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Watford can take one Hull of a step towards the Premier League
With the chase for automatic promotion wide open, this Hornets fan thinks their clash with the Tigers will be crucial.
by Graham Fisher on 28 March 2008
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With Stoke City and West Brom playing teams in the bottom three this weekend and Bristol City facing a struggling Norwich side, in any normal league you would expect them all to pick up three points. After all, there has to be one matchday in this year’s Championship where the results go according to league positions. Doesn’t there?
If that were to happen tomorrow, then the game at the KC Stadium between Hull City and Watford takes on enormous significance in the race for promotion to the Premier League. You would have to say that, should either team lose the game, they may well find it difficult to make a concerted challenge for an automatic place.
The two teams go into the game in contrasting frames of mind. Hull are on the crest of a wave having won five of their last six games, scoring 14 goals and conceding only two in that time.
Watford’s recent form can be looked at either way depending on whether you see the glass as being half-full or half-empty. Being a Watford fan, I am obviously the latter.
We have drawn our last seven games and scored just six goals - more positive people would see it as not losing in seven. Whichever way you look at the Hornets' current form, you wouldn’t bet against a draw tomorrow!
Hull go into the game with the news that on-loan Craig Fagan and Watford old boy Wayne Brown are both fit to play. Surely Browner can’t possibly keep up the tradition of Watford old boys always scoring against us, can he?
Hull won’t have the influential Neil Clement as he has been recalled early by West Brom from his loan spell. They have apparently done so because they want him back as cover for potential injuries. Nothing to do with underestimating Hull’s promotion credentials then?
Both sides could be without their skipper. Hull’s Ian Ashbee is rated at 50/50 after picking up an injury in the win at Leicester, and Watford will definitely be without John Eustace following his sending-off against his old club Stoke. Why do Watford old boys always score against us, yet when our players play against their old teams they always get sent off?
Other than missing Eustace, Watford will be picking their side from the usual suspects. Unbeaten in 11, no wins in seven. I just can’t decide. The latest Betfair odds show that nobody really knows what's going to happen in this one. Hull 6/4, Watford 15/8 and 9/4 the draw. I think Betfair are being generous with those odds, I don’t think I’d offer better than evens on any of the possible results.
Looking at the message boards and fans' forums of both clubs you get a feeling that neither set of supporters can believe they are as close as they are to promotion. Hull fans know that after their defeat to Bristol City on March 1 they were sitting in ninth place, 12 points behind the leaders. Automatic promotion at that stage looked a very long way away indeed.
Watford fans know that since the end of October their results and form have not been promotion material. We've rarely been above mid-table in the form guide and yet, despite this, we are still in there fighting.
Tomorrow is a big day in the promotion race but the top five could easily all draw and we’d find ourselves no wiser at the end of it all. I’ve just got this little feeling in my water that the Glory Hornets might nick a win.
Come on you 'Orns!
Comments (1)
by Simon Waters on March 28, 2008
As a Hull supporter I share your worries about the outcome and it is true that we are the suprise inclusion (even by our optimistic supporters) and your less than predicted position given the parachute from the Premier. But facts are facts and the table doesn't lie. It will be close tomorrow as you say and that is clear. It could depend upon a single piece of luck and that is never a nice thing but at home, with a full stadium of black and amber, perhaps we can squeeze a 2-1 win? Perhaps, but then 1-2 might follow early expectations and burst my bubble, for tomorrow at least. I prefer a narrow win
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