Southampton 3-2 Watford

Let’s get the main bit out of the way: Southampton’s winning goal.

First of all, I’m not too sure where seven minutes of injury time came from in the first place. There was one injury, and both teams made triple subs so it’s not like the second half was being constantly held up due to changes being made.

But whatever, that’s what was decided so okay.

Bang on 97 minutes, the referee gives what looks a rather soft free kick for a foul by Mileta Rajovic.

Annoying, but defend this and we come away with a point.

We did defend it, only the referee gives a corner when it should have been a goal kick.

This is getting a bit ridiculous, but defend this and we come away with a point.

We didn’t defend it, but on-loan West Ham flop Flynn Downes blatantly controls it with his arm before smashing it in from close range. No handball given, that’s pretty much the last kick of the game, and we’ve had our point wrongfully stolen from us.

So in summary: soft free kick, incorrect corner, somehow being given time to take the corner (I can think of at least two occasions this season alone we’ve had a corner right at the death, chasing a winning goal and NOT been allowed to take it), handball, goal. An absolute injustice.

And to top it all off, the referee responsible for such an outrageous sequence of events is Josh Smith, from… Bedfordshire.

Now, I wonder which notoriously bitter rivals of ours hail from that neck of the woods? The last time he refereed one of our games was when we lost 2-0 at at Kenilworth Road last season, by the way.

Please make it make sense.

Tons of Saints fans, including the club’s official Twitter admin, have hilariously been trying to claim some sort of moral high ground by reminding us of Abdoulaye Doucoure’s handball equaliser against them in January 2018.

Okay, sure. They’ve quite clearly forgotten about Moussa Djenepo’s little scoop which led to a goal which ultimately caused our then boss Quique Sanchez Flores to lose his job 18 months later.

That’s twice in a row I’ve gone to St Mary’s and seen us lose out on points as a direct consequence of the home side being allowed to play basketball in our penalty area. It’s quite frankly not good enough.

Leicester and Leeds are doing their absolute best to screw it up, but honestly the best thing that can happen is them two and Southampton just f*** off back to the Premier League.

They’re all clearly too big and important to be stuck in the little old Championship, the decisions at the end yesterday utterly reeked of giving the bigger club whatever they want and so the division would be a fairer place without them.

That’s not to say we were blameless for coming away empty handed here.

The first 20 minutes were an absolute abomination, the worst I’ve seen from us all season and we deservedly got punished.

Their cringeworthy marching brass band that plays just before kick-off had barely had time to put away their trumpets when Will Smallbone headed in unmarked from five yards out to give the home side the lead, which triggered some equally naff goal celebration music.

Some car crash defending gifted Che Adams his third goal against us this season, as Tom Dele-Bashiru sliced what should have been a routine clearance straight to David Brooks who cut back for the plastic Scot to tap home.

It was almost like we’d never seen a football before. There were shanks, mis-kicks, failing to complete the simplest of passes; it was so bad it was almost funny.

Then we finally kicked into gear, and for a ten minute spell had them well and truly rattled.

Firstly Yaser Asprilla saw a shot go agonisingly wide after a good jinking run, before Ryan Porteous got us back into the game as his shot from the edge of the box found the net via a slight deflection.

Both Southampton’s goals had come down Porteous’s side with him playing in an unfamiliar right back position, so it felt as though he owed us that one, but from there he did knuckle down and had a very decent remainder of the match.

For the next five minutes or so we had the home side on the ropes, and had we been able to capitalise on our momentum and equalise in that mini spell, I genuinely think we might well have gone on to win the game.

The Saints were there for the taking, but we let them off the hook and a couple of daft fouls from us helped them slow the game down. After 20 minutes I’d have bitten your hands off if you’d offered me being 2-1 down at half time though, so just still being in the game felt like a bonus.

The dismal Dele-Bashiru (I will take this moment to say he was our best player against West Brom and Ipswich in recent games, so hopefully this was just a blip) was hauled off at the break, with Ismael Kone his replacement.

Having weathered the early storm and wrestled a decent level of control, we carried on playing on the front foot but just didn’t quite have the quality to make it count when in decent positions.

Giorgi Chakvetadze volleyed what looked a very presentable chance wide, only minutes after Porteous had come desperately close to his second goal of the afternoon with a header cleared off the line.

That’s not to say it was all one way traffic though, as the Saints had two goals disallowed.

The first saw Daniel Bachmann slightly fortunate to get away with giving the ball to a Southampton player on the edge of his own box, although he was wiped out by Ryan Fraser in a challenge reminiscent of some his snide antics from his Bournemouth days.

Curiously the extended highlights on the Southampton YouTube page don’t show this, which suggests some people’s comments that Fraser might have seen red for his challenge might have some merit to them.

The other saw Fraser flagged offside when through on goal. I can’t lie it looked desperately tight real time and still does watching the highlights back, but on this occasion we got the rub of the green.

Having come on at half time, Kone had done virtually nothing for 40 minutes and looked miles off the pace again, but with only five minutes remaining he drove brilliantly into the box and slotted into the bottom corner to give us a deserved equaliser.

That’s exactly what Kone was so good at so often when he had a purple patch for a couple of months under Valerien Ismael; hopefully using his ability to such great effect there will give him some much needed confidence and help him end the season well. When he’s on it he’s such an asset, but it’s been far more cold than hot for a while.

Then came the nonsense at the end, which I won’t go into again but will describe as the worst sequence of officiating I’ve seen since Stuart Attwell and Nigel Bannister colluded to give Reading the infamous ghost goal back in 2008.

Interim head coach Tom Cleverley picked up a yellow card for his protests at the end, which along with another impressive showing against one of the big guns adds another string to his bow in terms of getting the job full time, as far as I’m concerned.

It’s disappointing that late goals have cost us an even better haul of points, but he’s definitely got us playing with a lot more hunger and determination, which had been features of our games under Ismael before disappearing long before he was put out of his misery.

Three games left then, including two goes at finally ending our winless run at home. It’s a shame we are where we are given how things were looking at Christmas, but if you’d offered me 15th in the table with three matches remaining before the season started I’d have probably taken it given how much I expected us to struggle.

Let’s try and end things on a high.

PLAYER RATINGS

Bachmann – not at fault for any of the goals, didn’t make any saves of note. 5

Porteous – bad start, but goal kick started a good showing in new position. 7

Pollock – battled hard but not his most convincing display. 6

Hoedt – shocking first 20 minutes as he was trying too hard, but excellent thereafter in St Mary’s return. 6

Lewis – ball watching for first goal, and still plays it too safe going forward. 5

Dele-Bashiru – a deer in headlights, worst half of football from a Watford player this season. 2

Kayembe – back to his best under Cleverley, dominated the midfield. 8

Asprilla – lots of nearly moments again but it’s not quite coming off. 6

Chakvetadze – carried the ball well and was a constant threat, should have done better with second half chance though. 7

Dennis – lost the ball far too cheaply far too often, a disappointment. 4

Bayo – ran his socks off with his pressing, absolutely no goal threat though. 6

SUBSTITUTES

Kone (for Dele-Bashiru, 46) – anonymous before moment of brilliance ought to have rescued a point. 6

Morris (for Lewis, 61) – a big improvement on the man he replaced. 7

Martins (for Dennis, 62) – looked as dangerous as he has in a long time. 7

Andrews (for Pollock, 62) – got up and down the right well, some important defensive contributions too. 7

Rajovic (for Bayo, 78) – unlucky to concede foul that ultimately led to winner, did little else. 5

Man of the Match: Edo Kayembe

MATCH DAY RATING

5/10 – last gasp cheating ruined what had otherwise been a very enjoyable day.

Watford 2-2 Leeds & West Brom 2-2 Watford – Easter double header!

I appreciate I’m very late to the party with the Leeds game, I didn’t quite manage to find the time between then and the trip to West Brom to get something written up but I really wanted to touch on both games from over the Easter weekend so this will be a double header of sorts.

First things first, I can understand the section of supporters accusing us of bottling it twice.

We could, probably should have had at least four points to show from two tough games on paper, maybe even six.

But bar a pair of agonising late setbacks, the performances from the team had so much to like, and given the calibre of opposition we were facing I’m unusually inclined to focus on the positives. Maybe I’ve just had too much Easter chocolate and am delirious as a result, but given I’d have bitten your hands off for two points before a ball had been kicked on Friday I’m not too disappointed.

Had we been against lesser opponents, or been five points worse off and right in the thick of the relegation battle happening just below us, I’m sure I’d feel differently.

But we weren’t, we’re not, and I don’t.

First of all, I’ve got to comment on the opening half against Leeds.

That was without doubt the best half of football we’ve played this season, we made the absolute form team of the division look decidedly ordinary.

The switch to a back three/five clearly caught Leeds unawares, as did our hunger and speed both in and out of possession. It was light years apart from the insipid, walking pace football we endured in the latter part of Valerien Ismael’s run in charge, and we were more than good value for our 2-1 lead at the interval.

I went nuts when Vakoun Bayo smashed in a rebound to open the scoring, but having been undeservedly pegged back by a beauty from Crysencio Summerville (the best player I’ve seen at Watford this season), me and every other fan erupted with joy when Emmanuel Dennis drilled one into the bottom corner.

It was the most celebrated goal I can remember for quite some time, and the perfect response to a setback against a top side when it would have been easy to feel despondent having done so much good work beforehand.

