Bournemouth fans thoughts ahead of Saturday

I caught up with Bournemouth fan Chris to get his opinion on a range of different topics ahead of this weekends fixture at Vicarage Road.

1) What do you make of Bournemouth's start to the season?

Chris: Funnily enough, 6 games in, we have collected the same number of points as we had at the same stage last season - although until the Everton game, the mood around the ground seemed more depressed and disappointed for some reason. 

From the point of view of the stands, the first few performances had not been of the same standard. The starting eleven has largely been the same as last season, with the addition of Jordan Ibe to replace the outgoing Matt Richie, and the much reported arrival of Jack Wilshire, who has begun quietly getting on with the job behind the striker in midfield.

2) What do you make of Watford's start to the season? 

Chris: I think Watford fans will be more than happy with their start to the season. There are goals in the team - Capoue has found a comfortable spot in this season's fantasy team - and I think if Ighalo starts doing the business again, Watford will have another good season. 

I can't really comment on the recruitment, because it just seems to be another batch of foreign players that I am unfamiliar with, but I think that keeping hold of key players like Deeny and Ighalo was worth 3 or 4 signings in itself.

3) What are your thoughts ahead of this weekends fixture?

Chris: For me, after the Everton game, anything could happen. After our loss against Preston there was a lot of negativity about the place. Some deluded fans that, unfortunately, the premier league is known to breed, were even calling for Eddie Howe's head at one point.
It sounds daft, but because we were so bad against Preston, and the mood was so down, I was certain than we would beat Everton. That is how football works sometimes.

I bring this up, because I expect Watford fans will be pretty disappointed about the loss away to Burnley - although, Burnley away on a Monday night was always going to be difficult.

My thoughts are that if Bournemouth stay tight and keep a clean sheet, we will always have a chance of nicking a 1-0. Our defence from set-pieces has improved massively this season, but we do have a habit of losing the ball in the wide areas - particularly Jordan Ibe.
I am always wary of Watford. My thoughts ahead of this weekend's fixture? Optimistic nerves.

4) Watford and Bournemouth have had similar journeys to the Premier League, What do you make of the transformation of both sides in the past few years?

Chris: If I am honest, I had no interest in football until I studied at the University of Hertfordshire, and lived with a bunch of massive football fans - one Leicester, one Charlton, most Arsenal, and a few Watford.

It was that year that AFC Bournemouth were in big trouble. When I was home one weekend, I decided I would turn up for a match if only to donate £20 to a lost cause. We lost 0-1. The gate was about 3200. The players were playing for free, we had winding up orders coming from all over the place, we had no ground and we were second bottom in league 2 with minus-17 points and a transfer embargo. (We were saved bottom by, I believe, Chester, who had minus-30 points...)

The next season I got my season ticket, and was present for the league 2 promotion that, in all honestly, felt the best of the three.
6 years later, and we're in the Premier League.

Money came into it, eventually. It wasn't until someway through our league one promotion season that it appeared, though. Eddie Mitchell, bless his cottons, didn't have 2 brass farthings to rub together.

We picked up Harry Arter for 4k, Marc Pugh for 10k, Eunan O'Kane for a handful of beans. Matt Richie was the big-money signing, at about £200k. What Max Demin did was mainly clear the legacy debts.

Contrary to popular belief, we weren't paying big wages - for example, in the year we won the Championship, Lewis Grabban left for Norwich and Quadrupled his weekly wage overnight.

Bournemouth and Watford had similar championship promotion campaigns. I think both teams won football matches playing 'the right way', being positive and creative.

I think most Watford fans were there when the club was last in the premier league, and that unfortunate belief that the club had a god-given right to be there might have set in, whereas a few more Bournemouth fans would have genuinely expected to lose 18-0 at Charlton and then bottle the playoffs. In terms of infrastructure and attitude, maybe Watford were better prepared for the premier league. I think getting relegated would hurt Watford fans more than it would Bournemouth fans, most of which are just happy to still have a club to watch every week.

5) Eddie Howe's name has came back up after the recent departure of Big Sam, how confident are you that you'll keep hold of him?

Chris: I think this is a non-starter. I have no doubt that he will manage England one day, but he knows that it will ruin his career if he takes it up now, with a pool of bang average players not giving him much hope.

