Hornets Stung!*

By CovSid67
October 2 2005

An unenjoyable match, but, on the plus side, we finally worked out how to play badly and win. That said, Watford were no better, and not helped by their manager thinking Trevor Benjamin is a suitable replacement for the injured Marlon King!

The story of the night was the shambles that was trying to get people into the Arena - and moronic Watford fans seeming to think that the power-cuts were the fault of the turnstile operators. The fault lay with whoever was responsible for no proper back-up plan should such an incident occur....

A power-cut saw the turnstiles lock-up, and, even when the power was restored, the turnstiles themselves stayed locked. There was then the farce that was Watford fans buying tickets at the gate, then being sent a few doors down to go through a different turnstile - turnstiles that still didn't work either, with two lines of supporters having to walk through the area where the operators enter their area, a space big enough for only one person. Only at Coventry City....

Quite why so many ticketless Watford fans turned up remains a mystery (Maybe they realised Liverpool-Chelsea in the Champions League had "dull 0-0 draw" written all over it?), with my guess being that their decent start to the season has seen a few "glory hunters" jumping aboard the band wagon. Enjoy it while you can lads - the bottom half of the table is only a couple of defeats away....

A delay in getting inside the Arena meant I missed Watford's keeper gifting Adebola the opening goal, with the loan keepers claims he was fouled by Scowcroft rightly ignored by the match official. Goal number five of the season for Mr. Adebola - and another couple of quid added to his "January Sale" value.

With a quarter of an hour gone, the lights went out again, which helped spoil any chance I had of enjoying the match. I presumed we would go on to score five (Ever the optimist!), before the match had to be abandoned due to another power failure.

Soon after Willo Flood scored his first and Coventry's second, with a cross-come-shot that curled past Foster in the Watford goal, before going in off the post. The celebrations that followed would suggest Flood is already popular with his team-mates....

McSheffrey thought he had scored his first goal of the season, but, rather than play an advantage, the referee brought play back to about 35 yards out after an excellent finish by the goal-shy Coventry striker-turned-winger. The free kick came to nothing.

A Richard Duffy header hit the bar for Coventry fater 35 minutes, and just before half-time Watford finally warmed Bywater's hands.

Half-time once again showed that nobody has mastered how to turn the volume down on the Arena's PA system, with the inaudible Jim Tynham damaging the ears of anybody within a five mile radius of the Arena, and seemingly threatening to blow the power for the third time....

Adebola was replaced by Morrell at the start of the second half, while the man that thankfully left Highfield Road in the summer, Trevor Benjamin, replaced too. Unsurprisingly, Benjamin leaving the pitch saw Watford improve.

Having threatened to hit Watford for six in the first half, the second half saw Coventry City's "Hyde Side" come out, with Adams seemingly opting for a 4-6-0 system, and opting to defend, then defend some more.

Certain Coventry City players had been moaning that missed chances were costing us in matches, and Ashley Young's goal five minutes into the second half did little to calm the nerves of home supporters.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I had the mis-fortune of sitting near somebody who tried to get the "Twist And Shout" song started, but clearly didn't know the words. Nice try, but it did leave him looking/sounding fairly stupid....

A Morrell effort was cancelled out by the match official, before Watford continued to attack.

The game livened up for all the wrong reasons on the hour, with a two-footed tackle from Robert Page sparking a mass brawl in the Coventry half. The referee gestured that Page had taken the ball, but this failed to stop Ben Foster racing fully 70 yards to join in with the brawl rather than try to restrain anybody. For this Foster only received a yellow card - with Page later charged by the FA, and facing a three math ban for "allegedly" throwing a punch. The other dozen players throwing punches seem to have escaped any punishment at all....

One Watford player, who had stayed on the ground seemingly in absolute agony, jumped to his feet and walked off without evening bothering to feign a slight ailment once order had been restored - a yellow card offence for acting, surely? Not....

Willo Flood, the pick of Coventry City's players on the night, was for some reason replaced by Jorgensen (When half-a-dozen others seemed better candidates), and Coventry City dropped even deeper into their own half.

McSheffrey scored his first goal at the Arena to virtually seal the points for the home side with five minutes left, and supporters had to suffer four minutes of injury time before going home - which, if Andy Impey is paid only if he gets on the pitch during matches, will have pleased him as he was brought on with seconds remaining!

For a wet, cold Wednesday, only days after an awful result at home to Hull, the just under 17,000 attendance was probably better than would have been expected, but 5,000 under the necessary break-even figure.

* A job writing headlines for "The Sun" beckons....