Can't Wait!

Good news for lovers of the beautiful game. After a battling, and very creditable, goalless draw against Stuart Pearce’s men at the City of Manchester Stadium, Adie Boothroyd declared defiantly that his side “will play themselves out of trouble the Watford way” – adding, in case anyone missed the point, “that means energy, work rate and defending for your life, while at the same time making sure we play some form of attacking football that upsets the opposition.”

The Watford way. It sounds like a Roman road and with those priorities, it might as well be. So now we can all look forward to the spectacle of unmitigated scrapping, backs to the wall defending and perpetual motion, relieved on occasions by “some form” of attack, which true to the Watford tradition is likely to centre upon long passes and the much favoured aerial bombardment.

It might well ‘upset the opposition’. But not half as much as it upsets the fans (Watford diehards excepted, of course).