I do, however, think he is more likelly to take over at Arsenal at the end of this season, meaning we will go down the season after that.

That said, EH has only really had a decent stint at managing Bournemouth.

Bournemouth fans will always give him extra time and patience - and would be happy for him to stay as manager if we got relegated back to league 2 in 3 years.

EH also knows that other clubs would not offer him the same time and patience, and sometimes it is that rare relationship that makes things happen.

I mean, AFC Bournemouth are in the premier league for christ's sake. Jose Mourinho could not have got these players from league 1 to the big time.

6) Thoughts on the so called derby between Watford and Bournemouth?

Chris: Oh come on. It's not a derby. It's a rivalry... maybe?
Our championship promotion season was great, because it was so close.

I think the fact that we are a very small, tin-pot outfit, attracted a lot of hate from fans of bigger clubs who simply cannot understand why they are not winning football matches - as if match attendance figures have anything to do with it whatsoever.

Watford had a unbelievable season which resulted in promotion, but the media were admittedly obsessed with the AFC Bournemouth story.

As a result, twitter was a bit of a war zone, not helped by some feisty matches between the two clubs - including the quickest sending off ever (never a red card, which made it even better).

On twitter its a derby - not in real life.

That said, the nerves I feel before Watford matches isn't like just any match. Losing hurts that little bit more, and winning feels that little bit greater.

7) A score prediction?

Chris: 0-0 would not surprise me. Neither would 3-3 or 6-0 either way.

I honestly expect 1-1 (Deeney gets on the end of a Francis mistake to cancel out a Callum Wilson Penalty).

I would hope for a 0-1 win though - depends how Watford react after Burnley!

Thanks very much to Chris for providing me with the answers to the questions! 

For what it is worth my prediction for the game this weekend is a 2-0 Watford win- we will bounce back!

Follow me on twitter @Adzrowe 

Burnley 0-2 Watford

I am going to have to keep this short because I couldn't think of anything worse than reliving yesterdays events.

Burnley started the better and deservedly led when Jeff Hendrick headed in from a corner, where the marking was I am unsure but it was a defensive horror show for The Hornets as Hendrick had a free header at goal, a chance that he was always going to take.

We offered very little going forward and couldn't break down an organised Burnley midfield and defence, when we did receive the ball we couldn't get a hold of it for long enough to create anything. Odion Ighalo looks a shadow of the player he once was and his first touch last night was beyond atrocious. The creative players in our team were stifled by The Clarets who didn't give them an inch of space. We unsurprisingly went into the break a goal down.

Despite changing to 4 at the back at half time we didn't improve enough to really threaten to take anything out of the game. A second for Burnley soon followed as Michael Keane rose above a statuesque Watford and headed past Gomes for 2-0.

The one positive and this player MUST start Saturday is Issac Success, he ran and drove at the Burnley defence clearly showing what we were missing because they didn't know how to deal with him. He most certainly was our best player and he only played roughly 30 minutes.

The game finished 2-0 to the hosts who to their credit were deserved winners on the night, Sean Dyche had them set up perfectly to deal with our system and you can't fault the work rate and effort of his side. I have seen some people saying our players "weren't trying" which in truth is complete rubbish, they just weren't good enough (that doesn't mean they werent trying though)

However for only Gomes and Deeney to be the only ones to clap the supporters (again these are reports) is quite frankly a disgrace. To sell 1,400 tickets for a Monday sky game is fantastic and the least that could be done is to thank the travelling support. What would've been better mind you is a performance and 3 points.

We move on to Bournemouth at Vicarage Road, be sure to read my preview for the game when i release it either Thursday or Friday.

I never manage to keep these short!

We go again!

You 'Orns!

Score: Burnley 2-0
Man of the match: Success
Pogba v Capoue: Pogba wins this week but it remains 4-1 to Capoue
Match rating: 2/10

Burnley v Watford preview

The Hornets travel to Turf Moor to take on Sean Dyche's Burnley in the Premier League Monday night. Mazzari's men will be look to secure their third win in a row after impressive victories against West Ham and Manchester United.

