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Manager:
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Adrian
Boothroyd |
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Ground
Name:
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Vicarage
Road |
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Capacity:
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22,000
(all seater) |
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Last
Season Prediction:
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3rd
in Championship |
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Last
Season Position
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6th
in Championship |
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Official
Web Site:
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www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk |
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Unofficial
Site:
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http://www.bsad.org |
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| To Win
the League |
16/1
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| To Get
Promoted |
9/2
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Jon Harley ( Burnley , free)
Watford looked a
good bet for promotion last season and were almost certainties to
run away with the league by November. Aidy Boothroyds men
played a direct style that few sides could cope with. The likes
of Shittu and Mahon gave them a solid base whilst Marlon King and
Darius Henderson was getting the goals up front.
They looked great for promotion under they made changes.
Dany Shittu was dropped, Mahon was sold to QPR and King was sold
to Wigan and results began to drop.
It didnt seem to matter how often they lost
they were still in the top four but they won just once in ten home
games and the rot was setting in. They ended up losing their last
four home games and couldnt get any sort of momentum going.
Quite how they ended up in the playoffs after their second half
of the season form is anyones guess.
They managed it though and faced Hull City
but were thrashed 6-1 on aggregate and looked pretty hopeless.
Watford look like
a side heading down rather than up. They really needed to go up
last year with the parachute payments up this year and are starting
to cut their cloth accordingly getting rid of the high wage earners.
Nathan Ellington, Jordan Stewart, Darius Henderson and Danny Shittu
have all gone and the squad they have left looks pretty weak.
Boothroyd has said he wants to change the clubs style
of play but that wont be easy after losing so many good players.
He will have to rely on a lot of the clubs youth team players and
he has some quality coming through but not enough to mount a serious
bid for promotion.
The likes of Job McAnuff and Tama Priskin will
make sure Watford dont struggle but this will be a season
of rebuilding for Aidy Boothroyd with the plan to consolidate and
have a real push for promotion in a years time. I think theyll
struggle at times but will comfortably finish in mid table.
PREDICTION:
14th in the Championship
I asked Watford fans on an unofficial message board
for their thoughts on the new season and here is what they had to
say.
How do you think
Watford will fare this season?
Playoffs
Who are
your players to watch out for?
Gareth Williams
Is
your Manager the right man for the job?
Yes, he's worked wonders
so far
Which
three teams will be promoted this season?
Birmingham, Reading and
Watford
Which
teams will be relegated?
Blackpool,Southampton and
Swansea
How
do you think QPR will fare this season?
Mid Table
Rangers and Watford
have shared many players in recent years. After our relegation in
2001 to Division two we almost became a Watford cast off eleven.
The Watford cast offs included Chris Day, Steve Palmer and Alex
Bonnot.
Day was a quality
keeper for us and made two of the best saves Ive veer seen.
One was at Wrexham and was Gordon banks 1970 World cup good and
the other was in the final minute of the playoff semi final in 2003
when Fitz hall looked certain to score and Day made an outrageous
save to send us to Cardiff .
Steve Palmer was
Rangers captain after his move to Loftus Road and was an excellent
player for both Rangers and Watford always giving his best and a
model professional both on and off the pitch.
Clarke Carlisle had a spell at Watford in recent
years after his years at QPR and he teamed up with Dan Shittu at
both clubs. Shittu left QPR to join Watfords premiership side
in 2006 and he did well for them during his two years at Vicarage
Road before his recent move to Bolton .
Another famous player to play for both clubs
is David Bardsley. The bard was a quality right back for Watford
in the mid 1980s and moved to QPR in 1989 and is regarded
as the second best right back to ever play for Queens Park Rangers
Rangers have faced Watford several times
since this web site started and results haven't gone our way that
often.
In the 1998/99 season legend has it that Vinnie Jones decided to
motivate the players before the game at Watford by trying to have
a fight with Mike Sheron. It didn’t work and Watford beat us 2-1
at Vicarage Road as Ray Harford's dire managerial spell came to
an end. Steve Slade scored for Rangers as the fans sang for Gerry
Francis.
Francis was in charge when the two sides met again but the result
was the same with Gavin Peacock scoring for Rangers but Watford
were too strong and were eventually promoted.
We met again in the 2000/01 season and things hardly got better.
Watford murdered us 3-1 early in the season as fans began to fear
relegation.
By the time we met again we had another new manager with Ian Holloway
now in charge. This was Holloway’s second game in charge and he
swapped things around to play a 4-4-2. It was a good performance
by the team which showed plenty of heart and we got a 1-1 draw out
of it.
In 2004 we travelled to Vicarage Road for our first away game of
the season and the Sky cameras were there to record it. Once again
we were rubbish and Watford thrashed us 3-0 with Rangers lucky to
get nil.
The return game was a very different affair. Rangers dominated from
the start, Kevin Gallen missed a penalty but with Rowlands impressing
in central midfield we eventually ran away with as Furlong opened
the scoring before Gallen added two more either side of half time.
In 2005/06 season Watford did the double
on us. They thrashed us 3-1 in the away game and the game back at
Loftus Road saw Georges Santos sign off his QPR career with a comedy
own goal.
Last season was better for Rangers.
Stefan Moore scored in a much needed 1-1 draw at Loftus Road and
the return game was a stormer as we thrashed them 4-2
Click on the match for a report of
the game from this web site.
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| Season |
Venue |
Score |
Scorers |
| Coca
Cola Championship |
| 2007/08 |
Away |
Watford
2 QPR 4 |
L.Camp
(og), D.Shittu M.Rowlands (2) D.Stewart
A.Buzsaky |
| 2007/08 |
Home |
QPR
1 Watford 1 |
S.Moore
A.Johnson |
| 2005/06 |
Home |
QPR
1 Watford 2 |
M.Nygaard
A.Young,
G.Santos (og) |
| 2005/06 |
Away |
Watford
3 QPR 1 |
M.Spring,
A.Mcnamee, A.Young D.Shittu |
| 2004/05 |
Away |
Watford
3 QPR 0 |
D.Webber
(2), B.Dyer |
| 2004/05 |
Home |
QPR
3 Watford 1 |
P.Furlong,
K.Gallen (2) N.Ardley |
| 2004/05 |
Away |
Watford
3 QPR 0 |
D.Webber
(2), B.Dyer |
| 2000/01 |
Home |
QPR
1 Watford 1 |
M.Ngonge
A.Nielson |
| 2000/01 |
Away |
Watford
3 QPR 1 |
N.Cox
(2), G.Noel Williams K.Connolly
|
| 1998/99 |
Home |
QPR
1 Watford 2 |
G.Peacock
N.Wright,
T.Smith |
| 1998/99 |
Away |
Watford
2 QPR 1 |
K.Millen,
A.Smart S.Slade |
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Previous Meetings
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Queen's Park Rangers wins
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draws
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Watford Wins
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| League Game |
45
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27
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26
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| Cup Games |
1
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1
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3
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| Total |
46
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28
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29
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