Yellow Fever - a Watford FC blog

Witch Hunt

2008-04-29T21:22:00.005Z

Well, it's not looking good. Another lacklustre/incompetent/panicky/unfortunate* performance against Scunny, and we are, if not at rock bottom, then certainly heading that way at quite some pace.

Who's to blame? Well, everyone probably in some way or another, but can we wait a few weeks for the post-mortem? After all, the patient is not dead. Yet. Laughable though it may seem, you'll be surprised how rosy things will seem after a trip to Wembley in a few weeks.**

In the meantime, if you want, you can blame everything, and I mean everything, on Jordan Stewart. Thanks to James on BHaPPY for pointing this gem out.

* take your pick.

** Foo Fighters on 8th June. Why? What are you going there for?

"Yeah, I had a phat weekend"

2008-04-18T19:27:00.004Z

I reckon at about ~~5:00pm~~ 7:15pm tomorrow we should see some closure. A few months ago I predicted that the Glory Hornet Boys and Hull would occupy the top 2 slots come end o'season. Hull are away, WBA are too, Stoke and Brizzle City can't both win (surprise rule change by Sepp Blatter not withstanding), so a win tomorrow* will do us plenny proud.

Let's be 'aving you.

*The author would like to point out no chickens were counted in the writing of this blog posting

No Heart, No Guts

2008-04-09T20:44:00.002Z

No Brains.

No chance of promotion.

That's that then.

Balls.

Heart and Guts

2008-04-08T11:25:00.003Z

There is a growing vocal contingent of Watford fans who are moaning about our current style of football and suggesting that Aidy should sort it out. Now is not the time. There will be time for moaning about style. It's September.

Now is the time for the vocal contingent to join us, the Happy Clappers, blindly backing the team, no matter what the dross served out on the pitch. I believe Ken Furphy said something along the lines of "If I bring on a horse and cart, it's the fans job to cheer it". Quite so. Even if that Cart Horse is Jordan Stewart. Whatever you might think of him as a player and a person.

Saturday may not have been pretty, and it may not have been deserved, but for a team largely lacking in confidence and individual flair, it was just what was needed. Add that to Saturday's other results and to last nights Palace win over Stoke, promotion is back in our hands. Five games left. Five wins and we're up. Simple equation.

Also, three-points tomorrow night against Barnsley will take us Top, no matter what the Baggies score at Blackpool tonight.

Read that again. We'll be TOP if we win on Wednesday night.

Promotion from this division will not be won by the team that plays the best football. It will be won by the teams that have the guts, the will, the heart and the sheer bloody-mindedness to get the most points from the next 5 games.

So when Aidy brings on a defender to protect a lead from a Barnsley team scrapping for their lives, cheer the team on. Because nothing will give our players the confidence to play the good football we know they can against West Brom, more than seeing Watford top of the table on Thursday morning.

Come on you Horns!

Quote Of The Day #2

2008-04-03T12:32:00.005Z

#2 in an occassional series

Following Norwich's Matty Patterson's arrest for drink-driving, club Captain Mark Fotheringham wants the squad to go tee-total in order to maximise the club's chances of Championship survival.

"If anyone steps out of line they'll get hammered. They know that."

He may have said winking at the reporter.

Life Is A Rollercoaster

2008-04-02T20:41:00.002Z

Supporting a football team more so.

One week you’re up. Next week you’re down, or at least you thought you were. What you hadn’t seen was the monumental cliff your team were about to drop off. That really was down. Things weren’t exactly rosy before I went away for two weeks holiday, but having come back, things have gone a bit shit-shaped.

A draw at Plymouth and a mauling at the hands of Hull FC means that matters are theoretically out of our hands in terms of automatic promotion, and sitting 5th, we’re no shoo-in for a play-off place at the moment either.

However, I did tell you that those games would be difficult, and anyone who sees the names of Plymouth and Hull as regular also-rans in this division hasn’t been paying attention. Hull in particular have the momentum that will gain them promotion. You certainly wouldn’t want to meet them in the play-offs.

