Main Menu
Contents
What's New
Search
Comments
BLIND, STUPID AND DESPERATE
 
95/96 review:
February
 
Barnsley 2 Watford 1 (Penrice)
Watford 1 Charlton Athletic 2 (Phillips)
Crystal Palace 4 Watford 0
Watford 2 Ipswich Town 3 (Millen, Palmer)
Stoke City 2 Watford 0

Those of a sensitive disposition might like to turn away at this point. We lost every game in February - this was the month, if you want to pick one, when we were relegated. Defeat at Barnsley sent us to the bottom of the division and we stayed there for another two and a half months.

I can remember hardly anything about the Charlton game - I guess my brain's conveniently discarded the gruesome details so that I never have to think about it again. I returned home from that defeat feeling that we were relegated - the first time I'd really contemplated and understood the magnitude of the situation. Despite Kevin Phillips' return to goal-scoring, we were cack and Charlton's kids comprehensively outplayed us in an appalling second half.

Worse was to come, however. We'd been asking for a beating for a while - our defence was all over the place, our midfield was looking lost and helpless, our attack was so horribly isolated - and we got it at Palace. Devon White got a hero's welcome before the game but he was powerless to change the course of this game. In truth, although we were awful beyond belief, two of the goals were down to errors by Kevin Miller so the scoreline made Palace look a little better than they were but it was increasingly clear that we were doomed.

Glenn Roeder was sacked a couple of days after the Palace game, Graham Taylor returned with Luther Blissett and Kenny Jackett to take over the club. You probably know my opinions on the Roeder issue - I haven't changed my mind on that one either.

Taylor's first game brought many fans back to the Vic and we came very close to grabbing three vital points, taking a two goal lead in a magnificent first half. Sadly, our fragile confidence fell apart when Ipswich came back at us in the second half and they eventually pulled back the deficit and scored the winner. If the new management team had any doubts about the scale of the problems they were faced with, this game should have given them a fairly good idea. A routine Wednesday night win for promotion-chasing Stoke followed to complete our worst month - by this time we were way adrift at the bottom and hoping for a miracle.