Watford v Ipswich Town 
Saturday 19th April 2014
Vicarage Road – 15:00
Should be plenty of goals tomorrow then…….
Opening Thought
Another victory, another step towards the play-offs, another goal from Murphy. It’s turning into a pretty good end to the season.
Given how our promotion chances have normally ended long before January, it’s kind of refreshing to be sitting around on a weekend keeping tabs on everyone around us to see what they are doing. The race for sixth place is hotting up, with goal difference looking to be the deciding factor in a couple of weeks. How will we feel about those last minute lapses of concentration should we miss out, by just a couple of goals from reaching the play-offs?
In a set back this week, it’s came out that McGoldrick has suffered some issues on his road to recovery and will more than likely miss the rest of the season and not be able to make the play-offs should we reach them. Whilst that would have been devastating news a few months ago, others have stepped up and it’s doesn’t ring alarm bells quite as much as it would have done. Credit has to go to Murphy who keeps delivering the goods for us in times of need. Of course, the continued loan of Johnny Williams can’t be discredited as we were totally lacking in creative chances prior to his arrival. If we can nail that position down for next season, anything is possible.
Young Jack Marriot has been brought back from his loan spell this week, rumoured to be used as cover for the struggling SEB. Depending on where you read your Town info, it seems that with Murphy now delivering, the scapegoat medal has fallen onto the shoulders of young Sylvain. As with Murphy, I feel that it’s slightly harsh. He has shown glimpses of talent and once he gets a full pre-season worth of training behind him, I believe he will come good.
Theres no denying that over the last few games that once Anderson and Hunt were removed for the addition of Nouble and SEB, we have been more dangerous.
Anyway, onto the game and we’re on our travels again, this time to Hertfordshire to play our nemesis. A place we never get a result.
The Opposition
The glory horns are best known for their spells under former England Manager Graham Taylor. Having taken charge of the club in 1977, he won promotion to the third division in 78, the second in 79 and the first in 82. After a spell in Europe and the FA Cup final, Taylor left the club in 87, only to return 10 years later to guide them to another successive promotion run. Unfortunately he was unable to stop them dropping out of the Premiership and ultimately retired in 2001. He had continued to be part of the Watford set-up as chairman until their takeover by Udinese and Granada Owner Giampaolo Pozzo.
Last season, they came close to reaching the promised land, missing out on a place at the last hurdle. A lot of that was down to the influx of loans from Udinese and Grenada, most of which have disappeared this time, leaving Watford to stutter around mid-table. They dispatched manager Zola in December, in favour of Guiseppe Sannino in a move hoping to steady the ship.
Whilst he has steady things, Watford still find themselves sitting in mid-table, currently enjoying a run of 5 games without defeat.
One To Watch
Troy Deeney currently sits at the top of the Watford scoring charts with 22 goals. Born in Birmingham, Deeney started his career in Aston Villa's youth scheme but was released at the age of 15. He joined Chelmsley Town a little while after whilst also studying to become a builder. Whilst at Chelmsley he was talent spotted by Walsall. The introduction of Chris Hutchings as manager coincided with Deeney finding a goalscoring touch. Helped by the fact his new manager started playing him in his favoured striking position, instead of on the right-wing as previous manager Jimmy Mullen had, Deeney scored nine goals in Hutchings' first 12 games in charge.
On 4 August 2010, Deeney handed in a written transfer request amid interest from several Championship clubs. He signed for Watford two days later for an initial fee of £250,000 rising up to £500,000 on a two-year contract. Deeney went on to make 36 appearances for Watford in his first season scoring two goals from 17 starts although he was mainly deployed on the wing by Malky Mackay.
In his second season at Watford, Deeney made over 40 appearances under the management of Sean Dyche in his preferred position as striker. Deeney finished the season as Watford's top goalscorer with 11 goals and also won the Goal of the Season Award for his goal against Ipswich Town in March 2012
The Gaffer
Who? Yeah exactly.
In his career , Giuseppe Sannino played as a creative attacking midfielder for several minor league teams, with Serie C2 club Vogherese being the one he became most associated with. Sannino retired from active football in 1988, after a lone season with Ligurian amateur club Entella.
In management, he’s been around. Starting out at Oltrepo, he went on to manage Biellese, Sudtirol, Meda, Sangiovanesse, Varese, Cosenza, Lecco. Pergocreme. Varese, Siena, Palermo, Chievo and now Watford. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of most of them bar the most recent couple but apparently they are Serie B, C & D teams where he was in charge for little over a year with each.
Anyway, that’s him. He may have even presented the Crystal Maze at one point too.
I like to think he's calling someone, something naughty here
Stat Time
Head 2 Head
Ipswich Town Wins................22
Watford Wins......................25
Draws................................17
Ipswich Town Goals...............90
Watford Goals.....................89
Head 2 Head at Watford
Ipswich Town Wins................9
Watford Wins.......................16
Draws.................................7
Ipswich Town Goals................37
Watford Goals......................49
The Predicted Teams
Ipswich Town
As mentioned above, McGoldrick has suffered a setback and will remain out. Smith (calf), Anderson and SEB (both hamstring) all have niggles and are questionable, but Cresswell should return after missing out last week.
.............................Gerken...............................
Chambers..........Berra........Smith........Cresswell
Tabb.........Hyam…….....Skuse…………Hunt………
………………………..Williams………………………
.........................Murphy.......................
Watford
Cassetti will miss out as he completes his two-match suspension. The game could come too soon for Battocchio and Doyley as they battle back from knee and ankle injuries respectively, while Anya will be assessed on a knock picked up at Millwall. (One-Size) Fitz Hall also in contention having overcome an Achilles injury..
.........................Almunia.......................
.……Hoban......Angella.….....Ekstrand
Faraoni……Abdi…..McGugan…..Tozser…...Riera
…………….Deeney……… Forestieri……………….
Ref Interview
Gary Sutton
Looks like he needs to keep off of the jelly beans
A League referee since 2005/06, Sutton, from Lincoln, has refereed just 18 games so far this season dishing out 51 yellow cards and 3 red cards. Of the 18 games, only 4 have been in the Championship.
Ipswich have enjoyed the company of Mr Sutton three times, each one ending in victory for us. The most recent was the 2-1 victory over Huddersfield in 2013. Prior to that, you’d have to go back to the 3-2 win against Posh.
Final Thought
I hate Watford. I hate their colours. I hate their ground. I hate that we can’t beat them.
Ok, that may be a little extreme but, you get the point.
If we are serious about going up this season, we need to be brushing them aside and collecting a full tally of points to bring home with us. I just don’t feel that confident, even with the ref historically bringing us some good fortune. That all changes on Monday as the tosspot from Billericay is in charge.
In a way, I’ll be happy to take a point away from here, but realistically we need more than that.
WATFORD 1 IPSWICH TOWN 1
Enjoy the game and safe travels if you’re going.
Oh, alright then………………….Ooosssssshhhhhhh
...good day overall just hope our team can take advantage..and i think they can..and on a plus not Bournemouth just may have fallen off their winning streak...draw and then 4-2 against ten men..maybe deflate them a bit if were lucky !!