The Clarets come into the game after a relatively solid start back to life in the Premier League with 4 points from their opening 5 fixtures and a notable home triumph over Liverpool. However they are without win in their last 3 Premier League fixtures, but this is most certainly not an easy fixture for the Golden Boys as Burnley will see this as a must win game after their dip in form.

Team news:
The Clarets will be without star striker Andre Gray after he was suspended for 4 matches after homophobic tweets he posted in 2012. He will be gutted to miss the game, particularly because of his connection with our rivals Luton Town. They will also be without striker Ashley Barnes.

The Hornets will miss Right wing back Daryl Janmaat after he suffered a shoulder injury in last weeks win over Manchester United. Jose Holebas and Younes Kaboul also reportedly face late fitness tests. With that in mind we could see the introduction of Chelsea loanee Kenedy into the left wing back position and a return to the side for Nordin Amrabat.

Stat attack:
Troy Deeney could score his 100th goal for The Hornets Monday night as he currently sits on 98 following his goal from the spot last weekend.


My Prediction:
1-2 Watford- If we lose its my fault I never get these right!

Come on you 'Orns!

@Adzrowe

Watford 3-1 Manchester United

What a day!! Normally I am very annoyed when we don't play at the regular 3pm Saturday kick off time but today was a great opportunity to show everyone just what we are made of. Boy did we take it as myself and 19000 other Watford fans were treated to a world class performance from the Golden Boys at Vicarage Road. Jose Mourinho and co were left stunned by The Hornets and suffered their 3rd consecutive defeat.

The game started with both sides looking for an early goal, United particularly knew an early goal would calm any pre match jitters following their defeat in the Europa League Thursday night. But it was Watford who came closest to scoring in the early exchanges after Prödl's back post header was nearly turned in by Deeney who was sliding in. Then a golden chance fell for the Golden Boys, David De Gea dropped a high ball after miscommunication with Chris Smalling leaving a tap in for Ighalo... somehow he missed. An empty net, a gift that wasn't taken many could have been critical to say that was Watfords chance gone but Mazzari's men are made of sterner stuff and weren't going to let that chance effect them. De Gea made up for his earlier mistake a few minutes later when he tipped away a powerful Deeney header, up the other end 89 million pound man Paul Pogba cracked the bar from distance, it was most certainly a warning for The Hornets.

Minutes later the opening goal came and it was the hosts, Britos stole the ball off Martial and slid it through to Janmaat who cut it back for who else but the best French midfielder on the pitch Etienne Capoue who slammed it past De Gea into the Vicarage Road end net. The goal sent The Vic into raptures but there was still work to be done to consolidate the lead before half time you could see Walter knew that through his muted celebration of the opener. Despite some relaxed passing that led to United chances, Watford saw the half out going in 1-0 up at the break. The words "good half" would be a huge understatement.

The second half saw a drop in tempo as United tried to break through to level the game. Despite the obvious pressure from the visitors we still looked comfortable without making too many clear cut chances. In typical fashion with one of the Red Devils only chances in the early parts of the second half, Rashford tapped home after a deflection fell to him. Many, myself included thought we were going to crumble at this point and the game would fall the way of Zlatan and co. How wrong was I!

Someone who I haven't mentioned yet provided the pivotal moment in the match, a ball crossed in found Zlatan Ibrahimovic who powered a header towards goal, Gomes dived across and got a hand on it to tip it away and keep the scores level. That was the wake up call we needed and fresh legs were due in a tiring hornets team, I thought the game was crying out for Success but Mazzari chose Zuniga, today I realised its a good job I'm not the manager.

Zuniga came on and took a free kick and ghosted into the box to slam Pereyra's cutback into the Rookery End net sending the stadium wild with some of the most exuberant celebrations I've seen at a home game in a long time. Now we just needed to hold on, but this is Watford the team who love to concede a late goal. Good job we have a leader like Troy Deeney in our side who proved why is he worth every penny of that rejected transfer fee, he hustled Manchester United all game and they couldn't handle it. Deeney held the ball in the corner for two minutes and the game was all but up.

United sent one last ball forward that was instantly returned up field finding Success who ran past two, slid the ball to Zuniga who was brought down by Fellaini... penalty!!!