As far as first home games in charge go, on an interim basis or otherwise, it could hardly have gone better for Tom Cleverley.

It became something of a backs to the wall job once Dennis was forced off around ten minutes after the break, but even then Leeds rarely threatened to score despite all their possession in potentially dangerous areas.

By the end they finished with six forward players on the pitch in their desperate hunt for an equaliser. Had we had a chance I’d imagine Clevs might have brought on another defender or even Jake Livermore to try and counter that, nut unfortunately one of their forwards scored about 20 seconds after coming on; Mateo Joseph somewhat fortuitously bundling in after we failed to clear our lines for just about the first time all night.

While it was frustrating to concede with only five minutes to go, it was almost even worse moments later as Daniel Bachmann pulled off a terrific double save to preserve the point that was the very least we deserved for our efforts. In the end, it was a point I happily took.

The substitutions didn’t really work, especially Ismael Kone who looked half asleep and barely touched the ball after replacing Dennis in an unfamiliar role, but so early in his coaching career and in unexpectedly positive circumstances I’ll give Clevs a pass and put it down as being part of the learning curve.

PLAYER RATINGS VS LEEDS

Bachmann 8, Pollock 7, Sierralta 8, Porteous 8, Andrews 6, Dele-Bashiru 7, Kayembe 8, Lewis 7, Asprilla 6 (Ince 80, 6), Bayo 7 (Rajovic 90), Dennis 7 (Kone 58, 4).

Subs not used: Hamer, Livermore, Chakvetadze, Martins, Morris, Grieves.

Man of the match: Francisco Sierralta

Now onto the trip to the Hawthorns to face fifth placed West Brom.

The lack of train services on a bank holiday meant it was only a third ever drive to an away game for me, but to my very pleasant surprise it went as smoothly as I could have hoped and so I was parked up by 12.30pm – plenty of time for a pre-match pint of Cobra and a cheeseburger that was hands down the best I’ve had all season.

When the game got underway we got off to a slow start, struggling to string any passes together as the home side looked to punish us early.

Bachmann pulled off a great save to deny Brandon Thomas-Asante after the Albion forward robbed Francisco Sierralta on the edge of the box, before Ryan Porteous carried on from where he left off against Leeds with a crucial block from the eventual rebound.

Bachmann had also had to palm another header to safety before we’d got any sort of foothold in the game, but once we did we were more than a match for the hosts as the locals in the stands just started to get a little restless.

I’d be lying if I said we created any real clear cut chances, but we genuinely played some good stuff and did find ourselves in several promising positions.

On just about all those occasions though, Jamal Lewis would fail to beat the first man with his cross, an issue that has been present throughout his time on loan with us. I still think there’s a good player in there, we’ve seen it a few times, but far too often he promises a lot more than he delivers.

There certainly needed to be a lot more cutting edge in the second half, and boy did Edo Kayembe produce that.

A corner was half cleared to the Congo international around five minutes after the break, and he absolutely thumped a low shot into the back of the net from the edge of the box to send the travelling fans into raptures.

Kayembe had been having a decent game already, and was also outstanding against Leeds so that goal was richly deserved for his efforts over the Easter weekend.

Alongside him, Tom Dele-Bashiru was having what was for me his best outing in a Watford shirt as he controlled the game in midfield. His ability to work his way out of tight spaces was crucial in us getting the ball forward at a decent pace, and reminded me a bit of Nathaniel Chalobah during his better days for us; Chalobah, for his part, was an unused sub for the Baggies as his career seemingly continues to stall since his exit from Vicarage Road a couple of years ago.

Emmanuel Dennis was another who was thriving in the tight spaces, and almost doubled our lead after forcing his way to the byline when his shot crashed off the post from a very tight angle.

By that point we were dominating the game, and a few minutes later we did make it 2-0; Lewis finally got a cross right, and substitute Mileta Rajovic was there to slide in at the far post for his eleventh goal of the season. Cue more scenes of delirium amongst Watford supporters.

Had we managed to hold onto the two goal cushion for just a few minutes longer, we’d have seen the game out convincingly for my money, but only four minutes later West Brom were right back in it.

I didn’t have a great view of it from the other end of the ground, but from where I was sat it looked like Bachmann got done at his near post as Thomas-Asante lashed home from an acute angle. However, the highlights showed the shot took a telling deflection when Bachmann looked to have it covered, so having initially blamed him he was in fact rather unlucky.

Even after that, the expected onslaught never really came and we looked very comfortable for the next twenty minutes.

Just as was the case against Leeds though, we were done by a screamer against the run of play, this time in the 90th minute as Darnell Furlong smacked one into the top corner from outside the box to rescue a point for the promotion chasers.

No doubting it was a hell of a hit, but he was facing away from goal when he received the ball and if either Lewis or hapless substitute Matheus Martins had bothered to close him down then there’s no way he scores. Disappointing, and one of the only real blemishes on what was another really impressive display against one of the better sides in this league.

The fact that the vast majority of Watford fans stayed to applaud the players off the pitch, despite the late sucker punch, spoke volumes as to how well we’d played, particularly for most of the second half.

It goes without saying you should win games from 2-0 up, but the fact that we were in that position purely on performance was encouraging in itself. As far as Clev’s audition for the head coach job on a permanent basis goes, he gets another tick as far as I’m concerned.

Five points from three tricky games to begin with is a fantastic effort, and if he could end our home hoodoo against Preston this coming weekend he’d surely be in a great position.

Last time I went to the Hawthorns in 2017, we scored an injury time equaliser to make it 2-2, and this time we conceded one to make it the same scoreline. How’s that for these things evening themselves? (I’m obviously now expecting a 6-1 win at Anfield and four straight victories at Leicester if this trend is to continue!)

PLAYER RATINGS

Bachmann – unlucky with first goal, couple of great first half saves. 7

Porteous – looks at home in a back three, excellent again. 8

Sierralta – recovered well enough from early blip, not 100% convincing. 6

Hoedt – nervy first half, but best player on the pitch in the second half. 8

Andrews – getting better, but still not at his best since return to side. 6

Dele-Bashiru – bossed the midfield, looks rejuvenated back in midfield. 8

Kayembe – brilliant goal capped another industrious display. 7

Lewis – still flatters to deceive, got assist but failed to close down equaliser. 6

Kone – worked hard with mixed results, needs a proper break. 6

Bayo – can’t fault work rate, impact on game was limited though. 6

Dennis – our danger man, was a cut above our other forward options. 7

SUBSTITUTES:

Asprilla (for Kone, 55) – looked dangerous, but wasted good positions. 6

Rajovic (for Bayo, 56) – put himself about and was rewarded with goal. 7

Martins (for Dennis, 74) – half-hearted effort, lazy for equaliser. 4

Livermore (for Kayembe, 86) – N/A

Subs not used: Hamer, Ince, Pollock, Morris, Massiah-Edwards.

Man of the Match: Tom Dele-Bashiru

EASTER WEEKEND RATING

8/10 – deserved a bit more for our efforts, but two uplifting performances to be proud of.

Watford 1-1 Swansea

After a first half that saw our hapless recent run plunge to new depths, it was nice to see us dig our heels in and at least get something to stop the losing run at home.

Had we shown that level of fight against Cardiff and Huddersfield, we’d have got far more out of those games, which makes those pitiful efforts even more annoying.

But it’s a start, a start which may have just come in the nick of time to keep us away from a full blown relegation scrap.

Not for the first time in the last few weeks, I really couldn’t be asked going into this one, especially having to head to Watford straight from work. One of the things I thought I’d enjoy a bit more about the Championship was the extra games per season, but now it just feels like we never get long enough to get over our latest disappointment before another game comes along.

Despite some painfully slow traffic, I did at least have time for a quick pre match pint at the Estcourt Tavern before trudging to the ground, where the chicken tikka and masala chips for dinner were in great form.

Then the football started, and my enjoyment of the night was quickly over.

We didn’t actually start terribly, and it was clear early on that we were ditching all the messing around at the back in favour of getting the ball up the pitch a lot more quickly than we have been.

That was all well and good, but off the ball we were a total mess and the game had become ragged before disaster struck.

Ryan Andrews had finally been brought back into the starting lineup after Jeremy Ngakia picked up yet another injury at Millwall, but slightly more surprisingly Daniel Bachmann was also reinstated for his first league start since November.

Unfortunately, they combined to produce a moment of absolute calamity to gift Swansea the lead after 18 minutes.

A long ball saw Andrews scampering back towards his own goal, and he headed what should have been a comfortable header back to his keeper.

For reasons only he knows though, Bachmann had come charging out to try and claim the ball himself, and so Andrews instead managed to head it into an empty net to mark his return to the side in the worst possible fashion.

After Wesley Hoedt’s howler at Coventry, we’re building quite the collection of spectacular own goals this season.

Bachmann has to take the majority of the blame for this one, but to his credit he redeemed himself with two crucial saves that kept us in the game before the break.

First of all he denied Ronald from point blank range, after Jamal Lewis was caught napping in possession on the edge of his own box, and on the stroke of half time he clawed out a header from underneath the crossbar.

We had wasted a very presentable opening ourselves, Yaser Asprilla electing to shoot when slipping Ken Sema would have been the better option, but all in all it was another disastrous half of football that drew yet more boos from the home crowd.

