Ground 42: Vicarage Road - Home to Watford FC

After my scheduled trip to Morecambe was cancelled on Friday due to the postponement of the Daggers fixture away to Morecambe due to a frozen pitch, I quickly thought on my feet and looked at my other options in order to satisfy my need of live football every Saturday. With a host of games being postponed due to the weather I didn't have many options, after discussion with my little brother Chaz we decided we was going to visit Vicarage Road, home to Watford FC as they were at home to Barnsley in the Npower Championship. With ticket prices being excellent value for money and after discovering Watford were wealthy enough to have undersoil heating, we purchased our tickets online Friday night and were looking forward to visiting the Hertfordshire club and a new ground.

Watford 2-1 Barnsley

As always, I was quite excited for the game as I haven't seen much Championship football this season and hadn't seen either of these teams play this season. Both were showing signs of being comfortable mid table sides with Watford sitting 18th possibly slightly wary of being dragged into a relegation scrap despite being 9 points clear of relegation, Barnsley slightly more comfortable as they were 13th in the league, 6 points off the play offs.

The Vicarage Road Stand housing the Watford & Barnsley fans.

We set off around 12 as me and Chaz met fellow Daggers Nick and Matt at Chadwell Heath as we made our routine trip to Euston before going overground to Watford High Street in a journey which took the best part of two hours. A 10 minute walk from the station, we followed the crowd to the ground which was a rare occasion for us as we usually find ourselves using Google maps when we go to the likes of Crewe, Accrington, Burton etc. with crowds being less than 4,000 and not a lot of people around to ask for directions. After eventually collecting our tickets and finding where our seats were, we went into the ground at around 2:50pm. We had an excellent view dead on the half way line in The Rous Stand which ran along the side of the pitch which seemed very similar to Stamford Bridge's East Stand obviously with slightly less capacity.

The Rookery Stand housing all home fans.

Sean Dyche's Watford were totally unchanged from their much needed victory at Millwall in midweek with the bench being identical to the one on Tuesday night as well. Keith Hill also left Barnsley's side unchanged after their thrilling 3-2 win at home to Derby on Tuesday night however he made one alteration to his bench as he gave new signing ex Reading left back Scott Golbourne a place on the bench in replacement of striker Reuben Noble-Lazarus. With both teams picking up impressive wins in midweek wins, you would expect both of them to be in good spirits coming into this encounter.


The player's came out for the first half..

Watford were the far more dominant side in the first half and created most of the opening chances in the first 20 minutes. Barnsley enjoyed some good possession but were often forced to revert to long ball due to the constant pressure of the impressive Watford midfield who allowed the Yorkshire side little time on the ball. The first chance was from the lively Watford winger Alex Kacaniklic who fired wide after some tricky footwork. Barnsley also had a half chance when centre half Rob Edwards wasted a free header from a Michael Tonge corner. The opening goal did come just after the half hour after the experienced Hornets skipper John Eustace showed good improvisation as he volleyed Sean Murray's free kick over his shoulder to give Watford a deserved lead. Watford then controlled the rest of the half however they couldn't capitalise on their dominance despite some impressive build up play.

Watford's team huddle before the game..

Keith Hill had a lot of work to do in the Barnsley dressing room at half time as they really hadn't got a foothold in this game yet. The only bright spark from the Tykes was the blonde playmaker David Perkins who I'd seen a lot of at Rochdale and Darlington who was having a very good contest with the talented Watford midfielder Jonathan Hogg. The home side continued the second half in the manner they ended the first when ex Stoke man Eustace beat the offside trap and wasted a glorious chance as he headed over from 8 yards. On an extremely cold day, conditions weren't ideal as both sides worked hard to get the edge on their opponents. However, it was a bit of magic from the star man John Eustace that doubled Watford's advantage as he went through the Tyke's defence to put the ball past the Barnsley keeper Luke Steele. Watford target man Troy Deeney forced ex Man United keeper Luke Steele into another good save before with 6 minutes to go debutant Scott Golbourne threw Barnsley a lifeline as he was the only one to react to Scott Wiseman's cross to make it 2-1. A nervous last 5 minutes resulted in Watford grinding out a deserved 3 points for Sean Dyche's men to put them up to 16th in the table while Barnsley dropped to 15th only 3 points above their opponents.

In difficult conditions, I don't believe I saw the best of either sides in this game however Watford seemed to deal with the conditions slightly better as their two central midfielders John Eustace and Jonathan Hogg were exceptional in controlling the game. On the way home I reflected and discussed if anyone out there would be good enough to grace the Premier League. I identified four potential players who might be able to step up to the next level who were all part of the home side as Barnsley seemed very ordinary and no one stood out for me in a side who looked a lot like Keith Hill's side when he was at Rochdale who had 4 ex Dale players from his reign in his 16 man squad yesterday. I thought the young Jonathan Hogg looked very impressive and had great potential to make it at the next level, I also thought despite his age John Eustace would be a good addition to one of the lower positioned Premier League sides, I thought centre half Adrian Mariappa who nearly left for Newcastle in the transfer window just gone was solid and didn't do much wrong and also thought the Hornets keeper Scott Loach who has been involved with the England set up was very good and organised when called upon yesterday.

I found Vicarage Road a pleasant atmosphere and would imagine it a nice place to play football for any young player. The Watford fans were not very vocal but were very welcoming and seemed to be very content with what they were seeing in a crowd of just over 11,000. A good away following from Yorkshire as Barnsley brought 522 fans in a day where the journey was made more difficult by the conditions. As I was coming out of the ground, I noticed a few Rochdale fans coming out of the away end as their game was called off late away at Charlton so obviously decided to go to the nearest game to them. Overall, I had a good day in a decent match and was happy to tick off ground 42/92.

Myself at Vicarage Road yesterday...