Watford were a bit fortunate to take the three points

HAVING not made the trip to Hertfordshire the last couple of years, this was an away trip I was really looking forward to. I spent some time working in Watford in the 1980s and had a number of good nights out there and have some great memories.

I can also remember the days when away fans would have to walk around a huge allotment to get into the away end at Vicarage Road. There is one standout game for me, the last game of the season in May 1992, which we lost 5-2 with our goals coming from an on-loan Arsenal striker that you may have heard of. However, it wasn’t Andy Cole’s two goals that live long in the memory but the fact we ended the game with eight men, following the sending off of the Three As – Wayne Allison, Ray Atteveld and Mark Aizlewood. What a day!

Following a decent Easter with four points, we made our way up the M4 and M25 in high spirits. It was an away-day sell-out with nearly 2,000 City fans making the trip, a tremendous following considering our position in the league. Of course, we want to finish as strongly and as high as we can in the league, but it was somewhat of a dead rubber and for City fans to turn out in the numbers that they did was brilliant.

Manager Nigel Pearson resisted the urge to recall Alex Scott, Kal Naismith, or Tommy Conway into his starting line-up, still managing their game-time back after injury.

It’s unusual to feel so positive about a defeat but we actually played really well against Chris Wilder’s team, well for this week at least it’s Chris Wilder’s team but who knows with Watford? It’s the revolving door of football management. Two nil was not a fair reflection of the game and even the most ardent of Watford fans will have felt they were a little fortunate to come away with all three points. That said, the one stat that matters the most is goals and their two to our nil meant they deserved the win.

We had the majority of the possession, created some decent chances and Hornets goalkeeper Daniel Bachman was arguably man of the match, producing one outstanding save to deny Nahki Wells when the score was 1-0. Not long after Watford went up the other end and sealed the win with a goal from Joao Pedro, a player that Newcastle United were rumored to have bid £30 million for in the summer.