He was terrific for a good few months, but sadly Jake Livermore has looked a shadow of his former self in recent weeks and he got completely overrun in the middle of the park here. It was no surprise to see him hooked at the interval, with Ismael Kone coming on for him.

Giorgi Chakvetadze had replaced the injured Sema towards the end of the first half, and along with Kone he injected some much needed drive into our play that saw us drastically up the ante in the second half.

In a shock turn of events, we scored a goal from an actual set piece to draw level twelve minutes after the break; Hoedt flicked on Chakvetadze’s corner, and while I think the skipper’s header might have been going in, his central defensive partner Ryan Porteous was on hand to touch it over the line for his first goal of the season.

From there we had all the momentum and really should have won, but for the umpteenth time this season we lacked any composure in front of goal and were unable to force a winner.

Twice Emmanuel Dennis found himself in good positions only to take far too many touches, while Asprilla had an effort blocked after superb play from Chakvetadze saw him get to the byline.

There was another scramble towards the end, but we couldn’t get a clean shot away and so in the end we had to settle for a point when three were on the table against pretty uninspiring opposition.

Then again, we could easily have been 3-0 down at half time and so maybe a point on balance was just about right.

First half performances continue to be a huge problem for us though. Astonishingly we’ve only been ahead at half time twice in the league all season, which is the worst record in the top four divisions of English football, and we’re constantly giving ourselves too much to do.

At least on this occasion we did at least partly recover, unlike the previous handful of matches, but we can’t carry on giving teams 45 minute head starts. One of these days a team will take their chances and will be out of sight before we’ve woken ourselves up.

It’s another home game for us up next as we host a Coventry team who have fallen away in the last few games having put themselves right in the play-off picture with a blistering run of form either side of Christmas.

That will be a tough one, but if we need any extra motivation then I’d urge Valerien Ismael to simply show the players the alleged messages being sent to Coventry boss Mark Robins by Sky Blues’ head of recruitment Dean Austin.

To be honest, there’s nothing incorrect about the messages apart from the one supposedly from Robins saying that Hoedt looked ‘horrific’ (as usual he looked a cut above most last night), but just maybe it’ll spur the players on to prove them wrong and stick their snide remarks up their backsides.

The crisis is far from over, but if we can use the much improved second half as a platform to build on then maybe there is just a slither of hope that the remaining ten games of this season don’t have to be a complete waste of time.

PLAYER RATINGS

Bachmann – horror show for their goal and kicking was a mess, but made two crucial saves. 5

Andrews – looked nervous after own goal, disappointing going forward. 4

Porteous – goal capped off good all action display. 8

Hoedt – some important defensive interventions and terrific cross field passes. 8

Lewis – there is a player in there, but looks like he’s too lazy to show it often enough. 4

Livermore – needs a rest, got completely swamped in messy first half. 4

Dele-Bashiru – not brilliant but did a decent job, looks so much more comfortable back in natural position. 7

Dennis – surprised he lasted the full 90, still makes me want to tear my hair out far too often. 5

Asprilla – decision making still too erratic, and not clinical enough in the box. 5

Sema – looked off it again even before injury. 4

Bayo – pressed well but don’t remember him having any shots on goal. 5

SUBSTITUTES

Chakvetadze (for Sema, 42) – best hour in a yellow shirt, made things happen and changed the game. 8

Kone (for Livermore, 46) – not at his absolute best, but midfield had much more athleticism with his introduction. 6

Rajovic (for Bayo, 74) – nowhere near as bad as his detractors will have you believe. 6

Subs not used: Hamer, Sierralta, Ince, Pollock, Martins, Kayembe.

Man of the Match: Giorgi Chakvetadze

MATCH DAY RATING

6/10 – decent enough second half fightback made for a much less miserable experience than most other recent games.

Millwall 1-0 Watford

Unless we are very, very careful, we could very easily be about to sleepwalk our way into a relegation battle.

Yes, we are remarkably still 12th in the Championship table, but with a whole host of teams below us suddenly sparking into life we are now only six points off the drop zone.

And in the recent form table, we are right down the bottom having lost five of our last six league games.

Very worrying times indeed.

Somehow, we managed to concede even earlier than we did in our infamous mauling at the hands of Millwall at the Den last season, and while there was no repeat of that, we could have been playing until midnight and we wouldn’t have equalised.

With the personnel we’ve got, and the form we’re in, I’m really struggling to see how we get ourselves out of this free fall.

Rewind to early December, we were scoring last gasp equalisers at home to a Southampton side in the middle of an unbeaten run that lasted 25 games, and then being desperately unlucky not to get something against an Ipswich side who are still second in the table.

Those plucky efforts at home were followed by the joyous 5-1 win at Preston, and two goals in the last ten minutes to pick up another memorable win at Blackburn.

Even after a mini wobble, we were only a point outside the play-offs when we won at QPR in mid-January.

It’s astonishing how quickly and badly we’ve fallen off the rails, but it’s gone from being one of the most enjoyable seasons in recent years, to a run that is somehow worse than any of the dross served up in the previous two dismal campaigns.

Yesterday made it eleven away games I’ve been to this season, and Millwall are the worst team I’ve seen us play on the road (and that includes Stevenage in the Carabao Cup). Yet all they had to do was get their early goal, stick everyone behind the ball for 85 minutes and watch us fail miserably to create any real scoring opportunities.

The goal itself was a nice microcosm of the state we’re in at the moment.

A daft free kick was given away by Jake Livermore, our wall breaks due to two players turning their back on the ball, inevitably it deflects off one of them, and to top it all off it then squirms under Ben Hamer who really should have kept it out.

Hamer looked like he was already on the beach for his end of season holiday in the first half; he conceded an utterly needless corner by getting the ball stuck under his feet, and a miscommunication with the returning Jeremy Ngakia nearly gifted the hosts a second goal.

A minute after that, Ngakia took forever and a day to clear his lines and ended up being robbed of possession in his own box. Nothing came of that, but it summed up a dozy first half which lacked any of the urgency we’re now desperately going to need in the coming weeks.

Our only sort of near misses were a shot from Vakoun Bayo which crashed into the side netting from a very tight angle, and a low fizzes from Yaser Asprilla from outside the box which was straight at the keeper.

The second half was a little bit better, but for all our possession and territory it never felt like we were going to get back into it.

Wesley Hoedt, yet again a standout performer amongst the rabble surrounding him, tried his utmost to make something happen, often driving forward and putting crosses into the box.

It’s a shame he can’t get on the end of his own crosses, as even though they were often fairly decent there was never any danger of our static forward line getting on the end of them.

Alongside him in the centre of defence, Francisco Sierralta also had a decent game, but the rest of them were woeful.

A ‘special’ mention goes to Emmanuel Dennis, who put in one of the worst first half displays I can remember seeing in a long time. He mercifully improved after the break, but still nothing really came off for him, and quite why he was stuck out on the right is anyone’s guess.

Speaking of our right hand side, it was at least good to see Ryan Andrews given a few more minutes than in recent weeks, and it goes without saying we looked a lot more threatening going forward when he came on and put Ngakia out of his misery.

Valerien Ismael, who looks like his stay of execution will be extended to at least the Swansea game in midweek, came out and said Ngakia has always been his first choice right-back, but he must be the only man in Hertfordshire who thinks he’s a better bet than Andrews in that position.

There’s not much more to say about the game really. Millwall did what they had to do, I still think they might end up going down despite back to back wins as they really aren’t very good.

The problem right now is neither are we.

I’ve been asking myself this question all weekend, and I still don’t have any real answer: how on earth has it come to this?

Things need to improve, and improve fast, otherwise there is genuinely no limit as to how far we could yet fall this season.

Performances have been getting worse and worse though, the manager is clearly not going to last beyond this season no matter what happens in the last eleven games, and we’ll still have our feckless owner who is unquestionably the biggest reason we find ourselves in the mess we’re currently in.

His lack of investment in January absolutely killed stone dead any hopes of really making something of this season, when Ismael had earned the right to be given even just a little bit of financial backing, and now the paper thin squad is starting to show the cracks which were always likely to show at some stage or another.

It got seriously toxic at the tail end of last season, and if things go pear shaped on Wednesday night then expect similar scenes to unfold.

What a sad state of affairs. It really does make me sad how things are panning out when we were having such a good time of it only a couple of months ago.

There’s no sign of any light at the end of the tunnel though, so the only real question left to ask now is just how much more miserable can it get?

PLAYER RATINGS

Hamer – not good enough for the goal or in general, when was the last time he made a meaningful save? 4

Ngakia – recovered from minute of madness in first half, but he’s just not really good enough is he? 5

Sierralta – strong showing in return to defence, should have been given more minutes in recent weeks. 7

Hoedt – sloppy passing in first half, tried in vain to drag us forward after half time and good defensively. 7

Lewis – one day he’ll take on a full back and deliver a decent cross, but not this time. 5

Livermore – starting to look his age, lack of cover for him coming back to bite us. 5

Kayembe – rushed back from injury, but looks so far off the player we had before Christmas. 4

Dennis – embarrassing first half, better second but still no meaningful end product. 4

Asprilla – turning his back on free kick was cowardly and costly, didn’t do enough to try and make amends. 4

Sema – still missing a step since return from injury, how many more underwhelming performances before he’s dropped? 5

Bayo – actually tried hard and did some good things, inevitably wayward with attempts on goal though. 6

SUBSTITUTES

Dele-Bashiru (for Kayembe, 46) – mediocre, at least he wasn’t at right back. 5

Andrews (for Ngakia, 66) – injected drive into our powderpuff attacks. 6

Kone (for Sema, 67) – not in the game enough, looks shot. 5

Rajovic (for Bayo, 79) – another forward with a long throw! 5

Martins (for Livermore, 86) – N/A

Subs not used: Bachmann, Porteous, Ince, Pollock.

