Ray flamin' Wilkins
Report by Ian Grant
And so Mohammed Al Fayed's weary band of third-rate commentators comes to
town. It's not too difficult to understand the Fulham fans'
anger at recent events - if seeing Mickey Adams booted out wasn't bad enough,
finding that he's been replaced by Ray Flamin' Wilkins must feel like a severe
boot in the privates. For the rest of the footballing world, however, the
prospect of having to spend slightly less time in the company of Kevin Flippin' Keegan's
shrill, earnest enthusiasm (once, just once, I'd love to hear him describe a player
as 'crap') and Wilkins' dreary witticisms is something of an
early Christmas present. One can only hope that there's a job for Mark Bloody
Lawrenson too...
Of course, there are plenty of changes afoot at Vicarage Road too. On this
occasion, we had Harry Hornet dancing in the centre circle (imagine Dipsy, only
with less co-ordination) and a PA system that blasted out music every time
we scored. I think it was music, anyway - after so long with a PA that consisted
of little more than a hoarse bloke with a loudhailer, we now have a monstrosity so noisy
that all you can make out is a thunderous rumbling underneath your feet. Perhaps it's
not a PA at all, perhaps it's the latest in mole prevention technology.
Let's push on, shall we? This was a game of two Watfords. The Watford that
insists on hoisting huge punts in the hope that Jason Lee might make something
happen and the Watford that zips the ball around on the green stuff to leave
the opposition chasing shadows. Although Fulham were more than able to deal with the
former, the defeat reflects their failure to cope with the more mobile threat
of Ronny Rosenthal and Gifton Noel-Williams, both of whom had outstanding matches.
The scoreline flatters Watford in the same way that Ray Wilkins is ever so
slightly losing his hair. In truth, there was little to choose between the
two sides - except in the final third, where Fulham created good chances and
wasted them with over-eager, snatched attempts while Watford displayed
a genuinely ruthless bite in attack (for once).
It was an absorbing game for Watford fans, a match that never settled into a
predictable pattern and never answered all the questions it raised. Having started
off on the defensive after early Fulham pressure, our natural instincts took
hold - we wellied the ball onto Jason Lee's head, he flicked it on to the
Fulham keeper. On Saturday, we were forced out of our passing rhythm by an
excellent Millwall side; last night, we hit the long ball because we're a bit
thick.
The midfield of Richard Johnson and Micah Hyde, usually the main supply
route for passes to the creative players' feet, spent most of the half watching the ball fly
over their heads from the central defenders towards Lee. The fact that Lee was having a stinker didn't help -
more than anything, his positional sense seemed completely absent as he was
consistently found in the wrong place at the right time. Without having
seen them before, you'd have been hard pushed to identify Lee as a former
Premiership striker and Noel-Williams as a seventeen year old novice. Not
greatly surprising, then, that our first serious effort on goal came from
a set piece, Paul Robinson curling a superb free kick against the bar.
At the Rookery end, our defending alternated between howling errors and utter
heroism. For example, Tommy Mooney's appallingly misdirected header fell into the
path of a grateful Fulham player and the driven cross was diverted away from an
on-rushing forward by the boot of Keith Millen (at considerable risk of sending it
into his own net). Later, Mooney was to return the favour...
When it arrived, the goal was indicative of just how much we waste our talents
with long ball nonsense. Noel-Williams rounded off a brilliant half (he was
quick, strong and mobile - and he caused just as many problems as the more
flamboyant Rosenthal) with a sensational turn and pass to Micah Hyde. Hyde,
ignoring the fans' pleas for a shot, played the ball into Rosenthal's run and,
from a tight angle, Ronny buried his finish across the face of the goal and into
the bottom corner. We all know we're capable of such moments and playing to
our strengths might enable us to conjure them up a little more often.
Quite how Fulham failed to equalise within a couple of minutes of the re-start
remains something of a mystery. What is clear is that Keith Millen should be
hung, drawn and quartered for standing and protesting to allow Fulham to take a
very quick free-kick, catching the entire Watford defence cold. From the resulting
cross, a shot hit the underside of the bar and the rebound was somehow blocked
on the line by (I'm guessing here) Tommy Mooney's body. You know the opposition's
gone close when your fans celebrate the failure to score as if it were a goal of
their own...
The second half, while hardly the stuff of dreams, was much better. For a start,
we played different passes into Lee - mainly at his chest, enabling him to hold the
ball up and lay it off, rather than at his head, forcing him to flick it on to
no-one. Consequently, we brought other players into the attacking
moves more often and more productively. Lee himself had a greatly improved second
period, finding decent positions and using possession with more intelligence.
In addition, we appeared to push Paul Robinson forward - he spent much of the half
appearing in positions that would make even Peter Kennedy seem a bit cautious, of
which more later. We still didn't have a lot of width (and what we did have was
too often wasted - welcome back, Mr Bazeley) but an additional runner from (very) deep
did add to our threat.
