West Bromwich Albion 2 Watford 2 (01/04/2024)

Less may or may not be more, but it’s better than nothing at any rate.  Concise thunks, rather than an attempt at a report, befitting that they’re starting at 9.30pm before the grindstone tomorrow…

1-  “Please hang on….”

The guy next to me hasn’t struck up conversation in the two and a half hours that we’ve been standing here.  This despite the extremely close quarters that the narrow seating berths impose…  actually sitting down is out of the question, even standing demands a degree of co-ordination, sideways-onning and forbearance.  

But the whispered entreaty isn’t for my benefit.  Nor is it merely giving voice to anxiety, a futile call to the team of the sort that we all indulge in to give us the illusion of a degree of control or influence.  This is completely subconscious and is a sentiment shared throughout the noisy away end.  Points from a home game against the form team of the division and a difficult away trip are fine, late equalisers notwithstanding.  A win would be fabulous.  A win would see us galloping into the home straight.

It didn’t happen.  Which matters in one sense, and not at all in another.  The former, because see above.  The latter because this is suddenly huge fun again anyway.

2- It’s not even as if Albion had been knocking on the door, really.  Leeds’ equaliser on Friday was fortunate in the timing and manner of its arrival, but whilst we felt hard done by, it was a tickets-raffles situation.  There had been balls bouncing around our area looking for a leg to deflect off at regular intervals during the last twenty minutes.

I find West Brom less objectionable than most of our rivals, all things considered.  But whilst they too persevered they had none of Leeds’ verve, had applied very limited pressure and as frustration had been voiced around the Hawthorns the home fans began to trickle away.  Indeed, we had been threatening to extend our lead ourselves, Andrews getting himself on the end of an excellent move that ended, as so many, with Jamal Lewis free on the left sending in a ball which the right wing-back did well to reach but stabbed unwittingly at the keeper – either side and it was in. Minutes before Darnell Furlong, one of many names crisscrossing today’s teams, dumped an equaliser past Bachmann that his father would have been proud of I’d been pondering whether there were any Southampton tickets left.

There had been none of the frenzied bloodlust that had characterised Friday night.  Indeed Albion started much the stronger, but we’d established a foothold and were punching our weight by the interval.  In the second half we pinned the hosts back for long periods, our play characterised by retention of possession, yes, but quick quick slow, often involving brave passes to players in tight corners, trusting their ability to play their way through such situations.  Emmanuel Dennis and Tom Dele-Bashiru in particular thrived in this regards, Dennis through belligerence, TDB through being in complete control of his balance, of where the ball was and where he was going to send it.  Nothing untidy, nothing done by accident.

3- A word for Mileta Rajović, who got a proper run here for the first time in Tom’s three games to date.  I’ve been fooled by suggestions like this before that haven’t been followed through in subsequent games, so let’s see but…  one of the frustrations with the big striker has been his reluctance, perhaps inability to weaponise his size.   He grapples, he competes, though his total lack of acceleration makes him less of a nuisance than he might be…  but he’s not shown enough evidence of an ability to bully opponents.

He bullied West Brom here.  His forty minutes or so was aggressive and effective…  somehow he no longer seemed to be lumbering slightly haplessly after the game but was very much at the centre of it.  Competing for headers he had little chance of winning but leaving something on his marker anyway, just to let him know he had a scrap on his hands.  Pushing away challenges and spreading the play as teammates scampered away from him.  Bellowing at Emmanuel Dennis’ selfishness (yes, really) as the Nigerian picked up the pieces after Palmer had pushed away a TDB drive and smacked a shot against the post from a ridiculous angle rather than pulling back for the Dane to tap in.  Arguing with fellow sub Martins, claiming rights to a free kick won on the edge of the area… Martins prevailed and curled a shot gently into the keeper’s chest, a Rajović set piece would have been morbidly fascinating.  Finally, flying in at the far post to stretch and turn in yet another Lewis cross; the celebration was in front of the away section and screamed both joy and relief.  We screamed with him, a fine moment irrespective of what happened subsequently.

4- Actually the worst moment of the afternoon, now that we’re reconciled to our disappointment, was the passing of another significant landmark.  The Abbey Stadium in 1991 saw the first, the emotional blow of someone younger than me playing for Watford (in that ridiculous blue chessboard kit of all things from memory) only slightly tempered by the subsequent development of the miscreant into Richard Johnson.  The first Watford manager younger than me was the next…  Brendan Rodgers, whose rapid and clumsy relocation to Reading might have been met with more vitriol than it probably deserved as a result.

So Zavier Massiah-Edwards being an exciting new name on the teamsheet was briefly a fascination, but googling revealed the sorry truth…  that I was only an indulgent substitution away from watching someone younger than Daughter 1, and thus by definition a small child, playing for the Hornets.  This is a bridge that any parent will have to cross, of course;  I concede that it’s not really reasonable to hold this against Massiah-Edwards for too long (and of course he hasn’t taken to the field yet…).  But I’m going to need a lie down and/or a stiff drink when it happens.

5- The question on everyone’s lips, evidenced both on social media and in the stands before the game, is whether Tom gets the gig at the end of the season.  He’s demonstrably suggesting nothing of the sort, which is entirely proper.  Probably not significant that his interim team was drawn entirely from existing ranks within the club…  financially expedient for a holding position as well as names and faces that he clearly trusts, so not indicative either way.

For me… the hope is that we’re still asking that question by the time we finish at Middlesbrough in a month or so’s time.  If that’s the case, if he’s kept the team positive and playing, nobody on the beach, meeting the challenges of opponents wising up to his approach – his biggest achievement today the reset that propelled us into the second half – then he’ll have succeeded in his objectives.  Beat Birmingham, confirm survival, then leave us looking forward to the next one.  He’ll certainly have made it much harder to look anywhere else, and would be a popular appointment.

As for me, I bought those Southampton tickets anyway…

Yooorns.

Bachmann 4, Andrews 3, Lewis 4, Porteous 4, Sierralta 3, Hoedt 4, *Dele-Bashiru 4*, Kayembe 4, Koné 3, Dennis 4, Bayo 3

Subs: Asprilla (for Koné, 56) 4, Rajović (for Bayo, 56) 4, Martins (for Dennis, 74) 3, Livermore (for Kayembe, 85) NA, Massiah-Edwards, Ince, Pollock, Morris, Hamer