Man of the Match: Francisco Sierralta

MATCH DAY RATING

2/10 – how does it keep on getting worse?

Watford 1-2 Huddersfield

Here we go again.

As I write this, the rumours are swirling that Valerien Ismael is about to be sacked as Watford manager after a run of one win in nine Championship games.

What is even the point anymore?

Yes, the performance yesterday was absolutely diabolical. They haven’t been great for a couple of months now, and are heading in the wrong direction.

But what on earth did Gino Pozzo and the rest of the board expect?

It was so, so painfully obvious we needed some incomings in the January transfer window. And having got us to within a point of the play-offs, Ismael deserved to be backed with a few additions; they didn’t even need to be players who were upgrades in their positions and would play every week, just ones who were good enough to come in and do a job so that we could rest and rotate players.

Instead, he was left with an even smaller squad than he had before, and somehow we are all supposed to be surprised that the players have hit a wall both physically and mentally.

I’m not having it.

For half a season Ismael was performing nigh on miracles. The last few games have actually been more or less what I was expecting at the very beginning of the campaign, he did so well to keep things as enjoyable as he did for as long as he did.

As far as I’m concerned he’s been hung out to dry by the powers that be, and if he goes as expected then it’s the surest sign yet that things will never change as long as the current owner is about.

I do have to say though, that for the first time all season yesterday, I didn’t get the sense that the players were playing for the manager. Once a manager loses the dressing room there’s very rarely any coming back from it, and while I’m not saying Ismael has lost the players, if that is the case then I guess he was always going to be toast. It would say a lot about the group of players though, and be a big middle finger to the unity that had been such a key feature of this team until recently.

I’m wondering if there’s a few of them that are in need of a rest, and are unhappy that they aren’t being given a rest. If that is the case, then it is on the recruitment for not giving Ismael any players he can bring into the side.

TL;DR, the whole thing just stinks and I’ve had enough of it.

Having got my defence of Ismael in, none of the above is an excuse for the utter bilge on the pitch yesterday.

The first half was an absolute disgrace, it took us about half an hour to even complete a pass in Huddersfield’s half of the pitch such was the lack of tempo or desire or quality.

You know things are going badly when you’re having to make a double substitution after 27 minutes, when neither players going off is injured.

Ismael Kone is one of those players who quite clearly needs a rest, but his attitude was a joke from minute one and even though you could have made a case for just about anyone being hooked at the time, he was especially dreadful. His reaction to going off did him no favours either, storming off down the tunnel waving his arms around; if he’d shown that much energy in the preceding 27 minutes he wouldn’t have been taken off.

Edo Kayembe was the other players with the indignity of being hauled off so early, in his very slight defence he still doesn’t look fully fit but goodness me he was bad.

On came Tom Ince and Giorgi Chakvetadze, who to be fair to them did inject a little bit of urgency into our play. Ince went the closest to scoring, forcing a decent save after a delightful through ball from Yaser Asprilla.

Before that, Mattie Pollock had made a couple of important last ditch blocks, one of which came from a frankly suicidal back pass from Ken Sema who put in what must have been one of his worst games in a yellow shirt.

Ultimately, the double change didn’t produce the shock therapy type effect we were clearly going for though, and the chorus of boos that greeted the half time whistle were entirely justified. And that’s coming from someone who doesn’t agree with booing very often at all.

So after all the commotion that went on in the first half, you’d think we’d come out after the interval with a rocket up our backsides, right?

Wrong. The second period began in much the same way as the first.

And yet somehow, entirely undeservedly, we went ahead.

Given he was the only one even really trying to, let alone looking like, make anything happen, it was no surprise that it came from some Asprilla brilliance.

He did superbly to slip past his full back, picked out Emmanuel Dennis with his cut back, and on his first start since rejoining the club on loan Dennis controlled expertly before absolutely lashing the ball into the roof of the net.

That made it back to back home games in which Dennis has now scored, so it was absolutely Sod’s law that literally a minute later he was limping off with a groin injury. On came Mileta Rajovic, as well as Matheus Martins, and while there was no lack of effort from the Dane, unfortunately for him not a single thing he did came off and you could almost see the confidence draining from him by the minute it was so visible.

The next 10-15 minutes was actually our best spell of the afternoon, and we really ought to have put the game to bed.

Rajovic thumped a header hideously high and wide when completely unmarked on the penalty spot, and also poked a chance on his left foot feebly wide when I’m pretty certain Asprilla had been trying to play it to Martins on the edge of the box.

Ince continued to look a goal threat without actually supplying said goal, as he flicked what would have been a terrific low finish inches wide from a Martins cut back.

However, we were still only a goal to the good after that bright spell, and sure enough Huddersfield found an equaliser with twenty minutes to go.

Quite how on earth Yuta Nakayama was afforded so much time and space to put his cross in is a complete mystery, and inevitably Danny Ward easily beat Sema in the air to head home almost ten years after he scored a hat-trick for the Terriers at Vicarage Road in a humiliating 4-1 thrashing on the last day of the 2013/14 season. Cutting out crosses seems to be something we’re allergic to, despite it being one of the most basic parts of defending, so it’s little wonder we conceded yet another goal from one here.

I just about gave Ince the benefit of the doubt with his miss earlier in the half, but he should have scored from a very similar position not long after their equaliser only to spoon his effort over the bar.

We were made to pay for that miss, as that man Ward popped up once again to nip between the dozing Mattie Pollock and Tom Dele-Bashiru and poke home the winner after 83 minutes.

And from there it never really felt like we would get back into it. There was no belief in the pitch, or in the stands, just a grim acceptance of our fate.

So from here, the inevitable axe looks like it’s going to be swung again. It’s hard to believe it has come to this so quickly, with those glorious back to back away wins at Preston and Blackburn still only two months ago.

Business which needed to be done in January wasn’t, and this is the result. What a shame.

I defended Ismael at the start of this piece, but I will now caveat that by saying he hasn’t done himself any favours at times.

This slump can more or less be traced back to the start of the mind boggling experiment of playing Dele-Bashiru at right back. The fact we went on to win the game 5-1 meant it got overlooked, but even at Preston in the first game he played in that position he was getting rinsed by their left winger, and in the next game at Blackburn the turning point was Ryan Andrews coming on at half time to play there.

Since then it’s been more or less downhill, and I can’t believe ‘the numbers’ are showing that Andrews has needed to be left out of the side for four games running. Something is quite clearly not right there.

And I’m pretty sure it’s not how he’s wanting the team to play, but he has to take at least some of the blame for the spate of home games where we’ve started in such insipid fashion.

Anyway, it feels like we’re about to enter ‘same s***, different day’ territory, and any optimism and enjoyment I’d had from this season is gone.

Sadly I have a ticket for Millwall away next week, with them having just won at Southampton in Neil Harris’s first game back in charge there. So that’ll be fun.

PLAYER RATINGS

Hamer – unconvincing kicking, has stopped saving shots. 5

Dele-Bashiru – positionally all at sea, but slight improvement near the end. 4

Pollock – some good blocks and tackles, but caught napping for winner. 5

Hoedt – not most convincing display, but still used ball better than most. 6

Lewis – too flimsy, just doesn’t look interested enough. 4

Kone – disgraceful attitude, deservedly hooked in first half. 2

Livermore – a mixed bag, starting to look a little weary. 5

Kayembe – constantly lost the ball before being put out of his misery. 3

Asprilla – only one with real quality, could have had hat-trick of assists. 7

Dennis – sloppy until brilliantly taken goal, injury a big blow. 5

Sema – punch drunk in first half, not much better after the break. 3

SUBSTITUTES

Ince (for Kone, 27) – decent impact, but missed three great chances. 5

Chakvetadze (for Kayembe, 27) – started well enough before fading. 5

Rajovic (for Dennis, 59) – an unmitigated disaster. 3

Martins (for Lewis, 59) – didn’t look bothered, one good cut back aside. 4

Andrews (for Livermore, 87) – N/A

Man of the Match: Yaser Asprilla

MATCH DAY RATING

2/10 – the wheels have well and truly come off. Welcome to Groundhog Day.

Norwich 4-2 Watford

By and large, Valerien Ismael has been a huge positive for Watford this season.

Unfortunately, the last few weeks it feels to me like he is digging his own grave.

That’s not me saying I want him gone, far from it, but although he’s clearly been dealt a dreadful hand by our feckless owner he’s making life harder for himself than he needs to with some truly baffling team selections.

Thankfully I didn’t make the trip to Carrow Road, so my take is based purely on the Hive Live stream I regrettably paid a tenner for.

We have many problems at the moment, none bigger than our situation at full-back which is at least partly of our own making.

Tom Dele-Bashiru is not a right back. How many more times does it need to be said? I couldn’t care less if his midfield instincts mean he can do bits and pieces of ‘inverted full-back’ nonsense, the guy can’t defend and just doesn’t have the positional awareness required to play the role.

