Catch-up

We lost loads at home, lost Zola, gained Sannino. Started winning at home again but remain way off the play-offs with nine games left. Leicester and Burnley are sure to go up. We'll be hoping for 2015.

No, I haven't been.

11 up

We've had a better start to the season than last year and sit in fifth behind Burnley, QPR, Leicester and Forest, only the latter of whom we've played (1-1 at the Vic). We lost at Blackpool and Blackburn and put six past Bournemouth and five past Barnsley, contributing to us being top scorers in the league. Meanwhile, Palace, who tamed us in a boring play-off final in May, are second bottom and sure to come back down. Automatic promotion is a long way away and not going to be any easier this year than last.
It's still early, obviously, and not until Nov 9th will many of the top sides have played any one (or two) of the others, by which time - admittedly - there may be a different look to the top six.

Top of the league

I know it doesn't count after just two games but our 6-1 demolition of newly-promoted Bournemouth at the Vic put us top of the Championship on goal difference. Troy Deeney scored the Horns' first hat trick since 2003. I will make sure I see some games this year.

22 seconds

Watford went into the home leg of the play-off semis 1-0 down to Leicester and scored a great first goal through Vydra to balance things up before Nugent scored his second of the tie. The Czech championship-player-of-the-year then poached a second to make things all square. Four minutes of added time were extended due to an injury and it was with 95 minutes on the clock that their French winger won a tie-winning penalty with a dive. I was in the New Rose on Essex Road, with a Leicester fan I'd met there, and started complaining that this was no way to behave.

Lockaert then got up and took the penalty. It was weak and Almunia saved it with his legs and got in the way of a dinked follow-up from the same cheat. The ball was hooked away and next thing you know, the Horns were breaking down the right. The ball was passed to Forestieri to deliver a cross that was cushion-headed back by Johnathon Hogg - who had run faster than anyone else on the pitch to get from our penalty box to their goal line - for Troy Deeney to blast in from close range just 22 seconds after the penalty kick and Watford were in the final at Wembley on the 27th. My description does the drama no justice.
Palace beat Brighton away after a goalless first leg and it is them we will meet. I am confident of getting tickets but have my fingers crossed.

Drama

Drama. I saw before I left for the pub that our first-choice keeper had been injured during the warm-up. When I got to the pub, the stand-in was prostrate, head being supported by a medic. Sixteen minutes were added to the first half and nineteen year old academy graduate, Jack Bonham, came on to play in our biggest game for years.
A defensive mix-up gave Leeds the lead. The Horns needed to better Hull's result so defeat was not in the script. Almen Abdi took a pass after a great run by Ikechi Anya and slotted a great shot into the top corner. 1-1. Game on.
In Hull, the champions Cardiff took the lead. As it stood, Watford were automatically promoted. There was a long time left, though. Before Watford's second half had begun, Hull scored and minutes later took the lead. Nothing Watford could do would be enough.
Watford were nervy. There were no great chances and then Troy Deeney dove in and got himself a second yellow and marching orders. Head-in-hands time.
Because of the stoppage time, Hull's game was in its 90th minute when we still had more than quarter of an hour to play. The screen flipped to Hull's game: they had a penalty. Saved! But still, they were 2-1 up. Back to Watford: a chance, another chance. Agh. The screen split to show Hull again. Cardiff had a penalty now. They scored: 2-2. The game finished minutes later. Watford had plenty of time to score and go up in second place but with 10 men and not looking like they could. The fans got behind them, lifted the atmosphere for a push for that goal. There was pressure, there were half-chances. Nothing. We edged closer and closer to the 90th minute. Leeds broke, long ball, player took a weak chip. And our young keeper, what was he doing? It was not clear what he intended but the ball hit his palms and kept going...and into the net. 2-1 down with a few minutes left and no way back.
It was saddening and the poor young keeper will never forget his nightmare. On the way home, though, I was able to appreciate the excitement and drama of the previous two hours and got home to tell my too-young-to-understand-anything-but-the-breathlessness son the story.