Some people of a more sensitive constitution have made noises that this ride is more than they can handle and would like to get off. The seriously nauseous have even suggested that Aidy should stop driving the ride. Despite testing of my resolve I’m still in the Happy-Clapper camp and am behind Aidy and the boys to beat a woeful Coventry side at the weekend, who we have a good record against, then followed up by a game against cup-specialists Barnsley, win that and with the momentum, you never know what might happen against a defensively-frail looking Baggies. That might be one hell of a game.

Bristol City and Stoke have been riding their luck recently, and I suspect both will drop a number of points between now and the end of the season. My guess, 15 from 18 may be enough to sneak up with Hull.

Come on, get behind the lads, this ride’s got more thrills to come yet!

One Hell Of A Week

2008-03-16T17:37:00.007Z

Well, we've played the top two and come out with two points. We'd have obviously have liked more, but most importantly we did not lose. To lose ground on either Bristol City and/or Stoke would have been suicide and as a result we can look upon the last week as a professional job well done.

Certainly Bristol City was, putting it mildly, ugly. Big Doris missed a penalty and the two teams dug trenches at Ashton Gate and waited for full-time. Yesterday had many parallels with that game, given the result and the missed penalty, but in footballing terms this looked like a different team.

We can wave our arms around and conjecture until the bars run dry on the subject of whether Mr Styles reduced our chances of winning the game, but he was equally bad for both teams, and it is not often that both sets of fans sing "You're not fit to referee" while a sent off player shakes the hand of a number of opposition players on his way off the field.

What we can say though it that yet again, just as against Leicester, the sending off galvanised the team and the crowd, and hopefully we can carry this through the last eight games.

Thankfully, after the Robins lost 1-2 at home to Plymouth, we have our destiny in our own hands. However, Plymouth, like Hull, who beat Southampton 5-0 have been on the charge recently, which is a bit of a bugger because we have a long trip to Devon on Saturday and another to Humberside the week after. Lets hope for more of the Stoke performance than the Bristol.

P.S. Who's your choice to step up to replace Eustace, I think my vote might go to Ali Bang Bang.

P.P.S. In other news, our game in hand against FA Cup semi-finalists Barnsley has been moved back to Wednesday 9th April, and Jordan Parkes is back out on loan again, this time at Barnet.

The Duke Of Bosnia

2008-03-13T20:32:00.002Z

I've been feeling pretty tired after the exhaustion of Tuesday night. So when I saw this story this morning I thought I'd fallen asleep for 17 days and woken up on April 1st.

The long and the short of this story is that the Duke is interested in getting a Bosnia-Herzegovina call-up. He already qualifies for Jamaica, The Dominican Republic and England, but obviously feels his skills are not good enough for the former and too good for the later (is that right?)

Anyhow, being married to a Bosnian, Ellington believes he may qualify to play for the national side. In a statement to Bosnian television he also said "I went there last summer".

Well that's alright then.

Presumably then, following their recent training trip, most of the Watford Squad are hoping to turn out for the United Arab Emirates in this summer's World Cup Qualifiers.

Name That Road

2008-03-12T11:58:00.004Z

Exciting news! Not only will we have a new stand to name in the coming months, but the new road off Occupation Road that will be used to access the new key-worker housing requires a name too. And the club are for fans suggestions for the name.

Best of all, you don't even need to go and get a postcard and a stamp; thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can e-mail your great idea for the name e-mail it to themediateam@watfordfc.com with your details, your suggestion and "Road Name Competition" in the header.

So, should it be Nicky Wright Close, Mooney Avenue or Yellow Fever Lane? It could be your suggestion that adorns maps of Watford for all eternity, and it could be your fault that some poor nurse will have to spell Brynjar Gunnarsson every time they give out their address. The choice is yours.

