In the meantime, Watford have sold all their best players (Tommy Smith eventually went to Portsmouth and was followed by a petulant Mike Williamson, Tamas Priskin went to Ipswich, Jobi McAnuff and Grzegorz Rasiak followed Brendan Rogers to Reading). The latter two players combined to put Reading ahead in our Saturday showdown but Danny Graham continued his scoring form (six already in nine matches) to get us a point at the Madjeski. There is great satisfaction at seeing Ipswich and Reading poach from us and now struggle in the bottom four while we sit in a far better-than-expected seventh (Newcastle are threatening to run away with it), which makes us closer in position to bottom-of-the-Premiership Portsmouth than to either of our championship rivals.
We got old-boy Heidar Helguson back and he scored twice in a recent 3-3 "thriller" with Leicester and although now injured, I´d back him to beat Saturday´s red-carded Nathan Ellington in the goals tally even if H didn´t find the net again all year. Coventry at home tonight and if we can send them back pointless to whence they came, we might even nick a play-off position. Okay, okay: it is early days.

World Heritage Baggers

We are not world heritage tourists, the (mythical?) types who travel to places inscribed on the UNESCO list just to notch up the numbers, but... It came to my attention that Monastery de Santa Catalina, which we visited yesterday, was on the World Heritage List (as part of the “historical centre of Arequipa” and as my interest had already been tweaked, I did a little online research and found out that the list incoporates 878 sites (679 cultural 174 natural and 25 mixed), twenty of which we have been to in the 8 months we have been away.

The World Heritage List is supposed to be of places with outstanding universal value, though the system – in which countries nominate their own sites – is open to manipulation. A look at the map shows that Europe dominates and, if I counted right, 368 of the sites are on the smallest continent, not including Russian or Turkish Europe. Anyway, though I claimed not to ne a number-notcher, I am sure it will not be long before I go through the whole list and count where I`ve been... In the meantime, these are the 20 we have been to in the last eight months, and the three more in Peru we will see when our friend Julie arrives in a couple of days.

Argentina

• Los Glaciares
• Iguazu National Park

Australia

• Great Barrier Reef
• Wet Tropics of Queensland
• Greater Blue Mountains Area
• Sydney Opera House

Bolivia

• City of Potosí
• Historic City of Sucre
• Fuerte de Samaipata

Chile

• Churches of Chiloé

China

• Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang (Forbidden City)
• Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Terracotta Army)
• The Great Wall
• Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing
• Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing

Japan

• Himeji-jo
• Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara

New Zealand

• Tongariro National Park

Peru

• Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa

Uruguay

• Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento

Ms. Willis will accompany us to

· City of Cuzco

· Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu

· Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana

Which will provide a further pretext for me to post lots of pictures...

Winning end

After our 3-1 victory over Derby in our final game, WFC finished 13th in the table. Tommy Smith predictably retained his Player of the Season award, Grzegorz Rasiak won Goal of the Season while Lloyd Doyley was players` player. I texted Kerry to see if Joss wanted a season ticket for next year and my reply took the form of photo without text. A picture is worth 1000 words, they say, though in this case maybe just the one.

Stray Cats

We haven`t agreed a name for our latest acquisition yet, but he has been washed, given milk and cat food, fed good quality red meat (hope it doesn`t give cats cancer too) and seems to have adopted our cabaña as a home.

Update: we chose "Van Gogh" in homage to his damaged ears and the Spanish band we are listening to.

Propiedad Privada

Bariloche´s lake (Nahuel Huapi) has "beaches" but as we found out Sunday, access is not always that easy. We walked for more than two kilometres before finding a road that led to a track between two large properties which was an unmarked route to the lake.
Though I was fuming at the time, when we walked a few km further on the road we saw signs of resistance to this, including a meeting that had taken place the previous day, citing the Argentine Constitution.
It does not seem a uniquely Argentine problem if our experience outside Santiago, Chile is anything to judge by. Sometimes we in Britain don`t realise how successful our efforts have been (New Labour defended the right to roam (just not for Iraqis)).

Two more steps...