And, finally, our defenders occasionally remembered who those two blokes in front
of them were. Thus Hyde and Johnson were able to do what they do best, probing and
poking passes around the pitch to open up possibilities. It wasn't just like watching
Brazil but, fortunately, it was no longer just like watching f***ing Lincoln either.
Ironically, it was a fairly primitive move that lead to the first incident of the
half - a swinging cross from virtually the half-way line onto the head of
Lee which brought a massive header from the centre forward. It looked like it was going miles over, before
it looped over the keeper, under the bar and into the net. Sadly, he was (harshly) penalised
for a foul on the defender - it would've been an extraordinary goal.
We could've done with that cushion, as Fulham's attacks fluctuated between
feeble, stagnant patient passing and genuinely dangerous counter-attacks. One of
the latter efforts led to a great opening, a striker wasting the opportunity with a
diving header into the side netting. Moments later, a shot flew inches wide
of Alec Chamberlain's goal.
We possessed the greater quality, however. And, in particular, that quality
belonged to Ronny Rosenthal. He nearly added a second with a storming charge into
the area, aided by an astute, defender-distracting run by Noel-Williams, and
a shot that beat the keeper but was cleared by a defender.
As the game entered its final minutes, we were still full of strange
contradictions. The Watford midfield was doing its best to see the game out,
Johnson and Hyde obsessively chasing the ball until a player under pressure
would give it away - as soon as Fulham had managed to work themselves away from
one of them, the other would pop up to prevent any white-shirted player from getting a
moment's peace. The Watford defence, meanwhile, had become so determined not to
resort to the long ball that they preferred risk disaster by farting around with
one touch passing moves in their own penalty area.
The result of all this was that, while Fulham rarely managed to find a way
past the constant harassment from our midfield, they created good chances when
they did so. Moody found a goal-bound header blocked by Mooney, another striker
threw away another clear opportunity with a laughably weak shot. And that's why
we won - Fulham had no composure in front of goal and failed to make the most of
some very dangerous positions. Even when they hit the bar at the end of the first half, the situation would've resulted in a certain goal
had the cross been better - as it was, the striker had to hook the ball from an awkward angle.
As if to illustrate the point, we added a second just before the end. Again, it
was Noel-Williams who set it up, running through before picking the right moment to
slip the ball into Paul Robinson. The youngster beat the keeper with all the
confidence of a striker for his first Watford goal. It was another neat goal and another
example of what can be achieved with relatively simple passes and runs - we need to
start learning that lesson. Maybe we are learning it - another smart move saw Micah
Hyde come close to adding a third, slashing a shot over the bar, but 3-0 would've been a total injustice.
On balance of play, chances created, effort put in and pretty much everything
else, we didn't deserve these three points. But the reality is that our additional
quality in the final third, albeit sporadic and frustrating, needs to see us to
victories like this. The difference between us and every other side in this division isn't
necessarily massive - but last night there was a difference and it was
that we won. We made the quality count.
Robbo is my hero...
Report by Nick Grundy
I knew I was going to enjoy this game before it started, and this was
principally due to the presence in the starting line-up of Paul Robinson.
For some reason, he's come to occupy a Very Important Place in my mind; due
to his performances last season, and because I only ever saw him play
averagely at worst and brilliantly at best, I decided then that he was
absolutely wonderful and was going to be something that, in years to come,
I could pluck from the dross of last season and hold up as an example of
something good that came of it. Much of this was due to his murderous
tackling, of course, and his never-give-it-up attitude; without a doubt my
moment of last season was his tackle against Wycombe, about ten minutes in,
on the right as you look from the Vic Road end, and right in front of me at
the time, because it combined the two so well. Similarly, my second biggest
regret is that he didn't attempt to cripple Steve Lomas against Man City.
Anyway, on the basis of his performance last night, I was rather
gratifyingly right.
However, more of him when I get bored of writing about how awful most of
the first half was. The game began poorly - Fulham made us attack the Vic
Road end first half, and then spent the first five minutes in our half. You
know your report is going to be less than glowing, however, when your own
team is incapable of dealing with Fulham's largely, well, uninteresting
attacks. It's not that they were especially bad, merely devoid of anything
even approaching flair, excitement or - well, interest. I suppose we should
expect this of most forward lines containing Paul Moody, who remains the
player most likely to cause damage to a small building with a moderate run
up outside of the Bury team. Ian Selley, too - he was playing in midfield,
obviously, but how Fulham can have paid half a million pounds for a player
as average as him is beyond me (It's called having Ray Wilkins as manager - Ed). It occurred to me midway through the half,
shortly after I realised that Darren Bazeley was still incapable of
crossing (but more of that later...), that ¾500k would have bought two Micah
Hydes, and for all his Pink Panther like qualities (vanishing?), he was
significantly more exciting to watch than Selley.