Bristol City 0 Watford 0

2008-03-12T08:22:00.006Z

Will someone please stop the ride. I want to get off.

"The fourth official has indicated there will be at least three minutes of added time."

For the love of god man, please, no.

I hope yesterday evening was simply the result of two teams so utterly scared of losing that they clammed up, bolted the doors shut and waited for the final whistle, because if this is the brand of football being served by the top teams in the Chamionship then the Premiership will be scrapping promotions and relegations from it's league very soon.

You get the impression that a lot of time and effort could have been saved had both teams walked out at 7.45, shook hands taken the point there and then, and sent all the supporters home before it started raining, again.

It wasn't completely turgid, indeeed for the first 20 minutes we did look like we wanted to go and win the game. We didn't really know how we wre going to win it, but at least we looked like we wanted to win. Collins John looked lively, but plainly no-one else was on his wavelength, and despite more possession and territory we'd barely created a real chance when Marvin Elliot forced two good saves from Richard Lee in the space of a few minutes. City's game plan it seemed, was to soak up the pressure and hope to take their chances.

Then with thoughts turning to a half-time Bovril, the game exploded, albeit briefly, into life. Big Doris used his immense strength to win a ball that was never his to win, slipped in my man of the match Tommy Smith who was clumsily brought down. The City fans were moaning, but no clearer a penalty will you ever see. Darius stepped up to take the penalty, seemed to wait to see if the keeper would make the first move and when Basso didn't budge he seemed to change his mind and delivered his shot at a nice height for the keeper down to his left.

Angry with himself for the miss Hendo took out his frustrations on Lee Johnson, the City manager's son. It was an ugly challenge and he was perhaps fortunate to stay on the pitch, then again Johnson himself was fortunate to stay on the pitch moments later when he delivered his own retribution with a very very late challenge on Danny Shittu. I suspect had half-time not saved them, this game would have shortly have seen at least one red card. Tensions were high, and this was not helping the football.

The awful weather got worse in the second half, and with the removal of John for Williamson ten minutes after the restart, Watford were closing up shop. From then on, we created very little as we concentrated on not making any mistakes at the back and lumping aimless balls forward. City though also failed to show any guile and the quality of football went from bad to down-right awful as the tension grew, the weather worsened and the both sides mentally settled for a point. The last 20 minutes was some of the worse football I've ever seen.

However, we so nearly nicked it in those three-minutes of stoppage time when JJO'T poked a shot wide in a scramble in the City box, and although it would have been so welcome, we didn't deserve it, and the game didn't deserve it.

I'd have taken a point before the game, so I suppose I shouldn't be disappointed, but I had hoped for so much more, both in points and football. Hopefully better conditions will assist the quality on Saturday, though I fear the tension might be just as bad.

Super Saturday

2008-03-08T20:29:00.009Z

Well, it was a super Saturday, if you don't follow the oval-ball game :-(

But as a Watford fan and general follower of the round-ball game it's been great. Bristol City were, by the sounds of it, lucky to take a point away from Leicester.

Elsewhere, in Staffordshire, the Manager of the Month curse continues to do it's business, as Stoke dropped two points at home to that thorn in everyones side Burnley. Though it could have been better had Stoke not scored a rather fortunate last-minute penalty.

So, a good day for the hornets, and hopefully our well rested team will capitalise against a heavy-legged City team on Tuesday night.

However I can't leave it there. I have to say well done to Portsmouth and Barnsley for restoring some pride and excitement to English football. The thought of another final between the top clubs in the country filled me with dread, and some of the romance of cup competition has returned with the knowledge that an unfashionable club will win something this year. It would be wonderful if it was a club from outside the Premiership.

And it could be useful to the horns too. Every club left in the cup will now believe they can actually win it, yes even The Gas, so hopefully they'll get a draw out of the Baggies tomorrow. Also our re-arranged game against Barnsley will now take place in the week leading up to a Wembley appearance, so hopefully their mind will be on other things, as long as they have points in the bag.