This was once again exposed for Norwich’s first goal, scored by the detestable Ashley Barnes with a free header from barely a couple of yards out when Dele-Bashiru ought to have been marking him. Barnes had already been booked for a pretty poor challenge on Matheus Martins.

Our other full-back also had a black mark against his name for the opener, as Jamal Lewis allowed Onel Hernandez (don’t think he’s been any good since about 2019?) to breeze past him far too easily to put the cross in.

I don’t understand Lewis in the slightest anymore, before Christmas he was starting to look the part but since coming back into the side after injury he’s looked largely disinterested. He slows all our left-sided attacks down, doesn’t win any 50/50s and doesn’t cut out any crosses – if he were to go back to Newcastle right now he wouldn’t be missed.

Wesley Hoedt has been our best player in the last few weeks, but he had an absolute shocker to concede the penalty for their second goal.

He took far too long to clear his lines, clearly had no idea the Norwich player was there and ended up clumsily chopping him down.

Stuart Attwell, the Luton fan who is still as incompetent as he was in 2008 when he awarded Reading the infamous ‘ghost goal’ against us, didn’t get many things right here and quite frankly should never have been allowed to referee our games again, but the penalty was nailed on.

It was a half of agonising near misses for Ben Hamer in goal. He almost pulled off a sensational save for Barnes’ opener but couldn’t quite claw the ball away before it crossed the line, and kept out Josh Sargent’s spot kick only for the ball to fall kindly back into the American’s path to allow him to nod home the rebound and double the home side’s lead.

For a couple of minutes after that we were all over the place as the floodgates threatened to open, but we did eventually regroup and started forcing some openings of our own.

Mileta Rajovic messed up a two on one by failing to pick out Ismael Kone, in a situation where the roles really needed to be reversed, but to his credit the big Dane was in the right place at the right time to half the deficit from all of a yard out after getting on the end of Ken Sema’s scuffed shot three minutes before half-time.

Kone was really pulling the strings in midfield. It was his delicious ball to Sema that ultimately created the goal, and he ought to have set up an equaliser just before the interval.

To be honest I think Kone should have shot having carried the ball to the edge of the box, but once he’d slipped in Martins the Brazilian simply had to do better. He cut inside well enough, but on his weaker left foot he took an absolute age to get his shot away which saw it charged down.

A glorious chance wasted, and it was hard to imagine we’d get a better one than that.

Having ended the first half on top there were no changes at the break, and we began the second period in the ascendancy. The only real chance we created was dragged horribly wide by Sema.

The home side made a couple of defensive minded substitutions only ten minutes into the half, which drew vast dissent from the Norwich faithful.

We countered their double change with one of our own, as Martins and Sema were hauled off to be replaced by Emmanuel Dennis and Yaser Asprilla.

Their changes looked to be working better than ours, but from out of nowhere Asprilla found the top corner with an absolute pile driver from 30 yards out to draw us level in the most spectacular fashion.

The goal was so good it was pretty much worth my £10 investment on its own, I don’t think anyone could quite believe it had gone in. It went in off the post as well, which always makes it that extra little bit satisfying.

My main feeling once the match was over ended up being utterly dismayed on Asprilla’s behalf, as the way we undid his brilliance so tamely was pretty unforgivable.

Ordinarily I’d have been delighted to see Edo Kayembe come back after six weeks out with injury, but in hindsight he clearly wasn’t quite ready and his introduction saw us retreat back into our shells when ordinarily it would surely have helped us kick on with our opponents clearly reeling against the ropes.

Dele-Bashiru lost the ball and failed to get back, leaving a glaring gap where he should have been that was perfectly exploited by the Canaries.

Ryan Porteous was a little unfortunate his interception went straight to Barnes, who teed up Gabriel Sara to finish neatly into the bottom corner. If I’m being hyper critical I think Hoedt should have moved across to cover Sara as Porteous was already on Barnes, but you only have a split second in those kind of situations and had Dele-Bashiru not been so hopelessly out of position the issue wouldn’t have been there.

Four minutes later it was game over. Dennis had been pretty dismal since coming on, but for my money was fouled on the touchline on this occasion.

Obviously Attwell didn’t give the foul, Lewis made no effort to stop the cross going in and Porteous’s feeble challenge got the punishment it deserved as Christian Fassnacht nipped in to claim the goal when it looked like the final touch might have come off Porteous.

From there it sadly looked like we gave up, meaning we fell to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions. Absolutely infuriating, as Norwich were so clearly there for the taking especially once we’d pulled it back to 2-2.

So where do we go from here?

Things quite clearly need to change, we’ve been on a losing run earlier in the season and did a superb job of turning the tide, so we know it can be done.

One thing that definitely will be changing for the next two games at least will be in the centre of defence, with Porteous out of those through suspension. That could genuinely be a blessing in disguise, he’s been given far too many free passes this season and last night was another calamitous showing.

I said it at the weekend and I’ll say it again, I’d bring Francisco Sierralta in and stick with him for a few games. When he was so good in the last promotion season, it took a run of matches to build him up to the giant at the back we saw by the end of that campaign, so perhaps giving him a chance to gain some momentum rather than dropping him every time he has a bad day at the office might be in order.

As mentioned already, the Tom Dele-Bashiru at right back experiment absolutely has to end here.

Something has to have happened with Ryan Andrews, whether it be a slight knock or a fallout of some sort behind the scenes, but he is just so much better than Dele-Bashiru in the role and so if some pride needs to be swallowed by Ismael, it has to happen now.

Dele-Bashiru’s best performance of the season was the last 20 minutes away at Plymouth when he was moved into midfield against tired legs, which his skillset is so much more suited to. He should have been coming on for the exhausted Kone rather than floundering at full-back. Or with Kayembe evidently not ready, at the very least he should have been moved into midfield and with Andrews coming off the bench instead.

The whole handling of the squad has been puzzling the last couple of months, but this was the most baffling handling of it yet.

Martins on the right hasn’t worked since before Christmas, and even then he was still not as effective as he’d been on the other wing. With the next few games arguably more winnable on paper, Ismael could do a lot worse than move Sema to left back, switch Martins to the left wing and start Asprilla down the right. If his goal last night doesn’t merit a start, then nothing will.

As for Dennis, his appearance off the bench was catastrophic but he’s got to be used down the middle. Rajovic was a little better than he’d been in recent games, but I’m still very surprised he lasted the full 90 minutes which left Dennis stuck in a position where his lack of sharpness was always going to be exposed more vividly.

I’d be going for something like this at Rotherham on Saturday: Hamer; Andrews, Sierralta, Hoedt, Sema; Kone, Livermore, Chakvetadze; Asprilla, Dennis, Martins.

I’m not expecting Dennis to start after Ismael’s scathing post-match comments were clearly aimed at him (and possibly Kayembe), but he’s shown glimpses of what he can do in his cameos when played centrally so sooner or later he’s going to have to be given a proper go.

I won’t be at the New York Stadium at the weekend, I’d planned on doing loads of the away matches before the end of the season but I can feel myself getting more and more fed up with how things are deteriorating so we’ll have to wait and see.

I never seriously expected us to get into the play-offs, but finishing 8th, 9th or 10th would have been a really encouraging first season under Ismael.

Now we’re probably looking at nearer 16th, 17th or 18th, which I would have taken before a ball had been kicked but given where we were not that long ago that would be desperately underwhelming.

More than anything else, the fun factor has gone. Preston away feels like a lifetime ago when in fact two months haven’t even passed since then. It would be nice to at least genuinely look forward to going to games again, as the last seven or eight have felt more like a chore.

PLAYER RATINGS

Hamer – unlucky with first two goals, no saves of real note. 5

Dele-Bashiru – out of his depth, time to put him out of his misery. 4

Porteous – thoroughly bored of him, another hapless display. 4

Hoedt – clumsy conceding of penalty, passing was unusually ragged. 4

Lewis – half-hearted defending and offered nothing going forward. 3

Kone – excellent first hour, clearly exhausted by the end. 8

Livermore – not bad but has looked half a step off the pace lately. 6

Chakvetadze – ten league starts, one league win. Not good enough. 4

Martins – spell on the right has shot confidence to pieces. 4

Rajovic – ended goal drought, some useful touches in build up play. 6

Sema – dragged chance wide, not really at the races. 5

SUBSTITUTES

Dennis (for Martins, 61) – dreadful, constantly gave the ball away. 3

Asprilla (for Sema, 61) – sensational goal deserved so much more. 7

Kayembe (for Chakvetadze, 72) – not ready yet, and it badly showed. 4

Andrews (for Dele-Bashiru, 83) – N/A

Ince (for Livermore, 83) – N/A

Man of the Match: Ismael Kone

MATCH DAY RATING

3/10 – 3 points for Asprilla’s goal, but hated just about everything else about the night.

Watford 1-2 Leicester

This was the first time this season where I’ve felt like I really can’t be asked with a Watford game going into it.

In a sense that goes to show that this team has for the most part done considerably better than that of last year, as I’d pretty much had enough of that rabble by Christmas.

There have been signs in the last few weeks that the wheels might just starting to slide off a little, and that’s now a handful of games recently where the enjoyment just hasn’t been there compared to how it was a couple of months ago. Preston away, for example, is starting to feel like a distant memory.

