[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Watford
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday January 10th - 3:00 ko
at The John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Watford to the John Smith's Stadium on Saturday for a match which is set to be the feature game on Saturday night's Football League Show.

Town team news: Jonathan Hogg will not be available to play against his former club after he was drawn into a situation by a cheating scum bucket Reading player on Saturday which led to him being shown his second yellow card of the match and the inevitable one match ban. Fear not though, Town fans, for we have Matt Crooks back in contention after he returned this week after the completion of his loan period at Accrington Stanley. Also available once more to manager Chris Powell are left back Jake Carroll, who has been living the high life at Scottish Premier League side, Partick Thistle, although he has been injured since mid December so may not be featuring in this match. And legendary striker Jon Stead is back from his loan at Bradford City. They have said though that they are interested in taking him on full time so maybe this could be his last big hurrah in a Town shirt. Certainly worth throwing a man in form on.

How much?  
Fantastic Media Stand Lower Tier: £20 adults; £13 seniors/wheelchairs; £8 U18s
Fantastic Media Stand Upper Tier: £24 adults; £14 seniors/wheelchairs; £10 U18s
Kilner Bank Stand: £24 adults; £15 seniors/wheelchairs; £10 U18s
Revell Ward Stand Lower Tier: £25 adults; £17 seniors/wheelchairs; £10 U18s
Revell Ward Stand Upper Tier: £27 adults; £19 seniors/wheelchairs; £10 U18s

A brief history of Watford:  They were formed as Watford Rovers in 1881, became West Hertfordshire in 1893 and then merged with Watford St Mary's to form Watford Football Club in 1898 and in 1921 became members of the Football League with the introduction of the Third Division South.
They stayed in the lower leagues until 1969 when they won promotion to the 2nd Division for the first time and the FA Cup semi finals the following season. This success didn't last and they suffered a double relegation and in 1976 they were bottom of the Football League when they were handed a lifeline by pop star, Elton John, a lifelong supporter of the club. He became chairman and appointed Graham Taylor as manager, sparking a remarkable rise up the leagues, all the way to the 1st Division by 1982. The following season they finished 2nd behind Liverpool, so had gone from the very bottom to next to top in the space of seven years.
In 1984 they reached the FA Cup final, losing 0-2 to Everton. But then following Taylor's departure in 1988 the club were relegated again. Eight years later and they were back in the 3rd Division, which led to Taylor's return after his own unhappy spell as being ridiculed as a turnip whilst in charge of the England national football team.
He did it again at Vicarage Road, leading them to two promotions, back to what was now known as the Premier League. It was just a one year visit to the big time before being relegated back down again. They have been back again for another one season spell when in 2006 they beat the mighty Leeds United 3-0 in the Championship Play Off Final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, with goals from Jay DeMerit, a Neil Sullivan own goal and a penalty scored by Darius Henderson.
They have remained in the Championship since their relegation in 2007, reaching the Play Offs twice. They lost out to Hull City in 2008 and then Crystal Palace in 2013 at Wembley, which came after a dramatic semi final 2nd leg at home to Leicester City, which climaxed in the final minute when a penalty from Leicester's Anthony Knockaert was saved by Manuel Almunia and then quickly shipped up the other end where Jonathan Hogg won a header for Troy Deeney to smash home the winner.




Head to Head



Town lead the overall head to head by 11 wins to 9, with 5 draws. That's in all competitions. In league matches it's 10 Town wins to Watford's 9, with 4 draws.

The most famous match of between the two clubs would be the two legged League Cup tie in 1983, the season that Watford finished runners up to Liverpool at the very top of the Football League and Town had just won promotion back to the 2nd Division. We won the fist leg at Leeds Road, despite John Barnes scoring a wonder goal for the visitors. And we again turned over the form book by drawing the 2nd leg 2-2 to take it on aggregate with goals from centre backs Dave Sutton and Paul Jones.
The first meetings came in the 2nd Division in 1969/70, Watford's first at that level. we drew away at Vicarage Road with a goal from Denis Clarke. The return match though was the final match of the season. Town won it 3-1 with two goals from Dick Krzywicki and one from Jimmy Lawson, then we were presented with the Second Division Championship trophy at full time. What a night that was!
Last season we lost 1-2 at home but then gained a remarkable 4-1 victory on the last day of the season with Danny Ward getting a hat trick to add to a fist Town goal for Joe Lolley.
Earlier this season Watford won 4-2 with Town's goals coming from Harry Bunn and Murray Wallace.


So what have modern day Watford got?

