McTom123 6 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Watford FC vs. Middlesbrough FC Vicarage Road 6 April 2015 K/O 12.30 Stats and figures: Boro: LWWLW Watford: LWLDD Top Scorers: Boro - Bamford 17 (15 in league), Leadbitter 13 (12), Kike 10 (8) Watford - Deeney 19, Ighalo 18, Vydra 13 Injuries and Suspensions Boro: Suspended - N/A Injured - Williams, Abella Watford: Suspended - Motta Injured - Ekstrand; 50/50s - Vydra, Abdi, Forestieri Still have fingernails? Boro's somewhat laboured victory against Wigan means that we're top of the league! The next task on Aitor's to do list, extend the lead at the top by beating Watford on Easter Monday. Watford have had an interesting season so far, having being managed by Beppe Sannino, Oscar Garcia who was forced to quit due to health issues, Billy McKinley and finally Slavisa Jokanovic. The upheaval in the dugout seems to have paid off, with Watford putting together a run of results which has seen them top the table in recent weeks. The form of striker Troy Deeney and returning striker Matej Vydra have propelled the team in recent months. How Boro deal with Vydra and fellow forward Odion Ighalo will go a long way to deciding the game. For Boro, the win against Wigan was a welcome victory, provided by a performance that could, most would agree, be bettered. Fans have commented that a similar display against a stronger team like Watford would see us beaten. However, Boro have a history of getting up for the big games, Karanka will no doubt look to put this display behind us and prepare the team for a much stronger test. Given the close proximity of the games, would fans be happy with rotation? I would suspect Woodgate may miss out, meaning Kalas moving into the centre or a debut for Amorebieta. Keep Bamford and Vossen together or bring Kike in to hold the ball up? 'Interesting' facts about Watford: Home to an eclectic bunch, including Geri Halliwell, Kenny Jackett and Super Hans! The only club from Hertfordshire until Barnet joined the Football League in 1991Home to the Watford Cheetahs American Football team [*] View from the Terraces http://www.wfcforums.com/showthread.php?54288-Watford-FC-vs-Middlesbrough-06-04-2015&s=dc925d1ab23a0dde1533ce94571e6419 Watford fans are, understandably, confident of a result following their comeback draw against Derby with 10 men. These are games that are must win in order to gain automatic promotion, both for Watford and Boro. Would you take a draw now or is this truly a must win game? Link to post Share on other sites
smogsterking the Inspirati 2,453 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I dont think Deeney is suspended as yellow cards after xmas you need 10 yellows to be suspended i think anyway. For me this is the game if we avoid defeat i will be convinced we will go up automatically. I am not too confident as it is however we may have a slight advantage of having the earlier kick off yesterday. I would keep the same 11 unless theres an injury. Link to post Share on other sites
Neverbefore 10,717 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Pretty sure Deeney is available, his 5th card came past the deadline for that particular type of suspension. Link to post Share on other sites
McTom123 6 Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 Ah apologies, I saw Anthony Vickers report it last night and didn't see everyone saying he was wrong, damn :P Link to post Share on other sites
BoroG 7 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Deeney isn't suspended, Vydra hobbled off at half time though and I'm not sure they'll have Abdi or Forestieri back for this one either which limits them a bit. I think we'll get at least a draw out of this if we go back to defending solidly and counter attacking. Link to post Share on other sites
p_mards 1,363 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Our fixture list looks more difficult than our promotion rivals, so I would be really happy for us to get through this game with a draw and still be in the top 2 spots. After that I think we should be able to at least match other teams so will be likely to hold onto an automatic promotion spot. We've lost 3 of our last 4 away games so if we don't turn that around, then we will struggle to get enough points to secure automatic promotion. The nature of the Bournemouth defeat has massively dented my confidence in our chances this game. Watford's strikers are the best in the league so we will have to do our very best at giving them as few chances as possible. In particular, our RB will need to sort their positioning out, as it had a large part to play in our defeats away against Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth. For that reason I think Tiendalli will come into the team, as neither of Kalas or Nsue are a natural RB. Link to post Share on other sites