In other club news, after refusing to drop down to League One, Tamas has gone to find some form at Preston. He played 70 mins in their 2-1 win at Charlton, which realistically leaves the Championship a four-horse race.

Come On!

Where Are They Now #1 Perry Suckling

2008-03-05T14:51:00.003Z

#1 in a very occasional series.

Ex-hornet goalkeeper Perry Suckling is currently the Academy Goalkeeping coach at Spurs.

According to this mornings free-rag Metro (aka The Daily Mail Lite), since the departure of Martin Jol and all his backroom staff (including goalkeeping coach Hans Segers), Perry has stepped up to coach the first team goalkeepers including the woefully out of form, calamity-prone, Paul Robinson.

Which might explain a lot.

Juande Ramos says he'll bring in a full time replacement at the end of the season.

Armchair Fan's Second Half Woe

2008-03-05T13:14:00.003Z

0:28
Foul by Gary Doherty (Norwich) on John Eustace (Watford). Direct free kick taken right-footed by John Eustace (Watford) from left channel, passed.

When I was around 10-years-old I was regularly attending Watford home games with my Dad, standing on the old family terrace. We went to very few away games however, so I used to follow our fortunes on the road via the medium of BBC Ceefax.

8:10
Defending throw-in by Adrian Mariappa (Watford).

I'd be glued to the rotating three pages for our division, hoping the next time it came around we'd have scored. Or the opposition had had a player sent off. That was all you could hope for, because that was the only information you got.

10:30 GOAL - Dan Shittu
Watford 1 - Norwich 0

Inswinging corner from left by-line taken right-footed by Jobi McAnuff (Watford) to centre, headed goal by Dan Shittu (Watford) (top-right of goal) from right side of six-yard box (6 yards).Watford 1-0 Norwich. Assist (cross) by Jobi McAnuff (Watford) from right by-line.

Yes - get in!
Times have changed. We now live in an era of Multimedia communications, I don't follow games via Ceefax anymore - my wife wants to watch Eastenders! No, instead I follow the games via the live text updates on the BBC sport website. Here information is more readily available, though whether it's actually useful information is debatable.

35:48
Foul by Darius Henderson (Watford) on Mark Fotheringham (Norwich). Direct free kick taken right-footed by David Marshall (Norwich) from own half, resulting in open play.

Is this information actually useful. Does the armchair fan want to know about every foul by big Doris?

45:00 (0:47)
Cross by Leigh Bromby (Watford), save (punched) by David Marshall (Norwich).

Half Time

Make myself tea. It's all going very well. Bristol are losing at Charlton and the Baggies are being held at Hillsborough. All good.

56:51
Attacking throw-in by Mohammed Camara (Norwich).

What does that mean? Does he have a monster Bromby-style throw? I am getting tense now.

76:14
Inswinging corner from right by-line taken left-footed by Jordan Stewart (Watford) to centre, clearance by Dion Dublin (Norwich).

Well Duh! All corners are taken from the by-line. Who has to write this guff? I know for certain the Jordan Stewart is unlikely to have beaten the first man with a corner, so what does "to centre" mean?

80:57 GOAL - Jamie Cureton
Watford 1 - Norwich 1

Goal by Jamie Cureton (Norwich) drilled right-footed (bottom-left of goal) from left channel (25 yards).Watford 1-1 Norwich. Assist (pass) by Lee Croft (Norwich) from left channel.

Bum, I know what that means. Check other scores, McCombe has equalised for Bristol City. This evening is turning bad.

84:17
Inswinging corner from right by-line taken left-footed by Jordan Stewart (Watford) to centre, clearance by Juan Velasco (Norwich).

Will someone stop letting him take Corners.

90:00 (0:19)
Shot by John-Joe O'Toole (Watford) right-footed from centre of penalty area (12 yards), save (tipped round post) by David Marshall (Norwich).