Deeney smashed the penalty home with the last kick of the game to seal a famous afternoon for The Hornets. 6 years ago on this very day we beat Millwall 6-1 something then we thought would stay as one of our great days but now we get to play and beat teams like Manchester United... What a time to be a Watford fan who knew in 2010 that we'd be a Premier League team with a side full of international stars, I certainly didn't.

I bloody love you Watford! You 'Orns!

Watford 3-1 Manchester United (Attendence: 21,118) yes 21,000 at Vicarage Road who would've thought it.

Capoue vs Pogba- 4 goals to nil so far! Yes this is going to continue all season!

Man Of The Match: Prödl- was absolutely quality his best performance in yellow to date, he firmly placed Zlatan in his back pocket.

Match rating- 9/10- we conceded and as a Watford fan we have to find some sort of negative... even today!
@adzrowe on twitter. 

Watford v Man United preview

First of all I want to apologise for not writing a report on the West Ham game. It has been my university freshers week and I have either been in no capacity to write or I have just simply not had the time!

I won't go on too long about last week but for me the will to win The Hornets had at 2-0 down was remarkable when on another day (under Flores perhaps) we would have crumbled losing the game by 2 or 3. We really took the game to West Ham and once we got one back i really thought we would get back into the game exploiting the hosts shoddy defending. Deeney and Ighalo found their spark again linking up well throughout and as for Roberto Pereyra he may well be my favourite ever Watford player despite only playing a game and a half thus far.

The one negative from last week is that we can't afford to be giving teams a 2-0 head start before actually turning up. This week for example we have to come out of traps fast and take the game to a Manchester United side who come to the The Vic on the back of a 1-0 loss to Feyeonord in the Europa League last night. All the pressure is on The Red Devils and they'll be looking to not lose any ground on rivals Man City in the title race. The visitors have England captain Wayne Rooney back in their squad after he was rested yesterday. I don't need to go into detail of some of their star players but with Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic likely to play The Hornets face a tricky fixture.

Personally i am reasonably pleased with our start baring in mind that many pundits/fans (me included) had us down to have nothing at this stage so to have four points from a streak of tough fixtures means there is certainly cause for optimism heading into a slightly nicer looking set of fixtures after this Sunday of course. Looking back to last Saturday, it was great to have two strikers to come on and influence a game when we subbed off Deeney and Ighalo. Success in particular ran with power and pace at The Hammers defence, meaning if it isn't going well this Sunday then changes can be made to change the game.

The Sunday lunchtime kick off, live on BT sport should be an intriguing encounter. If we can get anything from the game it will come as a welcome bonus and would secure a more than solid start to the season. A tough game is certain but i am confident we can at least give United a good game. I will write a review of the game this week (Promise!)

Score prediction: 1-2 loss i reckon this week but as long as the performance is there i'll be happy!

Let me know your predictions for the game.

Come on you 'orns!!

@adzrowe is my twitter handle if anyone wants to follow me.

Who would I start v West Ham United

We travel to London Stadium to face West Ham United as we look for our first win of the new season. A difficult game is in store for The Hornets, as the hosts have star players Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini returning. With this in mind here is my predicted starting XI for the game


My team is as follows (3-5-2)
Gomes

Britos
Prödl
Kabasele

Janmaat
Holebas
Behrami
Capoue
Pereyra

Deeney
Ighalo

I replace Amrabat for Daryl Janmaat as I think we need a defensively minded player to deal with the threat of Payet. This is harsh on Amrabat as he's started the season well but tactically it may benefit The Hornets to have a defensively based wingback. This doesn't knock our threat going forward either as the Dutchman can be a threat in an attacking sense through his crosses and overlapping play.

Roberto Pereyra is a must in the starting team tomorrow and will be our creative spark. He was our best player in the last match against Arsenal and will look to add to his debut goal in tomorrow's clash. I think having this creative player may bring the best out of our front two as well as they focus on doing what they do best- scoring goals. With someone their to create chances it wouldn't surprise me to see one of the  front two on the scoresheet tomorrow.

It's set for a thrilling encounter in East London. I personally think we may struggle and a point here will be an excellent result.

I keep getting stick about my match predictions but again I'll try to be optimistic. I'm going for an exciting 2-2 draw tomorrow.

Come on you Orns!

@Adzrowe