My lack of enthusiasm was not helped by the absolute joys of temporary traffic lights heading into Watford, but after 15 minutes of moving at an absolute crawl I managed to get parked up in time for a pre-match pint down the Estcourt Tavern; no dad with me today, so I was going solo.

At least the pint was decent enough, as I was far from thrilled by the lineup when it was announced on social media. Tom Dele-Bashiru at right back, Ryan Porteous starting despite an absolute horror/comedy show in the second half at Southampton in midweek, Giorgi Chakvetadze in midfield rather than out wide. None of these things seemed ideal, but in Val we trust and so I went along with it despite my misgivings.

It was a well earned week’s wages for Vakoun Bayo, who lasted all of a minute before going down with what transpired to be a hamstring injury which meant a particularly early introduction for Mileta Rajovic; I prefer the big Dane coming off the bench, but not quite so early and unfortunately this was one of those afternoons where the game just utterly passed him by, with him looking about five yards off the pace.

When your luck is out, it’s really out and to say Leicester’s penalty was soft is being generous. There was absolutely minimal contact between Dennis Praet and Chakvetadze, but the Foxes midfielder flung himself over in theatrical fashion and probably couldn’t believe his luck when the referee pointed to the spot.

The referee could not wait to give it, and it reeked of a ‘big club’ decision. It’s downright irritating though, Leicester are miles clear at the top of the table and don’t need to be gifted freebies like this one to win games of football.

Patson Daka duly tucked away the spot kick, and with that the game plan was out of the window after only eleven minutes.

They may have some very good players, but my god Leicester are boring to watch. It felt like most of the rest of the half was spent with their keeper playing endless one-twos with his defenders, which is literally how I play when I’m trying to annoy my mates on FIFA (nobody calls it EA Sports FC).

To be honest though that group of players could play pretty much any way they like and they’d be walking this division, many of them are clearly too good at this level. Some people have actually compared them to our side that got promoted under Xisco Munoz in 2021, and I can see here those comparisons are coming from.

Credit where it’s due though, the visitors’ second goal ten minutes after the break was fabulously worked from back to front.

Porteous did what Porteous does and got caught charging miles upfield without winning the ball, Leicester exploited that space to perfection and Ricardo Pereira (how on earth is this guy playing in the Championship?!) finished emphatically into the bottom corner.

There are several players I am just tired of at this point, and unfortunately Porteous is right up there. You can never accuse him of not trying his heart out, but that alone only gets you so far and he’s an absolute liability in this side.

Genuinely, has he EVER either won the ball or forced a mistake that has gained us possession with one of his charges forward? I noticed Wesley Hoedt was doing something similar today, more so than in previous games, but he was doing it in a more controlled way that didn’t take him out of the game so easily. Hoedt was once again outstanding, by the way, and for me is extending his lead in the player of the season running by the week.

Rajovic, along with Bayo, is another I’ve just about run out of patience with, and he suffered the ignominy of being subbed on and then subbed off as we made a triple change straight after their second goal.

Off with Rajovic went Matheus Martins, largely anonymous, and Ken Sema, the only one in yellow who looked like making anything happen in the first half. Emmanuel Dennis, Yaser Asprilla and Ryan Andrews came on in their places.

I don’t know how quickly we can get Dennis up to speed, but goodness me we need to get him starting games as soon as possible as our attack has looked so much better once he’s come on in the last two games.

Within three minutes of him coming on he’d got us back in the game, albeit thanks to a shocking back pass from Harry Winks which left him with pretty much an empty net to roll the ball into.

From there we huffed and puffed, but it never really felt like we would go on and grab an equaliser.

Dennis forced a decent save from a tight angle after driving into the box, when I thought he took a touch too many just as was the case with a chance against Cardiff last week. Hopefully being more ruthless with these opportunities will come with match sharpness, but the fact he’s the only one forcing them goes to show he’s going to be hugely important if we’re to avoid ending this season with a whimper. The play-offs are out of the equation now, as far as I’m concerned.

The lack of creativity besides Dennis is becoming a huge problem. Once he’s fit enough to start down the middle and we can afford to play neither of Rajovic or Bayo then hopefully things will change, but the only other time we came particularly close was an Asprilla shot from distance taking a huge deflection before spinning agonisingly wide.

Martins currently doesn’t do enough often enough, Asprilla is too hot and cold, and Chakvetadze continues to look busy and lively without ever having anything to show for it.

Our record with Chakvetadze starting games is awful as well, I’m not saying it’s all down to him as clearly that’s not the case, but it would be nice if all his neat footwork and ball carrying actually ended up with some goals and assists once in a while.

Needless to say, our passing and final ball were so sloppy, and Leicester were able to hold on for something like their 56438765th win this season.

The result isn’t the problem here, in fact it was a lot more respectable than most people expected, but the continued struggles in the final third are increasingly alarming.

I said this last week, but Edo Kayembe cannot come back quickly enough so that Ismael Kone can go back to being our main ball carrier from midfield instead of Chakvetadze, who for me should be playing out wide or not at all.

We need to work out who our best wingers are, as I still have no idea. One player who I do know is not a winger though is Ryan Andrews, who looked absolutely lost when deployed further forward today. Much better than in recent appearances off the bench was Tom Ince, whose deliveries from set pieces had the visitors worried, but to say that should make him a started is a bit of a stretch.

I’d bring Francisco Sierralta back into defence as well, I know he’s not been great at times this season but it seems like every time he has an iffy game he gets dropped, which to me seems unfair when you’ve got Porteous making more mistakes but still keeping his place.

To make matters worse, Sierralta will find himself in midfield the next time he plays, so it’s no wonder he’s struggled to build much momentum this season. Ismael has got an awful lot right this season, but his handling of the Chilean isn’t one of them.

Onto an away double header then, starting with Norwich in midweek and then Rotherham. A few weeks ago I’d have fancied our chances in both those games, but times have rapidly changed and I’d now be pleasantly surprised if we win either of them. The home form is the bigger concern right now though, and it’s going to be very interesting when we host relegation-threatened Huddersfield in a couple of weeks.

On a day where the referee spoiled the game with a poor penalty decision, I think I should end this post by giving a mention to the linesman running the line nearest the Rookery. Nothing more needs to be said, other than he did not have a clue.

PLAYER RATINGS

Hamer – no chance for either goal, very little to do otherwise. 6

Dele-Bashiru – his best game at right back, but he’s just not a right back. 6

Porteous – more reckless defending cost us, getting very boring. 4

Hoedt – cut and paste from last week, just looks a level above the rest. 8

Lewis – some crucial blocks, but hopeless going forward. 5

Kone – livelier than in recent weeks, brought energy to the midfield. 7

Livermore – steady as ever, much better than in reverse fixture. 6

Chakvetadze – looked busy, but where is the end product? 5

Martins – not in the game enough, looks low on confidence. 5

Bayo – thanks for coming, Vak. N/A

SUBSTITUTES

Rajovic (for Bayo, 3) – run out of patience with him, offers nothing. 4

Dennis (for Sema, 60) – gifted goal, another encouraging appearance. 7

Asprilla (for Rajovic, 60) – tried to make things happen, but with little joy. 5

Andrews (for Martins, 61) – not a winger, looked like a fish out of water. 4

Ince (for Chakvetadze, 72) – decent set pieces, one wild shot over. 6

Man of the Match: Wesley Hoedt. Again.

PRE-MATCH MEAL

Had a M&S salad that needed using up, along with some very nice Mexican chicken. 8/10

SHIRT WORN

This season’s home has become a favourite, but will have to start mixing it up a bit with the lack of joy I’m getting from wearing it at the moment.

MATCH DAY RATING

4/10 – weren’t embarrassed against tediously good opposition, but the cracks are starting to form. And temporary lights can get in the bin.

Watford 0-1 Cardiff – Thanks Gino!

I’ve kept pretty quiet on my thoughts on the ownership at Watford for most of this season, largely because until Christmas results were so much better than expected.

Fast forward six weeks though, and all of a sudden things are just starting to look a little different.

With the squad already very small, we’ve somehow ended the January window with it even smaller, and on the pitch it’s really starting to show.

Players are looking leggy due to them being unable to have a rest due to the lack of options, and as a result we’re no longer winning the games we were winning late on as that extra bit of fitness just isn’t there anymore.

That’s not on the players we’ve got, by the way. It’s on the owner who has left Valerien Ismael with a threadbare squad, our worst in terms of individual quality since he took over the club, and essentially asked him to perform miracles.

And for half a season, he did just that. Maybe that lulled Mr Pozzo into a false sense of security, but his unwillingness to invest looks increasingly likely to result in the rest of this season petering out into neither one thing or the other.

Barring a freakishly bad run of form we’re not going to go down, but based on the last few games you can forget about the play-offs too.

The journey into Watford wasn’t the most enjoyable, with dozy weekend drivers being an unwanted nuisance, but they were nothing compared to our dozy, half-hearted performance in the first half.

On paper the lineup looked alright to me, with now permanent Hornet Giorgi Chakvetadze pushed back into midfield to accommodate the return to the starting XI of Yaser Asprilla.

I can honestly say the first 40 minutes was one of the most boring spells of football I can ever remember, the lack of urgency from us was frightening.

Chakvetadze was constantly running into blind alleys, Asprilla was utterly anonymous, Ismael Kone joining him under the invisibility cloak, Vakoun Bayo well off the pace. I could go on, but you get the idea. Nobody was at the races, which resulted with the defence and Ben Hamer in goal passing it around amongst themselves at a snails pace, not getting anywhere.

