First away win comes against the team with the best home record in the division – typical Championship!

1 Response to First away win comes against the team with the best home record in the division – typical Championship!

1. Blue Bayou says:

   January 1, 2025 at 1:07 am

   For those looking for trends I’ve followed us away at Vicarage Rd for the last three Championship games, and we’ve won all three, with all goals scored in the first half.
   Also for three of the last four away games (not Oxford obvs), Omer has made tweaks at half time, which have meant we were better than the opposition in the second half.
   Remember this is the Championship and after a poor overall display against Oxford, we’ve just inflicted the first home defeat in 17 games on Watford, in a game where we were the better team – this was no fluke result!
   In fact against Watford, we were the better team in both halves. Whatever Riza said and did at half time, Watford only fashioned one decent chance in the whole second half, despite having the vast majority of possession. In fact we had more decent chances to score more goals second half.
   There were so many fantastic performances all over the park. Several fans have already mentioned Ashford, and if he can keep his feet on the ground and keep working hard like he did against Watford, he deserves his place in the starting 11.
   Apart from Robinson, the standout players for me include Daland, O’Dowda, Rinhomota and Siopsis who all worked so hard to nullify the Watford threat second half.
   Riza said after the the game, that the Watford goalscorer Chakvetadze is likely the best player in the Championship, so credit to both Rinhomota and Ashford in particular for doing a great job on him second half.
   And talking of a great job, I agree with Paul about ref Sam Allison, who again had an excellent game. I remember him being the ref in three of our away games (Bristol City and Birmingham last season and Watford this time). One of the many things I liked in each game is that he’s not swayed by a home player or the home crowd shouting for a free kick or penalty. Against Watford late in the second half, O’Dowda ran back brilliantly and dis-possessed one of their players running dangerously into our box. Their player went sprawling to the ground and both sides of home fans shouted loudly for a penalty, but the ref calmly pointed for a goal-kick, when other refs may have buckled. To be fair to their manager Tom Cleverly, when asked about the ‘big penalty shout’ afterwards, he dismissed it by saying that was clutching at straws.
   He said today was an off day for his team and after conceding the lead twice in the first half, they couldn’t find a way around our tactics second half. And after getting over the disappointment, their fans should acknowledge how well they’d done in going 17 home games unbeaten, and start another similar run. A good message to fans of all clubs to acknowledge decent performances and runs, and not think everythings terrible after a couple of below par performances!
   The Watford win should put us in a great position against Lampard’s Coventry City, who we should have beaten away recently, but we didn’t have Sam Allison as ref, who I feel wouldn’t have awarded that late penalty to satisfy the home crowds demands!
   However this is the Championship, so anything can happen. Hopefully Riza can workout the right tactics again for the second half, and we can have back to back wins to help take us clear of the relegation zone.
   Now that Argyle have just parted company with Rooney, I’m sure they’ll soon see an upturn in their fortunes, so we can no longer automatically rely on finishing above them, so even more need to string a run of decent performances together.