The replay no one wanted is here with Watford
making a Tuesday night trip down to St Mary’s. Win this tonight and this will
be the first of five midweek games in a row, which is a quite mental schedule
and will include a 5th round mid-week trip to Anfield. Whoopee.
Watford manager Valerian Ismail thinks he has the answers and that though
Saints will be much changed for today, he knows our system and how to combat
it. On the one hand he has a point because they have drawn twice with us this
season but on the other hand, both of those games have been at Vicarage Road
and this one isn’t.
There was a lot of interest around the team selection for tonight, with the
last day of the transfer window meaning that neither Mason Holgate or Charlie
Alcaraz are still at the club and they would definitely have been playing
tonight. As it was, four players survived from the starting lineup from the
weekend in Jan Bednarek, Che Adams, Will Smallbone and somewhat surprisingly,
Flynn Downes. Joe Lumley was given
another chance to show the goalkeeping is easier when you use your arms. Shea
Charles was deployed out of position at right back with youngster Jayden Meghoma
on the left. Captain Jack partnered Janny B at centre back. Midfielder included
Joe Rothwell it’s Stuart Armstrong’s usual slot and Che was flanked with Sekou
Mara and Tyler Dibling. Watford looked
a little more at full strength that they had in the initial FA Cup meeting and
the main thing was that Wesley Hoedt was present and will doubtless have an
evening of shit raining down on him from the Northam End.
Away we go and pissing down and Tyler Dibling is the first to show as the Dutch Caleta-Car tries to pass his way out of defence but gives the ball straight to Smallbone.
Dibling picks it up and meanders his way past left back Morris before putting
it right across the goal with no one running in to finish it off.
The first shot on target comes from another Dutch Callum Davenport mistake, as he virtually
scuffs his nose on the pitch stooping really low to head the ball out but it’s
returned by Dibling to Downes who slides in but can only half hit it straight
at Bachmann.
Watford are catching us with too many midfielders in front of the ball and their
first threatening attack sees them pissing through midfield with Downes out of
position and Smallbone showing his usual sprint speed to get back in there. The ball eventually finds its way to Kone,
who shoots, deflection off Bednarek down and looping up and Lumley watches with
feet planted as it bounces off the top of the bar and over.
The first goal will be important tonight as if we get it, it will give the
makeshift team some confidence and mean that we don’t have to empty the bench
in order to try and claw the game back like last time. We build down the left with Mara picking up
the ball in lots of space and he gets to the edge of the box, gets his head up
well and slides in a lovely ball to Che Adams, six yards out with just the
goalkeeper to beat. Guess what happens? Yep, hit the fucking goalkeeper and as
he tries to step round the sprawling defenders, the Dutch Mason Holgate gets a
foot in and stabs it off for a corner.
The rest of the first half was absolute shite and no more really needs to be
said about it. It was just ‘going through the motions’ bullshit and just
waiting for half time. All of our attacks
were breaking down on Mara or Adams and it was only Dibling offering any spark
in attack.
Second half and still pissing down and Watford break through midfield again and Chakvetadze
gets into the box followed by Shea Charles and dives between two players,
neither of whom attempt to tackle him and hits the deck. Fucking embarrassing
mate and the referee does get it spot it and dishes out a yellow card.
Almost straight away we pick the ball up on the left and Rothwell drives into
the penalty area and tries to play a 1-2 Adams but either by luck or by design
the ball doesn’t go back to Rothwell and instead it finds Sekou Mara and he uses
the swinger of a left foot that he never normally uses and smashes the ball
past Bachmann at his near post. Get in –
I can’t believe he's done that!
Tyler Dibling is really showing up well now and cruises past Morris again on the halfway line and set off towards goal before crashing to the deck. The referee decides that this is also a dive even though there is no logical reason why he would’ve done it, unlike their guy who was in penalty area. Levelling up.
Unflustered by it, Dibling turns up in the right-back area and knocks it back to Lumley who instead of whacking it up the pitch decides to play and turns the ball to Downes. He looks like he’s in trouble but spins out of it and via Charles, Dibling takes off again in a big diagonal run and gets 40 yards before being absolutely carted by Thug Porteous as he releases the ball to Adams. On to Mara, one touch, thunderbastard, goal. No one expected that – not Mara, not any of the other players, not any of the fans and certainly not Bachmann who saw it flash by him at the near post again. Having been shit on both of the goals, Bachmann collapses and we have a little break while he gets himself substituted. Just fuck off mate. Watford bring on Ben Hamer in his place.