Oooo so close. I hold my head in my hands. I realise I have no idea if that was close or not.

Full Time

Oh no, and now Kevin bloody Phillips has got a last-gasp winner for West Brom. This is all going wrong.

Am not feeling so confident about next Tuesday now, but I do know that it is absolutely huge, and the nervous anticipation is cranked up yet another notch.

Beating The Arse

2008-03-04T13:21:00.006Z

Steveohorn's been up to his usual tricks and has uploaded another classic Watford win on to Youtube. This is the 1987 FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal at Highbury.

This great video has some brilliant bits to watch out for; Arsenal's first coming from a classic bit of hoof-ball, a fantastic performance from the mistachioed Tony Coton in goal, Bardsley's destruction of podgy England full-back Kenny Sansom, some incredibly biased commentary and the classic break away third goal that leaves a 21-year-old Tony Adams standing on the half-way line with his arm in the air, a familiar pose to football supporters the world over, no matter what your age.

You should though, try not to look too hard at the very tiny Watford shorts. You might go blind.

Weekend Round-Up

2008-03-03T10:33:00.004Z

So the MoM curse does it's ugly business as Stoke went down 3-0 away at QPR yesterday, failing to take back the top-spot from Brizzle City who went back to the top on Saturday afternoon. Tony Pulis has said he'll appeal the red card shown to Captain Andy Griffin, however Stoke were already 2-0 down by that stage so it's difficult to argue it changed the outcome of the game.

Much has been made of Watford's tough run-in, but there are going to be few games with nothing riding on them, and those teams at the bottom are fighting as hard for survival as those at the top. You could argue that everyone down to Palace in 11th is eyeing a play-off spot, whilst even in 12th Blackpool might not consider themselves completely safe yet. One suspects that the magic 50 points might be the survival target in this division yet again.

Elsewhere at the top the baggies got back to winning ways with a 3-0 win at home to Plymouth, and ex-horn Kevin Phillips picked up the Championship player of the year award at the Football Year Awards. Watford picked up the community club of the year, showing the club is still the Family Club.

Bristol City won a tight game at home to Hull thanks to an acrobatic over-head kick from centre half Jamie McCombe. Just 3 points now separate the Robins and the Horns who meet at Ashton Gate next Tuesday, and this reporter, who lives just 10 miles from Bristol is getting very excited at the prospect of this clash, especially as his tickets arrived in the post this morning.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves, first we face a Norwich team who've been rejuvenated under ex-horn Glenn Roeder on Tuesday at the Vic. Lets hope we can build on some recent good home performances.

Aidy Sidesteps Curse

2008-02-28T13:28:00.003Z

Aidy was up against Tony Pulis, Gary Johnson and Plymouth's Paul Sturrock for Manager of the Month for February.

Thankfully that particular curse, erm, I mean prize went the way of Stoke's Manager Pulis, despite his team losing 2-0 at Deepdale on Tuesday.

"That's our promotion challenge f**ked then", Pulis may have remarked when no-one was listening.

An Artist's Impression

2008-02-27T12:45:00.004Z

Piccies have been released to show what the new East Stand Development will look like when it's all done. You can see it here.

It will be a shame to see the mish-mash of stands go, it is a wonderful reminder of a time when football wasn't really a business. Before it's closure in 2004, the wooden part was the oldest stand still in use in the football league having been erected in 1922.

Still, times change and things move on, and the modernisation of the fourth side of the ground should leave us with a fairly intimidating ground and bring the club firmly into the 21st century. And at least the ground will still have some sort of character with it's four different stands rather than the horrid identi-kit grounds that can now be found in some parts of the country. Oh and we're still at Vicarage Road in the heart of Watford, so it's all good IMHO.

In other news (well, a rumour going around, is that), Liverpool and Newcastle are sniffing around young 'keeper Scott Loach. Hands off! says Yellow Fever, he's not even played a first team game for us yet!

