I suppose one of the benefits (not the right word I know!) of setting standards as low as we’ve done in the first half of the season is that you get more games where there is no expectation of a win and so the team gets a “free hit”. Sheffield United was one of them, for all of the good it did, and tomorrow’s visit to a Watford side with nine wins from their eleven home games this season has the feel of another one.
The fall out from Thursday’s gutless (by at least half of the team anyway) showing at Oxford has been significant and I believe attitudes towards those who are regarded as senior players at the club has changed. possibly for ever.
You never know, the viciousness of the reaction towards the team may have persuaded some of the shirkers to pull their finger out and start to show they care, but I wouldn’t count on it.
I’m at the stage now where, if I were manager, I would change the balance of the side to favour the younger players at the club who have been doing the business at under 21 level all season. Yes, I know and accept that suddenly parachuting about half of the under 21 team into the senior side for Championship games carries big risks, but, with a smattering of senior pros with the right attitude (there are a few still) included, are we really saying that such a team would be any worse than the wasters that represented the club on Boxing Day?
I don’t expect there to be such a dramatic change of emphasis in team selection tomorrow, but, even if there is, it’s hard to see anything else than yet another defeat as we enter a phase of the season. which looks to be made up of tougher fixtures than the last nine we’ve played which brought us just three points.
Not sure if my quiz brightens or adds to the gloom over this holiday period, but, whatever the case, here it is.
60s. Nicknamed “shorty”, he started off with babies where his form earned him a move to what were the junior partners in the city they played in. His first game for his new club was at Ninian Park and ended up in a 3-2 defeat with the goals all being scored by City players. For a while, he became first choice under a new manager, and, after a series of close misses, the sought after promotion was achieved with our man playing in the majority of games. However, he eventually fell so far down the club pecking order that the same manager was quoted as saying he considered an under 12s player to be better than him. Hardly surprisingly, another transfer followed, albeit a highly unusual one to a club with a nickname that is the name of a river which runs through two other countries. While at this club, he played in a European tie where his team achieved, arguably, the most famous win in their history in the first leg. However, despite not playing any part in the incident which caused the opposing goalkeeper to be carried off with an injury, he was, apparently, targetted for reprisals in the return leg and had to leave the field with a head injury – with the opposition chipping away at their first leg deficit in a time when there were no subs allowed, he returned to the field of play to help see his team through. Eventually losing his place again, his next, and final, move took him to Watford, where he was a regular starter for four years before the arrival of a north Walian brought about his demotion from the team and eventual retirement. Who am I describing?
70s. This north eastener didn’t really get too far at the local club he began with, but it was a different story when he signed for Watford as he clocked up exactly two hundred league appearances for them with his goals coming at a rate, nearly one in every four matches, which suggests I might be right in thinking he was sometimes used up front by them. He spent six years at Vicarage Road before moving on to a club with an unusual strip that would definitely have been considered bigger than Watford at the time even if they were at something of a historical low point when he signed for them. There was a move to the old First Division two years later to a team that were definitely considered the senior partners in the city rivalry stakes at the time although they would soon fall into a decline that would take them to lower levels than their neighbours experienced. After not really establishing himself in his two years at his fourth club, his final transfer took him outside the UK to a star studded outfit that were definitely the most glamorous team in the league in which they competed in, but who is he?
80s. New, but frail, collie helps provide midfielder. (6,8)
90s. Atmospheric phenomenon seen in this country last month appears the next day for a temporary stay at Watford!
00s. Which City player from this decade is being described here?
“Not exactly the most auspicious of Watford careers, this. …… was signed by Roeder as a creative midfielder and played just one game for the Hornets – it was Roeder’s last, a horrendous 4-0 drubbing at Palace. The only lasting impression of …… is that he got caught in possession far too often – but I felt at the time that that was as much to do with total lack of movement up front as anything else. Anyway, Roeder was sacked, Taylor took over and…… returned the short distance to his parent club.”
10s. He’s got a four inch scar on his face as a legacy of a knife wound suffered during a gang fight in 2011, he resurrected his failing football career through his exploits for the Knitters, played for Watford against us during this decade and is currently with one of our relegation rivals, who is he?
20s. Name the former City player, currently with the Pride of the North, who was an unused sub for Watford in a game against us in this decade.
Answers:
60s. Bert Slater was only five foot eight, but such short goalkeepers were not too unusual in the game when he started with Falkirk (the Bairns) in the 50s. Slater moved to Liverpool in 1959 and made his first appearance against City at Ninian Park in a game where both of Liverpool’s goals were scored by home centre half, Danny Malloy,. Bill Shankly’s appointment as manager saw Slater confirmed as first choice keeper for a while, but, despite being a regular in Liverpool’s Second Division winning side in 1962, he was soon out in the wilderness, a situation which was ended by Shankly’s brother bob signing him for Dundee (nicknamed the Dee). Slater was the goalkeeper in Dundee’s 8-1 win over West German Champions Cologne at Dens Park and he defied injury in the second leg to bring his side back up to eleven as Cologne were threatening a very unlikely comeback during a run which eventually saw Dundee lose to eventual winners AC Milan in the Semi Finals. Slater signed for Watford in 1965 and played over a hundred and thirty league games for them before he was displaced by Mike Walker.
70s. Terry Garbett only played seven league games for Watford before signing for Watford in 1966. Moving on to Third Division Blackburn in 1972, Garbett did well enough to get a move to First Division Sheffield United and was in at the start of a decline which would see them drop to the Fourth tier eventually. Well before that though, Garbett had been signed by Pele’s club New York Cosmos where he stayed for three years before retiring in 1979.
80s. Willie Falconer.
90s. Steve Morrow – STEVE is a rare meteorological phenomenon that appeared in parts of England and Scotland last month
00s. Danny Hill, who had a forgettable loan spell with Watford in 1996.
10s. Andre Gray’s football career took off when his goalscoring exploits for Hinkley United (the Knitters) earned him a move to Luton. He’s currently with Plymouth Argyle.
20s. Leandro Bacuna currently plays for FC Groningen of the Netherlands, but he was given a short term contract with Watford in 22/23 and was an unused sub for them in our 3-1 win at Vicarage Road late on in that season.