Spasmodic Apoplexy
By Pete Fincham
So the West Ham curse continues. Excluding the obvious hiccup last season where both sides had not read the script, you have to go back to Vicarage Road in 1986-87 for a Watford league game with West Ham that did not end in a 1 goal victory to the Hammers. Even our 'recent' FA and League Cup defeats to them have all gone East by the single goal.
You'd have thought at 2-0 up that finally the jinx had been broken. Hearing Mozza's volley of justifiable expletives on 90 minutes told its own story however, as he regaled the fact that he was now suffering twenty-one years of inexplicable hurt. After two great Watford goals in the opening twenty-one minutes, the hosts battered their way back into the game within the next ten after some questionable defending, keeping and refereeing. But in the second period Watford showed little of their first half fight as the game drifted towards yet another West Ham home win against us.
Heidar hit the post in the last minute, but the effort did not level up the scores for yet another draw following the diminutive Rebrov's first Wham league goal just before the hour. Maybe it was the loss of Puffin Eater #2 just before the break, but the midfield had a terrible second period, showing little of the strength and commitment so evident this term.
From the stands you cannot kick the ball. You can, however, use your voice to make as much of a difference as possible. In the audio morgue that most grounds have become, it is so disappointing that the best fans seem to come up with on a match by match basis are songs directed at the other team not singing! Both sets of fans sing about the other ones being quiet, cue 30 seconds of gesticulation and spasmodic apoplexy from various sections of the ground, before mass resumption of seats and general silence ensues. Is it too much to ask that we can put in just half an hour once in a while of original singing? Down the years we have never really been in the same league for song writing as so many of our peers. But the Ngonge, Rosenthal, Palmer chants of the late '90's were an essential part of those fantastic few seasons. Is it too much to ask for the Watford song mafia to come up with something just slightly original, or at the very least, related to a Watford player instead of a dormant bunch of cockneys? Mayday for Ocean….!