PNE 2 Stoke City 0

2008-02-26T21:44:00.003Z

Wey-Hey the Preston lads! A two-nil win thanks to a brace from baldie ex-Baggie Richard Caplow, and a heroic performance from Lonergan in the Lilywhites goal.

It's Alright For Some

2008-02-26T10:17:00.008Z

The christmas break is long-gone, and I don't know about you, but the few extra days off at Easter still seem a long way off. If you're a professional footballer though, this is an ideal time for a training trip to Dubai. Tough life isn't it? Aidy says;

"The players will be training just as they would over here, but they'll be doing so in much better conditions."

The trip is designed to build a bit of team spirit before the final for the last 12 games, with Collins John, Eustace, Bromby and new Robbo all fresh faces in the squad, hopefully the trip will be a useful bonding excerise. Lets hope they get some shooting practice in, after the frustrating 0-0 draw with Preston at the weekend.

Finger's crossed that the rearguard action didn't take too much out of Preston, as the take on Stoke at Deepdale tonight. They've been in excellent home form since the new year, beating everyone (including us and the baggies) except Portsmouth in the cup, so hopefully they'll complete a hat-trick of promotion scalps tonight. Come on the Lilywhites.

One player not sunning himself, erm, I mean training hard in Dubai is Matt Jackson. This can be taken as a sign that he's not in Aidy's plans for the rest of the season. Instead he captained a young stiffs in last night's 1-2 home defeat to Wycombe, the team included Jordan Parkes, back from Brentford, Santiago Aloi, and Lewis, little brother of Ashley, Young.

Old Skool

2008-02-19T14:59:00.009Z

Some of you will no doubt have had this brought to your attention already thanks to WML. However if you prefer not to have your inbox filled with every nuance of all that is WFC-related then it may have passed you by.

This first video shows Watford manager Ken Furphy giving a team talk during the lead up to an FA Cup 4th Round tie against European Champions Man Yoo in 1969. Apparently it was the first time that a manager had allowed TV cameras in to watch a team talk. Ken Furphy was one of the brightest managerial prospects in the game at the time; he led Watford to promotion that season to Division 2 for the first time in our history. The next season he took us to the FA Cup semi-final for the first time.

So this is 3rd division Watford taking on United, European champions in the FA cup 4th round at a packed Old Trafford. Check out the player having a fag at the back of the room - those were the days!

Then these are the goals from the game. The team talk inspired Watford to a 1-1 draw courtesy of a Stewart Scullion screamer (check Charlton's lazy defending - Ken was right) and a scrappy equaliser from Dennis Law. The surge of the crowd for the equaliser is amazing.

Sadly, United went on to win the reply 2-0 at Vicarage Road. We would get our own back 9 years later when, still as a third division side, we went to Old Trafford in the league cup and won 1-2, with Luther getting both the goals. Now those really were the days!

Thanks to Stevohorn in Norway for posting these up on Youtube. Go visit his youtube site; he has some other gems that'll make your eyes fill with nostalgic tears.

Squeeky Bum Time

2008-02-18T20:54:00.006Z

Now that the promotion band-wagon seems to be back on track and my internet connection is up and running again, this feels like a suitable juncture to post a bit more on this here blog.

I don't know about you, but I'd have taken a point at the Valley last August, so given the situation we found ourselves in on Saturday at 15:45 I was very happy indeed to come away with a two-two draw.

John-Joe O'Toole, has somehow, while we were otherwise engaged worrying about our sieve-like back four, has managed to sneek his fourth senior Watford goal. That's twice as many as Tamas Priskin, even if you genourously give him that goal he scored in a swimming pool against Wigan.

But now we have Big Dan back from Africa, new robbo at left-back and surely two of the finest deadline signings in history in John Eustace and Leigh Bromby, and the back-four is looking far more solid.