They come here on the back of a 3-0 defeat against Chelsea's reserves in the FA Cup. Managed these days by Slaviša Jokanović, the former Yugoslav international, who despite playing 39 times for Chelsea in the early 2000s, I've never heard of.

Who has Jokanović been picking for his first XI?

His multi national first XI in the last league match, at Cardiff, was.....

01 Heurelho Gomes - Brazil
31 Tommie Hoban - Ireland
15 Craig Cathcart - Northern Ireland
04 Gabriele Angella - Italy
14 Juan Carlos Paredes - Ecuador
22 Almen Abdi - Switzerland
07 Adlène Guédioura - France
03 Gianni Munari - Italy
18 Daniel Pudil - Czech Republic
24 Odion Ighalo - Nigeria
11 Fernando Forestieri - Italy

Substitutes:
08 Daniel Tozser - Hungary
09 Troy Deeney - England
12 Lloyd Doyley - Jamaica
16 Sean Murray - Ireland
20 Matěj Vydra - Czech Republic
21 Ikechi Anya - Scotland
30 Jonathan Bond - England


Recent form - Last six games:

Town 0-1 Reading (FA Cup)
Town 2-1 Bolton
Rotherham 2-2 Town
Town 0-1 Birmingham
Norwich 5-0 Town
Town 2-1 Brentford

Chelsea 3-0 Watford (FA Cup)
Cardiff 2-4 Watford
Watford 0-1 Wolves
Reading 0-1 Watford
Watford 2-1 Wigan
Fulham 0-5 Watford

Watford are 5th in the league with 41 points, that's 13 more than we have. Town are 18th on 28 points.

Club connections:

Jonathan Hogg of the current Town squad played for Watford, but won't be involved in this match following his red card in the FA Cup match with Reading on Saturday. He started his career at Aston Villa, making 5 Premier League appearances and one Europa League match. These coming after making his Football League debut whilst out on loan at Darlington and actually scoring in the match, a 5-2 defeat away at Chesterfield.
After another loan spell away from Villa Park, down at Portsmouth, he then signed for Watford, playing two seasons for them without adding any more goals to his account. His only other professional goal came in his first season for Town in last season's League Cup match at home to Charlton Athletic when he diverted a goal bound Oliver Norwood shot into the other corner of the net.
He will be sorely missed in this match as he has been in probably his best form since his arrival from Vicarage Road.

Barry Endean: helped 2nd division Watford to the semi finals of the FA Cup in 1969, beating Liverpool on the way, but was so bad at Town he ended up being shipped out to Workington.





Rob Page: had eight years at Watford and half a season with us. Now the manager of Port Vale.





Andy Rankin: goalkeeper with Everton before going and playing almost 300 matches for Watford. Came to Town during the 4th Division championship winning season.





Iwan Roberts: started at Watford before becoming a Town goalscoring legend. Spotted last week summarising on BBC Wales with a huge Claytonesque beard.





Lee Sinnott: played in the 1984 FA Cup final for Watford before letting his career stagnate for 4 years at Bradford. Neil Warnock saved him from oblivion by signing him for Town, where he captained the side to Play Off glory at Wembley in 1995. Now the manager of Altrincham and his son, Jordan Sinnott, is a member of Town's development squad.

[WakeyTerrier]

Not just on the FLS but live in such countries as Bulgaria,Ukraine and Sweeden....like me I bet they can hardly wait

[Lord Snooty]

Well playing Watford is like playing a match with The Rest of the World. Most of the countries taking live coverage will have some interest in the Hornets.

[Lord Snooty]

Watford are trying to sign Diego Poyet.

[ARTERRIER]

I wasn't going to go tomorrow, last week after 30 years was the final straw for me, but I am going to go changed my mind. Still no new signings I see.

[WakeyTerrier]

I wasn't going to go tomorrow, last week after 30 years was the final straw for me, but I am going to go changed my mind. Still no new signings I see.

It's like a ruddy drug, no matter how hard you try you can't get it out of your system.

Having been away for 2 weeks and missing 3 games over Xmas I thought I'd be right up for this, however that's not the case. Throwing a 0-2 lead away with 3 minutes to go at Rotherham and losing a all too predictable game against Reading in the cup just reinforces my belief that we are struggling badly for quality in this team. A long hard season lies in front of us and another defeat lies in wait tomorrow

[Lord Snooty]

Well I can't wait.

COME ON TOWN!

[ARTERRIER]

You must be glutton for punishment Snoots.

[theo_luddite]

Can't see how Wotfuds players will stay on their feet in this wind. They normally fall over in a light breeze or at the slightest touch. Be fun seeing how many fall down at the same time today.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Gobern starts and Majewski on the bench. He lives!