Sam Edozie is on for Dibling and almost immediately Adams put him through with another clever ball in between the lumbering pair of the Dutch Lyanco and Porteous but all Sam can manage is a back pass.
Watford are not in the mood for Edozie and his tricks and Sierralta carts him up in the air, somersault and everything, rather than try and win the ball. Will we make him pay? Rothwell fires it over, Watford’s defenders all stop and Adams peels off the static defence to knock it into the empty net from about six yards.
Watford’s performance has tailed off, which is hard to imagine bearing in mind they’ve been shite all game and there are more goals in the offing as Porteous tries to pass out of defence like he’s actually a competent footballer and gives the ball away. One pass and Edozie is clean through coming in from an angle and he tries to give the keeper the eyes which he does successfully, but then he fucks up the finish and hits the inside of the near post and sees it bounce away.
Porteous then tries to do the same thing again and loses the ball this time to Edozie and it bounces to Sam Amo who just has the goalkeeper beat and he manages to knock it over Hamer as he comes out and hits the fucking post as well.
Liverpool here we come and that really couldn’t have been much easier. Let’s draw a veil over the first half which was absolutely shit. Che Adams missed an absolute sitter when he managed to increase his xHitTheFuckingKeeperFromAnywhere stat. Watford had that one chance which deflected and bounced off the bar.
In the second half however, we stepped it up and Watford didn’t and the goals started to flow through Mara and Adams. Watford just packed in and to be honest we should’ve scored two more but Edozie and Amo-Ameyaw brought our ‘missed sitter’ count for the game to three. Sam Amo in particular looked gutted with his miss. It’ll come fella.
To be fair to the Dutch Alan Bennett, he didn’t have the best of games with his passing but he actually looks too good a player to be playing for team that Watford side. Quite a few times he swept the ball out to wide players who couldn’t control it or didn’t look after it and his frustration was obvious. He kept on losing his shit with his own players whereas when he carted over Sam Amo at the end, he made sure he picked him up. He certainly deserves better than having to partner Ryan Porteous, who is just a big clumsy park-football thug and should certainly have got two yellow cards over the course of the game.
Whereas in the first game at Watford, none of the fringe players really did
anything to make the manager sit up and take notice but that wasn’t the case
today. Tyler Dibling was probably the biggest plus and having been somewhat
nondescript at Vicarage Road, he certainly turned on the style today and what a
style it is, very languid but very effective in the way he dribbles past players
and then puts his body in the way so they can’t catch him. It certainly is a very
young Le Tissier in the way that he moves and the socks around the ankles
certainly add to the persona. He was excellent today. Jayden Meghoma was another 17 year old who put in a really good shift. He looked a lot better defensively today as well which will come on leaps and bounds as he gets used to mens football. A couple of decent players in the making there.
Most headlines will go to Sekou Mara for his two goals. He started the game
fairly well for the first 20 minutes or so and then the second part of the
first half he didn’t look interested in the slightest and may as well not of
been out there. Goals change perception however and they also changed his
enthusiasm for the game and having scored one he looked a completely different
player and the second goal was a brilliant strike.
Che Adams had a somewhat inconsistent game, missing an absolute sitter in the
first half but he then got the assist for both of Mara’s goals and then knocked
one in himself as he was alive as a free-kick came into the box when no one else
was. Overall, for a 90 minute
performance, you take a goal and two assists and he is definitely going to be
massively useful to us in the Championship run-in, despite his contract running
down.
Joe Rothwell showed a bit more of what he was about despite being on the
receiving end of a couple of late tackles, especially the one from that useless
late lump of shit that is Porteous.
It was an interesting day for the referee as well as he correctly booked Chakvetadze
for his embarrassing dive in our penalty area and then seems to want to even it
up by booking Dibling for going down in the middle of the pitch when he had
absolutely nothing to gain and had already beaten the player. Edozie then got booked for one which for a
glorious moment, I thought was going to see Porteous get a deserved second
yellow card. I’m not a fan of diving and
hate our players doing it but hypocritically, if it gets rid of the opposition
shithouse then it’s worth the risk.
Bring on Liverpool. Maybe they will be out of contention for every other
competition by this time and it will be the last chance for Klopp to sign off
with a bit of silverware. Probably not though and with both teams having
ridiculous fixture congestion before and after the fixture and the 5th
Round being scheduled for mid-week, there’s no way either team will be at full
strength which is a bit of a shame and shows what are the powers that be think
of the FA Cup these days.
Still, we have about five league games before then and it’s much more important
to go to Anfield with our unbeaten record still intact and if we do lose at
Anfield, so fucking what.
Up the fucking Saints Reserves.
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