Looks like it's gonna be a pretty tight run thing going into the end of the season, so there should be plenty to chat about. In the mean-time the FA Cup has given us a fairly decent draw, with the Boing-Boing-Baggies in with a decent chance of being distracted by an FA Cup semi-final given they face a trip to League One Bristol Rovers. Though either way, one suspects that being beaten by the Gas might be quite a downer too, so I think the draw is win-win for us, especially if Rovers can pinch a draw.

Elsewhere in the sixth-round draw, Barnsley on the right side of a last-minute win at Anfield will be rewarded by welcoming Chelski to Oakwell. We were due to play the Tykes that same weekend, so looks like we'll be be letting Bristol City and Stoke have a bit of head-start. In the words of the beetroot-faced scot - it's squeeky bum time.

P.S. Speaking of Liverpool, I'm starting a sweep on when Benitez will be sacked. I'm having Friday, what about you?

Help to keep BSaD online

2008-01-03T13:06:00.000Z

From those lovely boys over at BHaPPY:

When we finally packed it in, we promised ourselves and everyone else that we’d keep BSaD online for ever and always, as an archive of ten-and-more years of Watford-related stuff. Thing is, that costs us money. So, if you’d care to donate to our running costs, we’d be enormously grateful. You can do it here. Much obliged. You’re lovely.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Save Bangura

2007-12-12T16:45:00.000Z

Yes, yes, I know - We've been slack.

I can't speak for Coldbrain (though I know he's recently moved house), but I've been very busy carving myself out something resembling a career whilst organising a wedding, and the hamster-in-a-wheel powered Internet connection at my flat has finally died. The fact I'm still paying £14.99 a month for a non-existent service will tell you how busy I've been. And besides, you could come and join us and help out a bit.

On the off chance that someone (Hi, if it's you) is still checking this occasionally, they probably will have already heard that the Home Office has decided that hard-working, 6-figure-tax-bill-paying, Alhassan Bangura should be deported because, well, because they have targets to meet set by the Daily Mail.

Yellow Fever would like to say this decision fucking stinks, and wants you to go and sign this petition here. When you've done that you can go here and e-mail Watford's MP Claire Ward. Keep an eye out here for any other news. You can also make a lot of noise for Al on Saturday to show him how much we're with him.

Finally, in two years time you can boot out this ineffective, war-mongering, big-brother government led by a man 99% of us didn't vote for.

Oh and in the mean time, stop buying the Daily Mail and other facist newspapers.

Cheers Colin!

2007-10-30T09:26:00.000Z

Smellhurst park has never really been a happy hunting ground for the hornets. Ok, yes, I know we demolished Palace 0-3 in the first leg of the play-offs 18 months ago, but fans with longer memories will remember being hammered 4-0 by Palace, and in possibly the worst Watford performance of all time, 5-0 by Wimbledon.

But thankfully now, that demon has been put to bed. It has been overpowered by a much stronger curse. The curse we have over Warnock’s sides away from the Vic. In all his years in charge at The Blades, Bramall Lane was a pretty happy hunting ground, and that curse has now been transferred to our bogey ground. Cheers Colin!

It's now 5 wins from 5, we’re 6 points clear of Bristol City (memories of 97-98's two horse race), and 9 points clear of West Brom in third. It's been thanks to 6 hugely satisfying away points against sides managed by two of the most dislikable people in the division. And who’s this up next? Ah, Mr Mowbray, welcome to the Vic, don't make yourself too comfortable.

Pole Position

2007-09-30T13:27:00.000Z

It's shaping up alright, I suppose. Top without playing particularly well. Marlon not firing them in yet. The Duke yet to get off the mark. Mahon playing worse than Neil Price's mother (apparently). But doesn't Johnson look good, ill-advised theatrics aside? As does the rest of the table - why, hello there Wolves.

In the battle of the abbreviations (AKA BotA) it's WBA v QPR today. The Boing Boing Baggies are winning - so our lead will be cut to 1 point by this afternoon.

Bring on Sheffield Tuesday.