No text from the younger Watford Boy to let me know last night so I checked the BBC today to see we had got another three home points in our relegation clash with Forest. Tanas Priskin and Grzegorz Rasiak again did the business and, unlike last season, it is the home record this year that is so much better than the teams around us. 2-1 and another place up in the table.

Two steps forward...

Joss texted me to let me know the Horns had triumphed at the Valley. After Don Cowie had got his second goal for WFC, Charlton scored twice to be ahead at the break but second half goals from Grzegorz Rasiak and Tamas Priskin must give us confidence for the home game against Notts Forest.

Parallels Down Under

The Horns recorded their first win in seven league games and their first win at home since I left by beating the second richest club in the world (QPR) 3-0 with first-half goals from Tommy Smith, Darren Ward and Lee Williamson. In doing so we moved up to fourth from bottom as Charlton were thrashed at home, consequently parting company with manager Alan Curbishley.

In Brisbane, I had to go to bed ten minutes before the Vicarage Road final whistle but woke up with an A-League game to go to with my congenial hosts Sue and Allen (who lent me an away shirt). So it was that Watford’s red and gold merged to become the orange of Queensland Roar (rubbish name), who had a worse home record than the Golden Boys, not having won at the impressive but largely empty Suncorp Stadium (which, in common with WFC, they share with a rugby club) all season.

The parallels with my English club are not repeated when it comes to the league (Roar are third out of eight while their opponents Perth Glory, whose fans faced a six-hour flight home, are bottom). There is neither relegation nor promotion in the tiny division, which will grow by two (Gold Coast Galaxy and North Queensland Fury) next year. Still, the English Championship does have a Welsh team (Swansea City) while New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix play in the Australian league.

Roar’s captain Craig Moore, who had an operation for testicular cancer just 12 days ago, started this Movember match (moustache growth is sponsored to benefit male charities every year in this month) and saw his team break their hoodoo and win by the same margin Watford did yesterday though this game saw five goals, the best of which was a second-half volley from Roar’s ex-Watford player Charlie Miller.

Be Grateful

After catching an overnight train to Shanghai from Beijing when my mum and Brian had boarded their flight back to the UK, Jun and I spent the night of my birthday in a drink all you can club with her brother’s girlfriend playing a dice drinking game. Then we flew to Osaka, spent time with Orlando, Kahori and their girls and then went to Nara. A series of slow trains over about eleven hours got us to Tokyo late last night and we visited my friend Koji in hospital in Saitama Prefecture today.

Way before we’d come out here, Koji had said that he planned to take time off to take us places because last time (2002 for the World Cup) he’d been really tired what with working and his newly-arrived twins. Since that promise, Koji has had a motorcycle accident and is paralysed for life. He’ll never walk again but hopes to get back some feeling or use of arms or hands. I approached our meeting with a certain amount of dread.

Speculating on why that was is a little too self-indulgent given the nature of what has happened to Koji (putting aside the MRSA virus he caught after getting to the military hospital which is closest to where he had his accident), who put me at ease immediately we got there and is remarkably upbeat, taking strength from the words of those who have wished him well. We bought and fed him grapes and chatted about the mundane (my desire for a new camera lens, Watford’s trials (we lost at Swansea in the league on Sunday and won there the following Tuesday to reach the Carling Cup quarter-finals)) and the all-important: friends and friendship.

Many of his Essex University mates have rallied and those he saw once a year are now at his bedside of a weekend. In Jun Shimizu’s case, she is doing much more than that, even taking time off work to help Megumi (Koji’s wife) deal with those nasty financial issues that are overbearing in a state where health care is not free. Blame for the accident has been assigned by a witness to Koji and so his insurance company is refusing to pay. The government won’t help until he is certified as having a disability and that won’t happen till after months - as many as eighteen, possibly - of expensive rehabilitation.

Circumstances like these are supposed to make you grateful for what you have but I am reminded more of the most haunting words of the Band Aid single: “Tonight thank God it’s them instead of you.” This is a negative sort of gratitude rather than a real appreciation. Maybe it shows a lack of imagination on my part: an inability to see myself in his position and therefore value more highly the abilities most of us take for granted. But tonight, before I sleep, I am pondering the idea of what we mean when we say “be grateful”.