We ought to have gone ahead around the half hour mark, Asprilla taking an awful touch instead of shooting first time from close range. There’s clearly a hell of a lot of talent there with Asprilla, but that’s not the first time he’s been guilty of overcomplicating things in front of goal and he can be absolutely infuriating.

The one real moment of quality of the afternoon ultimately won the game for the visitors just before half-time. Our defending was extremely generous, but that’s to take nothing away from the finish from Josh Bowler who curled his shot perfectly into the top corner from the edge of the box.

Conceding just before the break is never a good thing, but I hoped it might wake a few of the players up and that they’d approach the second half with a lot more purpose.

I was very wrong: the opening 15 minutes of the second half were an absolute disgrace.

Somehow the tempo was even worse than it had been before Cardiff’s goal, and if anything they looked the more likely to add to their lead.

Unsurprisingly Ismael had seen enough and rang the changes after an hour. To be honest he could have taken off just about anyone, but it was Bayo, Chakvetadze and Matheus Martins who were hauled off; on for them were Mileta Rajovic, Ken Sema and Emmanuel Dennis.

Ironically we’d almost equalised just before that triple change, a low Jamal Lewis cross being deflected onto his own post by a Cardiff defender (surely you can’t be surprised that a Watford player didn’t get on the end of it?!).

The introduction of Dennis in particular got us going, as he brought some much needed pace and drive to our attacks. Finally we had someone on the pitch who looked like they might make things happen.

Wesley Hoedt, who had once again stood out amongst the carnage around him, had a shot deflected narrowly wide. In fact, we had quite a few efforts where deflections and ricochets fell the way of the Bluebirds.

Dennis did brilliantly to wriggle his way into the box, but blazed wildly high and wide having taken a couple of touches too many and narrowing the angle for himself.

Another substitute, Tom Dele-Bashiru, also had a decent effort from range that was parried away by Jack Alnwick in the Cardiff goal. I didn’t think he looked particularly comfortable, as was the case in the reverse fixture when he gifted us our equaliser, but we did nowhere near enough to test him.

The most infuriating near miss came only a few minutes before the end. Ryan Andrews put in a terrific low ball which was begging to be attacked, but Rajovic was on his heels and could only stand and watch it whistle painfully across the face of goal.

I’ve defended Rajovic more than most due to his knack for popping up with important goals, but he hasn’t actually scored in the league since Christmas and it’s based on that moment it’s easy to see why.

If you’re not going to attack crosses like that, which ones are you going to attack? Between him and Bayo it’s ultimately their job to score goals, and in recent weeks they’ve both failed miserably at it.

So that was that, Cardiff held on despite barely leaving their half for the last half an hour. Our record at home to them in recent years is appalling, I think we’ve lost four of the last five to them at the Vic which is laughable as they haven’t been that good in any of those wins.

That’s what you get for essential giving a team an hour’s head start before bothering to have a go, so despite our late pressure we got what we deserved.

We now have the joys of an FA Cup replay at Southampton in midweek to decide who will be battered at Liverpool in the next round. Honestly, I’d play a couple of senior players like Daniel Bachmann and Francisco Sierralta, but otherwise give the players a break and let some of the kids have a chance.

If they get handily beat as expected then so what? Treat it as a free hit of sorts, and if they somehow win then a group of youngsters with confidence sky high can only be a good thing.

PLAYER RATINGS

Hamer – blameless for the goal, didn’t have much else to do. 6

Andrews – didn’t get forward enough first half, improved after the break. 6

Pollock – moved the ball too slowly, caught out of position a few times. 4

Hoedt – excellent distribution, another game he’s looked a cut above. 7

Lewis – weak for the goal, and slowed down too many attacks. 4

Kone – better second half, but misses Kayembe and running on fumes. 5

Livermore – not as tidy as usual, another who looks increasingly exhausted. 5

Chakvetadze – dreadful, constantly gave ball away and bottled every challenge. 3

Martins – looked our most dangerous forward, surprised he went off. 6

Bayo – no shots, no link up play, no sharpness, no threat. 4

Asprilla – invisible besides glaring miss in first half, much better when moved to the centre. 4

SUBSTITUTES

Dennis (for Martins, 60) – the only real positive, very lively and made things happen. 7

Sema (for Chakvetadze, 60) – got into good positions but didn’t do enough with them. 5

Rajovic (for Bayo, 60) – not enough desire to get on the end of things. 4

Dele-Bashiru (for Livermore, 78) – did well enough, had one decent shot. 6

Subs not used: Bachmann, Sierralta, Porteous, Ince, Morris.

Man of the Match: Wesley Hoedt

PRE-MATCH MEAL

After last week’s shocker, the masala stand was back in business so at least something went right. 8/10

SHIRT WORN

Went for promotion vibes with the 2020/21 home shirt, but there was certainly nothing resembling promotion on the pitch today.

MATCH DAY RATING

3/10 – one of those days where I wonder why I bother.

Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Watford – Wednesday on a Wednesday

Turns out playing Sheffield Wednesday at Wednesday on a Wednesday isn’t as fun as it sounds.

Thankfully I didn’t make the trip for this one, but still paid £10 for the privilege of watching the game on Hive Live. Somehow this wasn’t even down there with the very worst of the games I’ve watched on that service over the last few years (Nottingham Forest away under Vladimir Ivic, I’m looking at you), but goodness me it was a tough watch for the most part.

The game being such a tough watch was not helped at all by the ploughed field of a pitch we had to play on. Every time anyone tried to carry the ball any great distance, they’d be having to hastily adjust their footing and thus stalling any momentum they might have been building up.

And also, we just look tired.

I slightly delayed writing this post in the faint hope we might make a signing or two on deadline day, but alas this did not transpire and so we’ve ended the January window with an even more paper thin squad than we started it with. Fantastic.

The concern now is that we’re only a couple of injuries to key players away from things going completely to pot.

To be honest, we’ve looked leggy ever since the run of games around Christmas time. Ryan Andrews and Ismael Kone in particular have looked knackered, but with such few alternatives available we’ve not been able to give them the rest that they pretty clearly need.

One in one out was going to be the supposed policy, but while we were all delighted to see Emmanuel Dennis return on loan we were surely banking on more than just him coming in as Imran Louza and Rhys Healey headed out of the exit door.

Anyway, the reason I’ve started with that is because there isn’t an awful lot to say about the game.

I was pretty pleased with the lineup when it was announced, given what we have available, with Mattie Pollock deservedly given a first league start of the season following an impressive showing against Southampton in the FA Cup at the weekend. Jake Livermore also came back in, which pushed Giorgi Chakvetadze into a more advanced role and saw Yaser Asprilla slightly unluckily drop to the bench.

We started well for the opening few minutes before Wednesday worked their way into the contest. Barry Bannan was the first to test either keeper, a long range effort drawing a decent save from Ben Hamer.

The fawning over Bannan from commentators Jon Marks and former Hornet Adrian Mariappa was highly irritating (Mariappa was a former teammate of his at Crystal Palace which might explain the love-in to a degree), but to be fair he did play well and largely dictated the game in the midfield with our trio of Livermore, Kone and Tom Dele-Bashiru struggling to get a grip on proceedings.

Having been under the cosh for a few minutes, we came agonisingly close to opening the scoring around the half hour mark.

Matheus Martins, who’d been looking dangerous, had a shot hit the post via a wicked deflection for the second time in three days as his free kick left the Wednesday keeper hopelessly wrong footed.

It then looked for all the world like Vakoun Bayo was going to put in the rebound, but was somehow outmuscled by that pest Bannan and the home side survived.

Martins and Bayo combined again moments later to spurn the best chance of the game; quite why Bayo didn’t shoot after Kone played him through on goal I’m not too sure, but despite his square ball to Martins being poor the Brazilian had to do so much better with what was essentially an open goal. He had more time than he probably realised, and if he’d just taken a touch rather than lunge for it first time he would have scored.

The woodwork up the other end was then rattled shortly after, with Ike Ugbo almost marking his first start for the Owls with a goal before Hamer reacted brilliantly to keep out Anthony Musaba’s headed rebound.

That was more or less the last action of the first half, and boss Valerien Ismael made a change at the break with Yaser Asprilla coming on for Martins.

Martins can probably consider himself a tad unlucky to have been hooked, but despite looking lively he’d been booked and started to become more interested in scrapping with their full back which probably wouldn’t have ended well for us.

We struggled to really get going in the second half, and were millimetres from falling behind as Hamer just about stopped the ball from squirming over the goal line after keeping out a Di’Shon Bernard header.

Bannan was having an absolute field day on set pieces as we gave away a few too many cheap free kicks, and we survived another near miss from one of his deliveries as Matt Smith headed over unmarked.

There was still a threat from us on the counter attack, but to be quite frank our final ball and decision making were absolutely diabolical.

The guiltiest culprit for that was Dele-Bashiru, who on at least three separate occasions squandered promising positions by carelessly giving the ball away.

Pollock had been enjoying another convincing display, but that all changed when he took one for the team and picked up a yellow card to stop a dangerous attack. Given his lack of minutes this season he was understandably tired suddenly playing two games in the space of a few days, and I thought he was very fortunate to escape a second booking for what looked like another tactical, counter attack stopping foul.

