Watford v Swansea

[jackaway]

Watford v Swansea Sat 31 Jan 15:00
After the unlucky defeat at Hull where we deserved at least a draw (story of our season), we move on to another away game.
This time we visit Watford, a large town in Hertfordshire, just outside of Greater London and three miles from the London boundary.
Watford FC stadium, Vicarage Road, is situated just a short walk from the town centre and has a capacity of 21,500.
Watford are owned by the Pozzo family since 2012 and are infamous for turnover of managers, 22 apparently, since their takeover.
Their present manager is Javi Garcia, in his second stint at the club, since last October.
They are just a point of the play-offs with a game in hand, and drew 1-1 at Blackburn in their last game. They are a strong side at home, losing just 2 of their 15 home matches.
So another formidable task ahead, one in which we have a clear week to prepare for. A match we are quite capable of winning on our day.
Our luck must turn soon and those missed chances in away games are bound to go in for us sometime soon aren’t they?

[Iolo]

We’ve missed out this season guys, the Championship is wide open with bottom teams beating top teams. The likes of Leicester, Southampton and Sheff Utd in the bottom half of the table and the likes of Coventry, Middlesbrough and Hull up the top.
Swans are 8 points off the play-offs and 7 points off the relegation places. The number of points we’ve thrown away this season we could have been up there.
Poor recruitment and poor management are to blame. I mean who else would have splashed 7 million on Idah, Celtic fans warned us about him. Benson, who looked as if he didn’t want to be here, couldn’t beat his man or cross the ball.
Yalcouye, who came with a big reputation, has shown us nothing. They splashed 5 million on Inoussa who can’t even hold down a place in the team.
Now they’ve brought in a 36 year-old defender with no pace, veteran Ward, who hadn’t played a competitive game since last season and 20 year-old winger Nunes on loan from Brentford U-21’s.
We need a striker, all those missed chances that nobody can put away in games and individual defensive mistakes costing us in games.
Whose turn will it be this time against Watford on Saturday.

[Estoban]

Zeidane Inoussa out long term with a stress fracture in his back, details here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=vr47NcZMQrw

[Estoban]

I watched Bristol City v Derby last night as they thrashed the Robins 0-5.
Remember Derby escaped the drop by one point last season?
What a transformation now, they looked such a good side with their accurate passing, pressing, and finishing.
Play-off contenders themselves the Bristol team didn’t know what had hit them. The ground was half empty at the end, Bristol supporters couldn’t bear to watch the humiliation.

[Estoban]

It’s about time we played to our potential in away games.
Get at them from the start and shoot on sight not mess around, passing it sideways and back until we lose possession.
We are capable on our day of beating any team in this division, let’s show it today.

[jackaway]

Swans - Vigouroux, Ward, Cabango (c), Burgess, Tymon, Stamenic, Franco, Fulton, Ronald, Eom, Vipotnik
Subs - Fisher, Key, Yalcouye, Samuels-Smith, Nunes, Cullen, Galbraith, Cooper, Watts

Watford - Selvik, Ngakia, Keben, Abankwah, Bola, Louza (c), Kayembe, Ince, Maamma, Kjerrumgaard, Doumbia
Subs - Baxter, Chakvetadze, Semedo, Mfuni, Mendy, Baah, Grieves, Eames, Irankunda

[jackaway]

Watford 0 - Swansea 2 (Stamenic 54’, Key 79’)
We started off with a flurry of corners that came to nothing and a high press which disrupted Watford, but they came back into the match and it was mostly Watford after that, but they couldn’t find a breakthrough.
HT: 0-0
First-half stats:
Passing accuracy 78% - 68%
62% - 38% possession
2 - 5 corners
10 - 3 shots
3 -1 shots on target

Second-half we were much better though, deserved our two goals and finished on top. A rare Swans win. The Matos way is finally taking effect in away matches.
0-1 54’ Stamenic header at the near post from a Tymon corner
0-2 79’ Stamenic hits the ball across the box, Key fires home
FT: 0-2
Second half stats:
Passing accuracy 78% - 75%
56% - 44% possession
3 - 3 corners
7 - 12 shots
2 -6 shots on target

[jackaway]

Swans Official Match Report -

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/report-watford-0-swansea-city-2

[jackaway]

Match highlights -

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/30998/13501476/watford-0-2-swansea-city-championship-highlights

[jackaway]

Typo in my match report, should have read

0-1 54’ Stamenic bundles it in from a Vipotnik near post header, another accurate Tymon corner

[Estoban]

Extended highlights here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=wRJ0rWdvGBI

[Estoban]

Made my weekend that result. About time too. The performances under Matos have been there in away matches but due to not putting away chances we’ve come unstuck. Really unlucky not to win at Hull but deserved yesterday’s convincing win.

[Estoban]

Reaction from Vitor Matos post match is here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=LNN3KcF362I&feature=youtu.be

[Iolo]

An excellent win boys. Watford are play-off contenders but our high press and energy worked wonders. Relief as well because we’ve been unlucky in away games under Matos and deserved something last time out at high-flying Hull.
With the injection of new players this window things are looking good.

[Estoban]

We should have had a penalty as well, blatant hand ball after 5 minutes play by their centre- back.
The ref couldn’t have missed it, right in front of him.