We're in the playoffs against Leicester, while Brighton play Palace. No way I'll be able to get a ticket for either leg so just have to hope we make it to the final and there are enough to go around.

It all comes down to this...

I can't remember such an exciting final day and I won't be there. Watford are third, a point behind second-placed Hull with one game each to play. Hull have failed in the last two games to get the points they need to ensure automatic promotion, giving the Horns the opportunity to close a gap that opened up again after we went to their stadium and won. This Saturday, Watford host mid-table nothing-to-play-for Leeds, while Hull are visited by already-champions Cardiff. They have the harder game on paper and have already choked twice but who knows? Watford's game is live on Sky so although I couldn't get one of the tickets (it's sold out) I will be watching as it all plays out. Come on you Horns!

Goal-tastic

 Watford are in third (though Leicester have two games in hand and are only three points behind) after thumping Birmingham 4-0 at St Andrews. The Horns have the best away record in the division and - as the BBC reports below - have scored the most goals.

One of our many loans from Udinese, the Czech international Matej Vydra, is our top scorer with 19 so far this season while Troy Deeney is having a great season and has netted 12 times. I have not been. My little boy is 18 months old and I will have to think carefully about whether I would buy a season ticket if we went up. It's great to have such a dilemma: with 10 points between us and seventh place, a play-off place looks likely with 14 games left.

On the road

The Horns aren't doing too bad in Yorkshire. A 6-1 win at Elland Road on 10th of this month was followed up with a 4-1 win at Hillsborough tonight. We've gone undefeated in the month and moved right up to 8th. Not going too bad: the team seems to have gelled.

Crashing out

The Pozzo's football team was involved in big cup action today at home. That was Udinese in the Champions League. Their English team was involved at a slightly lower level, fielding a second string at home to Bradford in the Capital One Cup. I glimpsed at the text service on the BBC a couple of times and left it when we went 1-0 up in the 70th minute. When I looked again, we'd let in two and lost to League Two opposition.
The eternal excuse is that we are concentrating on the league. With six points from the first three games, we've had a good start (beat Palace away, lost at home to Ipswich and beat Birmingham). We're in fifth, three teams are unbeaten and Blackpool have won three out of three. At the other end, Palace and Peterborough are yet to get off the mark. Our real aim is for new manager Gianfranco Zola to take us higher than the eighth that the sacked ex-manager Sean Dyche took us to last season. Playoffs would be nice.

New owners at the Vic

The deal has not been done but it looks likely that the Pozzos, who own Granada in la Liga and Udinese in Seria A, will buy the Horns from Laurence Bassini, who is hardly a hit amongst fans. The Pozzo family have money and football pedigree. I foresee taking my son to Premiership games before too long.

Put your money where your mouth is

I do enjoy a gamble and wrote about my biggest win before on this blog more than once. My favourite win, however, was telling an ex-colleague she was wrong when she said she'd been to the capital of Kazakhstan and winning £2 when - to her surprise - she discovered it had been moved from Almaty to Astana after she'd visited.
I've placed a few bets during Euro 2012, where, after taking 7 points out of 9 in the group stage "England unexpectedly expect" according to a Guardian headline. I had money on Danny Welbeck to score against Sweden but my biggest win so far was £11.78 on Rooney to score and England to beat Ukraine at 4/1 with William Hill. Watched the match with Faisel, Allen and Ruben at the Garage, Islington and celebrated the surprise of avoiding Spain in the quarter-finals.
France have that pleasure. Some of my quarter-final bets are made. I bet £20 on Portugal and Germany to win and got in-play evens on Portugal today so won a tenner from a late Ronaldo goal (and my double is still alive). I also put a "cheeky" fiver on Spain v France and England v Italy to both be draws at 90 mins. 8.57/1, so worth a flutter.