He was responsible for our first goal, too, I think - some of the people I
was with (thanks to Libby for driving, incidentally!) thought it was Jason,
but I think it was Micah. This is principally because he seemed horribly
goal-shy when he received the ball on the edge of the box in a bit of a
space - instead of shooting, he allowed himself to get closed down...or so
we thought until he slipped a lovely little ball through the inside right
channel (I'm not sure what this is, but it sounds about right) for RR to
run onto, control, and lash past Arendse in the Fulham goal from a tight
angle.
Micah stayed in the game for long periods today - I just found that he was
making his presence felt more than he has in midfield, tackling more, and
generally putting himself about more. Also, despite finding space in
midfield at almost as much of a premium as it was against Millwall, he
dropped off and pushed up intelligently to give himself more time on the
ball, and this almost produced a second goal when, picking up a pass on the
edge of the box, he again declined to shoot and lofted a perfectly weighted
chip back across and into the box for GNW to head narrowly over. The
starburst free kick routine got another airing, too, this time with Paul
Robinson hitting a ball from 25 yards that bent savagely before rebounding
off the angle of post and bar. He even takes set pieces...
Those three efforts apart, our decent goalscoring chances were restricted
by a Fulham midfield and defence who looked genuinely hungry for the ball -
both were adept not just at snapping at the heels of Hyde and the
ever-industrious Johnson, but also at cutting out through balls and passes
out wide. And at winning free kicks from another truly atrocious ref whose
request to a Vic Road Ender baying for his blood to "Sit down" was not only
ill-advised but frankly stupid. Anyway, Fulham looked well-organised and a
pretty tidy unit - they seemed reasonably happy to pass the ball in defence
until someone could put a clearance, rather than a hoof, in, and although
their play down the flanks was pretty terrible, their central midfield,
notably Selley, very rarely gave away possession.
It was lucky their play down the flanks was so weak, though, because while
Robbo on the left was so effective I can think of perhaps one decent cross
they got in from that side all game, Darren Bazeley on the right was
pathetic. Midway through the second half, Steve commented, as Baze
shepherded the ball out for a throw, on how good he looked when he didn't
have to touch the ball. Sadly, this was a pretty accurate summary of his
performance. I'd be the first to admit that it looked very impressive when
he surged upfield, or when he put his arms up to request the ball from a
goal kick. When, however, he received the ball on one of these runs and he
swung another cross to a point a metre beyond the back post remarkable only
for its complete lack of any Watford players, or into the legs of the
fullback he'd just skinned quite impressively, you have to ask some
questions about what he's been doing with his training time since returning
from injury. It's a sorry state of affairs when we can't complain about
Darren crossing into the stand because he couldn't even get the ball past
his fullback. Baze needs to sort his game out sharpish - "potential" is a
word often used in connection with the guy, but his hair is now officially
going grey...
So, offensively during the first half we were pretty feeble, bar a few
moments of (largely individual) skill, and largely outfought. Defensively
we looked a little shaky - SuperTom in particular with a couple of howlers
- without looking like conceding more than the goal Fulham probably
deserved just before half time. Continuing the disturbing trend we showed
against Millwall of failing to clear the ball, we allowed a cross to reach
Moody at the back post, and his header from about six yards out came back
off the underside of the bar to a Fulham player (probably Conroy) about
eight yards out, whose goalbound effort was brilliantly cleared off the
line by someone who looked suspiciously like Robbo.
We were a little better second half, and certainly a lot more cohesive as
a team. The defence sharpened up a little, although Page showed some
uncharacteristic lapses in concentration, and we were lucky that first a
woeful backpass and then some dreadful positioning which allowed a cross to
be headed narrowly wide by Conroy from six yards, both by Baze, went
unpunished. Even so the work of the midfield was complemented by some
powerful running from Robbo and Ronny, and Gifton even began to read Jase's
flicks for a while. Ronny and GNW both looked really hungry last night, and
they both ran their proverbial socks off. Gifton's runs across the face of
the Fulham defence really opened space up for Ronny to run into, and
generally these two moving up front lessened the onus on Johnno and Hyde in
midfield.
Having said this, it's to Fulham's credit that our win didn't look certain
until Robbo scored a few minutes before the end. A ball from the left
arrived at Gifton's feet, and he carried it into the box before spotting
Robinson's surge forward, and laying it off for Robbo to slam past Arendse.
He deserved it. And that was it, really - not the most memorable of games,
but an enormous relief after Millwall. When you perform badly against the
third-placed team in the division and are unlucky to lose, I think it's
fair to say you're doing all right. Most important thing to emerge from this
game, though, is the need for a chant for Paul Robinson, 'cos he's great.
