On Thursday evening the Watford Community Sports and Education Trust Gala dinner took place. It was a lovely event attended by players old and new. Tom Cleverley and his wife had been at the dinner last year and it was good to see them again and to congratulate Tom on his new role. He said that he was honoured to have captained the club, to be a coach and now manager. I said that he wasn’t supposed to do it all in a year. The current players in attendance were Jake Livermore, Wesley Hoedt and Dan Bachmann, who were all very positive about Tom’s appointment and were lovely to a man. I also had a chat with Jimmy Gilligan who spoke about Tom in glowing terms. All very encouraging. There was a good turn out of former players, but Lloyd Doyley takes the plaudits for still being there at the end of the evening.
Good Friday and the game had been moved to the most inconvenient time possible as it was being broadcast on television. Due to engineering work, there were no fast trains to Watford, so I took the Overground to the High Street station. As I walked towards the West Herts, I was surrounded by stewards on their way to the ground. As I looked at the young women, I wondered which of them would be wrestling me later at the turnstiles.
I arrived at the West Herts to find that it was already very busy. As it was Good Friday, the lovely woman who provides the food had added fish/scampi and chips to the menu for those “fasting”. Don was already in place, and we were soon joined by the rest of our party, or at least those who were able to get there and back home before the early hours of the morning.
As we headed for the ground, there was a man collecting for Cancer Research. He was accompanied by his dog who was looking at us with pleading eyes hoping for biscuits. The lovely hound was sadly disappointed, and I felt ridiculously guilty.
Before kick-off, Tim Coombs welcomed Tom Cleverley to the dug out for his first home match in charge. His photo was displayed on the big screen with the caption “Our Tom” which was just lovely.
Team news was that Cleverley had made three changes from the Birmingham game with Sierralta, Lewis and Bayo coming in for Morris, Koné and Chakvetadze. So, the starting XI was Bachmann; Porteous, Sierralta, Pollock; Lewis, Dele-Bashiru, Kayembe, Andrews; Dennis, Asprilla, Bayo.
The first chance of the game went to the Hornets as a corner was cleared to Andrews outside the box, but his shot was straight at Meslier in the Leeds goal. From the goal kick, Bayo picked up the ball and played it to Dennis who held on to it for too long so that when he passed to Asprilla there was no chance of creating anything. There were shouts for a penalty from the home crowd as Asprilla went down in the box while trying to get on the end of a low cross from Andrews, but the referee was unmoved. The first chance for the visitors came after 15 minutes, Georginio took a shot that was blocked, the ball rebounded to Summerville who skipped into the box and hit a curling shot that was pushed around the post by Bachmann. The Hornets took the lead after half an hour, and it was a lovely move. Kayembe won the ball in the midfield and played it out to Lewis on the left, he found Asprilla who pulled the ball back for Dennis whose powerful shot was saved by Meslier but the ball fell to Bayo who powered home sparking joyous celebrations in the Rookery. The Hornets should have had a second soon after when Asprilla intercepted the ball and played it to Dennis in the box, but he was closed down before he could shoot. Sadly, it was the visitors who scored next with a lovely curling shot from just inside the box by Summerville that gave Bachmann no chance. Thankfully, the Hornet heads didn’t drop, the next attack saw Lewis exchanging passes with Asprilla before playing in Bayo who was tackled, so the ball went out for a corner that came to nothing. Then Asprilla broke forward and took a shot that was blocked. From the resultant corner, Asprilla’s delivery was met by the head of Pollock, but the keeper was equal to his effort. The Hornets regained the lead just before half time as Dennis won a ball in the air and headed it down to Kayembe, he returned the ball to the Nigerian who broke into the box and beat a couple of defenders before curling a shot past Meslier into the bottom corner. It was another lovely goal and he celebrated with an impressive backflip. So, we went into the break with a surprising but well-deserved lead after a half in which the Hornets had dominated one of the best teams in the division.
The half time guest was David Holdsworth who talked about the League Cup game against Leeds in 1992 in which he scored the first goal in an unexpected victory against the reigning League Champions during a difficult time for the Hornets. He modestly claimed that the ball had bounced off his nose. He talked very positively about working under both Tom Walley and GT and said what a great influence John McClelland had been on him. He was also asked about working with Glenn Roeder, who is sadly missed. One little nugget that I was unaware of was that Glenn gave him great tips for the horses.
I was interested to see Ben Hamer warming up during the interval and wondered whether Bachmann would be replaced at the break, but he led the team out for the restart.
The visitors started the second half brightly as Summerville rounded Pollock and took a shot that was straight at Bachmann. The Hornets had a chance to increase their lead from an Asprilla corner that was met by the head of Pollock, but his effort was wide of the target. Then Kayembe played a great ball to Lewis on the left, but he shot straight at Meslier. Leeds then had a great chance to draw level as Summerville broke down the left and beat the defence, his shot was heading for the top corner, but Bachmann did really well to keep it out. The visitors had another chance from a free kick that was headed back across goal to Byram, his header was headed off the line by Sierralta, but the flag was up for offside.
At this point, Dennis went down and needed treatment. During the break in play, Bachmann was using the match ball for some physiotherapy. Dan continued to play, but Dennis could not and was replaced by Koné. The visitors soon made a change of their own as Cooper made way for Firpo. The Vicarage Road faithful were in very good voice at this point with a loud chorus of Tom Cleverley’s Yellow Army. Leeds had a great chance to draw level with a shot from James that Bachmann was down to save as Bamford slid in and just missed connecting. Each side made further changes as Asprilla made way for Ince for the Hornets, and Piroe, Anthony and Joseph replaced Georginio, Byram and Kamara for the visitors. Leeds drew level with 5 minutes of normal time remaining, Summerville beat Andrews and crossed for the substitute, Joseph, his initial shot was blocked, but the follow-up beat Bachmann to set up a nervous end to the game. The visitors had a great chance to take the lead soon after but were foiled as Bachmann first blocked a shot from a narrow angle by Summerville and then did brilliantly to keep out the follow-up from Anthony. Leeds had another chance from the corner, but Bachmann leapt above the crowd to make the catch. Cleverley made a final change bringing Rajović on in place of Bayo who left the field to an ovation from the Vicarage Road faithful. There was five minutes of added time during which the only incident of note was a foul on Porteous by James who appeared to step on the Watford man prompting a brief spate of handbags that went unpunished by the referee. The final whistle went to massive cheers from the home fans after a thoroughly entertaining game.
I hadn’t been looking forward to this match as I still shudder at the memory of how we were battered in the game at Elland Road and, despite having won at Birmingham, the performance hadn’t been particularly impressive against a poor team. But Tom had time to work with the team over the international break and the result was a very impressive performance. The lads worked incredibly hard and were playing as a team. The passing was much more accurate than we have been used to this season, which was really pleasing. Rose commented that we were not playing out from the back. It has been known that this was an instruction from Ismaël and that the players were not suited to it. Bachmann looked much more comfortable being able to launch the ball forward. The lads had been effective in restricting the chances for the visitors in the first half, but they allowed them more space to play in the second half and the equaliser had looked inevitable. But I would have been delighted with a point before the game, so the fact that I left the ground a little disappointed is a testament to the quality of the performance. In the stands, the crowd were up for the game and it is clear that the fans are united in wanting Tom to succeed and that can only be a good thing.
Friday night under the lights we were served up a cracking game of football which reminded me why I go week-in week-out and has me really looking forward to the trip to West Brom on Monday.
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