I think sometimes referees can get sucked into thinking every single foul merits a booking when a player is on a yellow card, so in that sense it was good to see referee Rebecca Welch (excellent for the most part, by the way) not rushing to dismiss Pollock, but he got away with one there for my money.

Unsurprisingly he was pretty much immediately withdrawn for Ryan Porteous for the last few minutes, and equally unsurprisingly Porteous twice got caught out of position leading to decent openings for the home side.

We survived those though, and some late heroics from Hamer which are becoming customary allowed us to cling onto a point; he produced a stunning save at full stretch to claw out Musaba’s shot which looked destined for the top corner.

The ordeal was over, and at least we didn’t lose which made it five unbeaten in the league. The only issue there is that all but one of those have been draws, and if we’d converted just one of those into a win we’d be right in the play-off picture.

I’ve said it before this season, we’re really not far away from being a really good side under Ismael. We’re not there yet though, and with fatigue starting to set in keeping ourselves within sight of the top six is going to be an unbelievable ask.

If you can’t win games, then at least don’t lose them, and we’ve made ourselves hard to beat which is a huge improvement on the last two years.

On the flip side, if a some of these draw start becoming losses and we’ll be in danger of our campaign just fizzling out into nothing in particular.

We should have Edo Kayembe back soon, which ought to be a huge boost as our midfield hasn’t been the same without him, but he’s not going to revitalise the whole side on his own.

Our fitness record has by and large been very good, but Kayembe has shown that it can only take one or two injuries to make our lives considerably harder.

And when those 15 injuries we had simultaneously around this time last year are still in the back of my mind as a reminder of how bad things can get, my main feeling right now is that we’re going to regret not getting more bodies in come the end of the season.

The games continue to come thick and fast as we host Cardiff on Saturday, where a first home league win since November would be very welcome.

PLAYER RATINGS

Hamer – kept us in it with more heroics, continues to amaze me. 8

Andrews – bombed up and down but with little to show for it, needs a rest. 6

Pollock – impressive for 70 minutes, lucky to avoid late sending off. 7

Hoedt – fine but not his most convincing, passing was off usual standards. 6

Lewis – battled hard, home side enjoyed more success down his flank. 6

Kone – very patchy, some good work but too many poor final balls. 5

Livermore – tried to steady the ship in midfield, reads the game well. 6

Dele-Bashiru – unsure if he knew he was meant to pass to yellow shirts. 4

Martins – dangerous, but had to be more composed with open goal. 6

Bayo – not been sharp enough since return from suspension. 5

Chakvetadze – good work rate, little in the way of end product again. 6

SUBSTITUTES

Asprilla (for Martins, 46) – struggled to get into the game at all. 5

Rajovic (for Bayo, 73) – see Asprilla. 5

Sema (for Lewis, 74) – an improvement on Sunday’s sub appearance. 6

Porteous (for Pollock, 82) – N/A

Dennis (for Chakvetadze, 85) – N/A

Man of the Match: Ben Hamer

MATCH DAY RATING

4/10 – couple of hours of my life I’ll never get back, fair play to all those who did make the trip up to Sheffield.

Watford 1-1 Southampton – magic of the cup my a***

The result that nobody really wanted.

I had started my day being on the receiving end of a result that seemingly everyone else in the world did want, with Jannik Sinner’s comeback from two sets down to win the Australian Open over Daniil Medvedev being met with universal delight despite the fact that Sinner has all the charisma of a teaspoon to go with a robotic albeit clearly very good game.

That meant I was in a fairly despondent mood heading into Vicarage Road, and that’s before it had really sunk in that I was going to have to watch a Russell Martin team bore me to tears for the second time in the space of a couple of months.

To make matters worse the brilliant masala stand inside the ground was closed, and that combined with my strong dislike of pies meant I had to go without a pre-match scoff.

My mood did improve slightly upon seeing the lineup. With a game in midweek to come it would have been easy to make a load of changes, but to Valerien Ismael’s credit he went for an almost full strength team based on what he had available. Francisco Sierralta came into the midfield to give Jake Livermore a well earned and much needed rest, while a first start of the season was given to Mattie Pollock. There was also a return to the team for Daniel Bachmann, but just as was the case against Chesterfield in the last round it was telling that Wesley Hoedt wore the captain’s armband instead of him.

We got off to a dream start once the match got underway. Yaser Asprilla was scythed down on the edge of the box, and Matheus Martins completely fooled everyone with a clever free kick into the bottom corner.

Amazingly, that was the first direct free kick we’ve scored at home since Almen Abdi against Aston Villa in 2016!

From there we were quite happy to let Southampton pass it aimlessly around amongst themselves without really going anywhere, but when we did get if off them we looked a real threat on the break.

Sierralta headed what looked a very presentable chance wide from a set piece, and Jamal Lewis worked the keeper with a decent right footed effort.

The visitors didn’t really trouble us, with the exception of one outstanding challenge from Hoedt when they looked like they were through on goal.

Just before half time we came close to doubling our lead as Vakoun Bayo fired inches wide with a decent chance. You couldn’t help but feel like we might pay for not adding another goal having been on top for so much of the half.

After the break, Southampton made a quadruple substitution that is a prime example of why I’m not a fan of teams now being able to make five changes as opposed to three.

It just gives the big guns a get out of jail free card if they don’t pick the right team to start with. There’s an art to team selection that can just easily be negated as you can change half your lineup if need be. If you don’t want to get knocked out of the FA Cup, don’t mess around making wholesale changes in the first place.

On came Adam Armstrong, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Fraser and Will Smallbone, and surprise surprise it was a totally different game all of a sudden.

That came after we’d started the second half like we’d ended the first; Asprilla in particular was looking dangerous and couldn’t quite pick out a yellow shirt after getting to the byline a couple of times.

Even after the raft of away changes, we came agonisingly close to a second goal, a Martins shot taking a huge deflection and coming back off the post; had that gone in we’d have won, despite their additional firepower now on the pitch.

As it was our lead remained slender, and the substitutions we made had the opposite impact to theirs.

Emmanuel Dennis had rejoined on loan during the week to considerable fanfare, but to say he lacked match sharpness during his 20 minute cameo is probably putting it generously.

None of Tom Ince, James Morris or Ken Sema impressed either, but despite us being camped in our own half it looked like we were going to hold on.

Ryan Porteous also came on to try and help see the game out, but only a couple of minutes later and with only a minute left on the clock the visitors levelled. The ball broke to Stuart Armstrong, who wrong footed Bachmann with a smart finish to force a replay that quite frankly both sides could do without; least of all now we know the winner’s ‘reward’ is a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool in the midst of Jurgen Klopp’s farewell tour.

It was valiant effort when all is said and done. We looked dead on our feet by the end, something which has crept into our performances in the last month or so and suggests we could really do with at least one or two more bodies in.

We also finished the game pretty much without a midfield, apparently Ismael Kone was suffering from cramp rather than a more sinister injury so hopefully he’ll be alright, but if Tom Dele-Bashiru isn’t fit enough for the trip to Hillsborough we’re going to be very short in the middle of the park.

I thought Hoedt in particular was absolutely majestic, but I’d also like to single out Mattie Pollock for praise. After a slightly nervous start he really grew into the game and looked much happier alongside Hoedt at the heart of a back four.

He’s reportedly handed in a transfer request due to a lack of game time, but given neither Porteous or Sierralta have exactly made a centre half place their own in recent weeks I’d be very inclined to give Pollock a couple more games and see if his strong showing today can translate to the league.

It’ll be a tough one on Wednesday night, with Sheffield Wednesday having had two days extra rest, but a win would put us right back into the thick of the play-off mix.

I think we’re dangerously close to running on fumes, but for now it’s still all to play for.

I end this report with two questions: will we ever beat Southampton at home ever again, with the last time remarkably being 2007?

And what on earth did I do in a past life to deserve having to watch a Russell Martin team bore me to tears FOUR TIMES in a single season?

PLAYER RATINGS

Bachmann – couple of decent saves and some improved handling. 7

Andrews – end product still not there, strong defensive showing though. 7

Pollock – impressive given his lack of action, let’s give him a chance now. 7

Hoedt – superb, used the ball well and won everything in the air. 8

Lewis – defensively sound and lively going forward. 7

Kone – some terrific ball carrying, midfield fell apart without him. 7

Sierralta – battled hard, a poor miss counts against him though. 6

Chakvetadze – largely good but still needs a little bit more end product. 7

Martins – great goal, terrorised their full back when taking him on. 8

Bayo – the usual mixed bag, slightly unlucky with first half chance. 6

Asprilla – most ambitious game so far when playing on the left. 7

SUBSTITUTES

Morris (for Lewis, 62) – Saints had far more joy against him than Lewis. 5

Sema (for Asprilla, 62) – looked way off the pace on return from injury. 5

Dennis (for Martins, 76) – looked even more off the pace. 4

Ince (for Kone, 76) – waste of time, hope his agent has a busy few days. 4

Porteous (for Chakvetadze, 86) – N/A

Man of the Match: Wesley Hoedt

PRE-MATCH MEAL

A no show from the masala stand meant I had to go hungry.

SHIRT WORN

Went for this season’s home, which I’m liking more and more.

MATCH DAY RATING

6/10 – lots to like about our performance, but getting done by late goals is never fun.