Draughty
Report by Matt Bunner
Last night was the defining moment that announced winter was here, but
as my father aptly put it, "The football season starts here: if it ain't
cold, it's not football". I don't mind the cold, it's the pesky wind that
literally gets up my nose and when you're sporting a hard new hair
style, the wind is not a welcome friend. I had just warmed up in the
farcical scrum outside the turnstyles, forbidding us to see the first
five minutes, when I took my seat in the extra upper, extra left part of
the Rous. I was the furthest left supporter in the Rous stand,
exposing me to the nippy wind. If any of you were wondering what the
chattering was, it wasn't Wilkins biting his nails, it was my knees
involuntarily knocking together. But I didn't care; I'm prepared to
suffer the hardships if it means the boys win.
I assume that nothing interesting happened in the first five minutes, so
the first piece of action I saw was a chance for GNW, who screwed his
limp shot past the post. The rest of the half saw a continuation of
Saturday's effort, whereby Watford were content to hoof the long ball to
Lee and GNW and expect them to do miracles with it.
Here, I must stop and explain to the muppets surrounding me, both on
Saturday and last night, that although Lee and GNW are big, slightly
cumbersome, men, they cannot be expected to do everything. Lee's job, if
we persist in hoofing it, is to win the header when surrounded (he does
that) and to control the ball when there's time (he also does that). It
is the job of the rest of the players to support the big men up front by
picking up the knock downs. You can have all the skill in the world, but
if you ain't got support, nothing will happen. Lee will never be like
Rosenthal, so why do some supporters insist that he should beat his man?
Although I'm not totally satisfied with Lee's input, you have to take
him at face value and stop criticising him - it's our loss in the end.
Oh, and as the for the bloke behind me who said that GNW's a waste of
space...
Where was I? I know. The half was crying, almost blubbing, for a Watford
man to stand on the ball on the centre spot and announce to his team
mates to take a deep breath, calm down and play football. This kick and
rush stuff was, I thought, consigned to the last season's bin, but it
seems that someone's been down the tip and brought it back. Looking at
Fulham, they weren't really as good as Millwall, so why the panic? It
took a free-kick against the bar by Robinson to settle us down. After
a few minor half chances (notably a Bazeley effort with his left foot -
tee hee!), Hyde started to string some passes together - hurrah! He
seemed to be living in the 'D' towards the end of the first half and it was
his incisive pass to Ronnie that created the first goal: wide on the
right, Ronnie hit/scuffed/placed the ball under the 'keeper's arm into
the corner of the net. Cue relief. Immediately after that Fulham had
their best chance when they hit the bar after a cock-up/give-away in the
Watford defence and it was scrambled away, but the best move of the half
saw GNW streaking down the left (Rous side) over the half-way line
cutting inside and sending a ball to someone-I-can't-remember and he
chipped a delightful ball to GNW who punched a header just wide.
Quality. I think we deserved the lead at half-time.
The second half was slightly better, but I think that was due to
Fulham's approach to the game. They came out wanting to score which left
spaces in the midfield which we occasionally exploited. Fulham had their
chances, mainly due to our defensive f*ck-ups (Page and Bazeley stand
up) but couldn't score because of great covering by Mooney and defenders
continually throwing themselves in the way. Our main source of danger
was Ronnie who was outstanding and easily, by the proverbial country
mile, man-of-the-match. He continually ran at the Fulham defence in a
way they couldn't cope with, the best being a 40 yard ran that took him
past three defenders only to see his shot booted off the line. Lee had a
goal disallowed because he won the ball in the air too easily and Lee
had a one-on-one with 'keeper, but his legs were tied in knots and so
couldn't put it in.
It was a good, open half, but the doom merchants around me, instead of
looking at the scoreboard and seeing we were 1-0 up, decided to cast a
cloud over the chilly Vic by forecasting a Fulham goal and one even
said, "They could win this!". Oh please! Have faith and confidence in
your side! We are winning and they have to chase the game, so the gaps
will appear and we're more likely to get a second (although I was
worried when two Fulham players converged inside the area with just
Chamberlain to beat 5 minutes from time but, praise the lord, they got
in each other's way) and so it proved as Robinson was put through and
tucked the ball in with 2 minutes to go. There was just enough time for
Hyde to knock over some Fulham fans with a rasper that should have been
bulging the net.
Although the team performance was not wonderful, it was enough against a
Fulham side that caused some problems, but were fundamentally error
prone. The three points was vital and was sweetened by the news that
Northampton and Millwall both drew. Ronnie was easily MOTM; Hyde played
well; Johnson was OK and Page had a poor game by his standards, but the
worst performance (after the supporters behind me) was Bazeley. I know
he's been injured and playing right back, but he was fundamentally crap.
He couldn't cross, defend, shoot, head, position himself correctly, etc
and he kept giving the ball away. Give me Gibbs any day.
Cold it may have been, but internally there was a little glow of
contentment.