My biggest loss, incidentally, came with 2 bets on Russia when they lost 1-0 to Greece and went out of the competition. I'm hoping Greece don't do the double over me against the Germans tomorrow.

2011-2012

Despite being in the country for the entire season, I never got to see the Horns this year. They finished well: we didn't lose in March, winning at Bristol City and Leeds and beating Ipswich with a draw in that month and four in May, as well as a first defeat at home to Blackpool, who made the play-offs, before finishing with a win over Middlesbrough, who finished 7th. The Golden Boys ended in 11th, four positions higher than I'd imagined was possible. Next season, I will get there and hopefully take my son to his first game(s).
Reading were champions and Southampton join them in the Premiership, achieving consecutive promotions, while West Ham, who looked favourites to return for so long, play Cardiff. Blackpool have Birmingham to deal with.
Chelsea beat Barcelona to get to the Champions League final against Bayern in Munich, meaning the expected all-Spanish affair never materialised. Tottenham still look a possibility for the fourth CL place but a Chelsea victory on May 19th would render Spurs' blistering first half of the season meaningless. Their recent blips, if such a prolonged period of failure can be termed such, was said by some to be the unsettling effect of the imminent departure of their manager for the England post vacated by Capello over the (ahem - allegedly) racist Terry's treatment. The appointment of Roy Hodgson to lead the national team to the Euros over tax-dodging Redknapp means the latter can prove himself all over again in the Premiership next year.

Seven out of nine

There have been several games since I posted last but coming from behind to beat Burnley at the Vic, followed by a draw at second-placed West Ham and a victory at Derby's Pride Park has done wonders for our league position. One of our loanees - Alex Kacaniklic from Fulham (the other is ManU's  Tomasz Kuszczak) - got assists for both goals on Saturday and scored the week before that. We've now reached a giddy 14th and another season's safety has been ensured.

Eternally eighteenth

Despite defeat at home last week and a 3-0 beating at St Andrews yesterday, WFC are still in 18th. With the two teams directly above us losing too, we haven't slid backwards but ground has been made below us with Bristol City and Millwall both notching up victories.Darius Henderson got his second consecutive hat-trick for the Lions at Bansley. I'd have him back.

Lagging behind

I stuck a tenner on us today, fancying us to beat a Reading side that are up in the playoff positions. The match was live on Sky Sports 2 so I was able to stream it through EPL site (a bit laggy, but ok). The Horns scored first when Cummings stabbed into his own goal but Reading were back in it before half time and looked likely to get the late goal that the commentator started tempting fate about. Their sub came on and sunk us.

The fourth round tie is on the Friday and you have to have been to another game this season to have a chance of getting ONE ticket. Luckily - I suppose - Virgin gave us a month's free ESPN and they are screening it so I'll be watching a second live match on a screen at home this month. It won't be the feed that lags in that match.

Spurs come a-calling

Watford's unbeaten run came to an end in the first game of the year. They'd beaten Darlington 4-1 at the Vic on NYE (Sordell got 2) but went down 2-0 at Fratton Park a couple of days later. They are currently 18th and have been there and about since October. With the league pretty tight, a winning run could put them right up there but it doesn't look likely (from this armchair, anyway).
On Saturday, the Horns battered Bradford 4-2 in the cup third round and the following day were drawn home again to slightly bigger opposition. Tottenham - flying high in 3rd in the Premiership - come calling on the 28th January and I am hoping to be there for my first game since April. COYH!

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.

daddy's little star

Sofa so mediocre

Sean Dyche's reign did not begin well but a first win of the season yesterday at the Madjeski has added a tint of blue to the stratosphere. Hammered by West Ham in a game I was refused permission by my wife from going to, it took a draw that felt like a point won at home to Birmingham before the international break for The 'Orns to feel like the fates were not against them.

15th, this season, I reckon and I'm not sure I'll get to any of them now the next Watford Boy is here.

All change at the Vic

The manager's gone to Cardiff, we've sold Danny Graham and more.