BoroNut 31 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I can't see past a Watford win and Im thinking of putting 40 quid (my 365 account) on a Watford win just so there's a bright side to a loss. Having said that I would be over the moon to lose that 40 and boro get a result! I think that there strikers are just too good and will rip us apart UNLESS woodgate can manage to play 2 games in 4 days then we have a chance Link to post Share on other sites
chipchat 61 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 That Derby game will have taken a toll on some of their players. Still, I'd be happy with a draw. A win, though, and I think we'd have a hell of an advantage in the chase for promotion. Can we? Can we?? Link to post Share on other sites
"KM" 1,656 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 If Woody plays I can see us coming away with a result with one hand firmly on the Championship Title Dimi, Kalas, Woody, Gibson, Friend, Clayton, Leadbitter, Adomah, Tomlin, Reach, Bamford Link to post Share on other sites
Aarfy_Aardvark 38 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 They were pretty *** against Ipswich though. Derby play quite open which suited their game, so it wasn't too surprising they were able to get something with 10-men. I think we'll lose 2-0. I just can't see us winning down there unless we do what Ipswich did and nab a cheeky goal and then grind out a 1-0 win. We were fortunate to beat Wigan and have been going through the motions away from home in 2015. Worth noting that the only side they have beaten in the top 8 is Brentford. So I think they have just as many mental blocks as we do. Link to post Share on other sites
BoroNut 31 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Worth noting that the only side they have beaten in the top 8 is Brentford. So I think they have just as many mental blocks as we do. To be fair to Boro we have been pretty good against the top 8 this season in my opinion. P11 W6 D2 L3 Avg pts per game 20/11 = 1.81 Infact its better than I thought it was, average 2 points over the whole season are your going up so to be that close vs other promo rivals is brilliant.. shame Reading, Leeds and Wednesday done the double on us. :( Only issue is we have Norwich A, Watford A and Wolves H. That could easily turn into L L W meaning 1.6 points per game - still not bad though Link to post Share on other sites
northern boro 447 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 You can see which players are near a ban here: http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/suspensions Grant Leadbitter is the only Boro player one away from a ban the cut off point is after the Rotherham game Link to post Share on other sites
p_mards 1,363 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 We would probably really miss Leadbitter if he gets a 2 game suspension, especially in our home game against a very good Wolves side. None of Clayton, Forshaw(from what I've seen so far of him) and Whitehead have the same range of passing that he gives us, in particular his long range passes to switch play to the opposite wing. If he does pick up a suspension, then Forshaw could start to repay the clubs heavy January investment, as up until now he has barely done anything. Link to post Share on other sites
southern softy 10 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Well it depends on which Boro team turn up for the contest. The assured slick passing, forward moving and thinking, looking for openings side or the sideways/back passing, possession is paramount side. I think AK will decide it will be the latter. Unfortunately I don't think that will get us a result. We loose possession to easily and we do not get the required bodies into the box for our counter attacks. Another performance similar to the last one I'm afraid. So I hope we shade it by the one goal again. Anyway I am still hopeful that goal poacher Bambam will save the day again. We don't need Tomlin for this one he is to greedy. Link to post Share on other sites
Erimus 63 478 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Well it depends on which Boro team turn up for the contest. The assured slick passing, forward moving and thinking, looking for openings side or the sideways/back passing, possession is paramount side. I think AK will decide it will be the latter. Unfortunately I don't think that will get us a result. We loose possession to easily and we do not get the required bodies into the box for our counter attacks. Another performance similar to the last one I'm afraid. So I hope we shade it by the one goal again. Anyway I am still hopeful that goal poacher Bambam will save the day again. We don't need Tomlin for this one he is to greedy. And so it begins :D It also depends on which Watford turns up too. They are far from invincible, having already lost 5 games at home. We are top of the league because we are the most consistent team at the present time and have the most points, not because any team has done us some favours. Let Watford do the worrying... Link to post Share on other sites
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