January 25 2009

Jobi McAnuff

The Golden Boys of Watford certainly showed the Midas touch to eject Crystal Palace from the FA Cup at the second hurdle. Jamesey reports.

And yet another trip to Watford (Jan 24) - and on the day the prospects looked quite inviting.

Palace were drawn against a team who had only won seven out of 28 games in the league and were sitting fourth from bottom in the table. Ripe for the taking, you would have thought. Well, you would have thought wrong.

Watford were all over a poor Eagles team in the first half and for the second time in my long football supporting life, I observed the proceedings in the Vicarage Road End from ground zero, row CC.

Personally I think that watching a game from above gives one a far better view of what's going on than seeing it from pitch level but I did have the consolation of being able to remain seated as nobody could stand in front of me.

I have no objection to supporters standing to watch games, having done it myself for many years. I just wish there were standing and sitting areas to choose from because many older fans, disabled people and children cannot see a thing when a load of fit, young 21-year-olds decide to stand in front of them.

I was once more puzzled as to why Palace fans jeered and abused Jobi McAnuff. The man used to be a Palace player and a pretty good one too, in my view. He changed clubs and moved to Watford. Where's the problem?

Anyhow, to his credit, Jobi grinned at the abuse and answered the boo-boys by laying on all of the Hornets' goals. A pretty good response from his point of view.

Well, I am afraid to say that when Watford's fourth went in, making it 4-1, I suddenly remembered I had an urgent appointment with a Euston-bound train at Watfiord Junction and joined quite a few others in making for the exits.

Of course, we staged a mini-revival after that, scoring twice to make the final outcome 4-3.

While I am in bugbear mode, can I ask again why we always look better in the second half after canny substitutions? So why couldn't we have started with the players who so obviously improved the performance? A managerial mystery...

I am beginning to be reminded why I used to be so irritated by Neil Warnock before he became our leader. Last week's ref was too old and this week's ref was too young. Come off it. Leaving aside a few dodgy decisions, the reason we lost both matches was because Ipswich and Watford were superior teams on the day and played better, more constructive football.

Please, let's sharpen up soon because we don't want the unthinkable to happen, the third rubbish performance in a row in SE7 on Tuesday night!

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