Pre-season friendly
Northampton Town 1(1)
Watford 2(1)
Starting line-up: Day, Cox, Page, Ward, Robinson, Easton, Perpetuini, Norbert (triallist), Hyde, Wooter, Foley
Substitutes: Chamberlain, Gibbs, Ngonge, Smith, Panapoulos (triallist), Mooney
Scorers: Foley, Mooney
 
Comfortable
By Dave Messenger

Watford were able to indulge in something of a pre-season stroll at the Sixfields. Some of the players were clearly going through the motions and building fitness levels, others giving it a real go.

Watford moved into the lead after ten minutes when a crass piece of defending let Wooter in behind their back four, allowing him time to cross to Dominic Foley, who headed into an open goal with ex-Bristol City keeper Keith Welch left floundering. In fact, Welch took plenty of stick from the faithful who indulged in reminding him of his Second Division runners-up medal from our glorious championship season!

Talking of goalkeepers, you had to feel sorry for Chris Day. The pre-match talk was of Espen Baardsen travelling with the squad for the first time with his kit bag in tow. Day needed a good game as it's not clear who will be number two to the giant Norwegian, and unfortunately he made a complete hash of a cross for their equaliser.

Watford almost regained the lead straight away as Neil Cox rattled the Northampton woodwork. Cox played well and on many occasions was able to link in with the midfield very nicely. He's getting a much better understanding of the others now and was finding yellow shirts much more often than last season.

Good to see Robbo, though looking a tad rusty at times, manage to launch fat, diving Marco Gabbiadini a couple of times for old times sake. The Arsenal triallist Guillame Nolbert failed to shine and was replaced at half-time by the Greek triallist from Portsmouth (his name sounded like Mr Oppodopolous out of Eastenders but I'm sure we can forgive him)...who looked excellent. Easily our best player on the night, he also hit the bar and was responsible for Wooter's goal as Northampton failed to clear his cross and the little Dutchman was on hand to tap in.

Things livened up as Nordin had his dreadlocks pulled by Sampson (who looked an archetypal Second Division clogger) after scoring and for a while the lads engaged in a good old fashioned lower division scrap, proving as ever that this Watford side will always come out on top in a ruck!

Of the rest of the lads, Pagey and Ward looked solid at the back, Hyde and Easton were tidy enough without shining and Perpetuini looked busy and hungry (Kennedy's place under threat?). Wooter and Foley were okay, though Foley still can't time his jumps and Wooter still tries to do too much at times while Miller, Ngonge and Gibbs got ten minutes at the end. Overall, this was a good workout for the boys and a comfortable enough win.

Conclusions. Sign the Greek bloke from Portsmouth, send the bloke from Arsenal packing sharpish and don't ever sit near annoying people who feel the need to sing we're gonna win the league every five minutes (no pressure, lads!).