Argyle 1 Watford 1

I’m not one to cry copper. And, frankly, it would be hypocritical in the extreme for us to criticise Watford for their direct and physical approach. In this modern football world, you have to do the best with what you’ve got: and I get more than a little hacked off when self-proclaimed purists start laying into Watford and others because they don’t like the way they play. And, in many respects, it was a fascinating tussle, watching Henderson against Seip and Fallon take on Bromby.

Nor am I going to point the finger at Phil Joslin. Well all right, I am. I can kind of see where he was coming from, in trying to let the game flow. But if you become selective about spotting handballs (the free-kick from which Watford scored) and suddenly strict on innocuous fifty-fifties (Halmosi’s first booking), then it becomes kind of hard to retain control. Halmosi was stupid, no question: it was a dumb tackle, obviously a yellow card, and having been booked, he can have expected nothing less than the inevitable red. But, again, Halmosi committed two fouls all game, the first of which (if it was a foul) was far less worthy of a yellow than the dozen or so Darius Henderson notched up. And John-Joe O’Toole’s round-the-neck assault on Nalis was an orange at the very least.

No, my beef with Boothroyd’s Watford is the utterly charmless way they conducted themselves throughout the match. Playing shamelessly on Joslin’s weakness, they bitched, whined and sulked their way through the whole game. Boothroyd appears to have learned a lot from his Premiership experience, because I certainly don’t remember them that way. Jay DeMerit seemed to object to Gary Teale’s presence in the same half of the field as him, making me wonder if he has personal space issues; and when Danny Shittu audibly complains to a referee that he is being bullied - by Jermaine Easter, mark you - we have definitely moved into Wonderland. The whole demeanour appeared to be, “Hey, we play the physical football - how dare you try and give us some back”, most gloriously emphasised by Timar coming on to play centre-forward - centre forward! - and using his first challenge to make Leigh Bromby delicately aware of his presence

The game itself typified much of what the Championship is about - hustle, bustle, quality at a premium. I always look forward to seeing Tommy Smith, one of the few remaining “proper” wingers left in the game. Sadly, he appears to have lost a yard of pace since his time with Derby three years ago, and while he showed flashes of his old self, beating Sawyer a couple of times, generally he was quiet. Despite being outfought in central midfield, Argyle managed to create a couple of chances of their own, mainly through Halmosi’s trickery and persistence and Teale’s developing understanding with Connolly. Collins John should have put the Hornets in front when clean through on McCormick, but generally chances were hard to come by in the first half. Easter’s finish on 34, from Fallon’s neat through ball, was a relief - he’s missed so many of those recently - but it also looked offside. Williamson’s freekick three minutes later (given for, as I said, no-one save Mr Joslin appears to know) was sublime. Huff, puff, puff, huff. Teale couldn’t dig the ball out from under his feet in the six-yard box; Clark contrived to miss it altogether from two yards out.

Sturrock’s decision to swap Teale and Halmosi at half-time, seemed to be based on his view that Sadler didn’t fancy being run at. Nor did he; and the two of them had their own private ding-dong for the next twenty minutes, at times so intimate that they appeared to want to exchange shirts. And so it was that first Joslin decided to book the pair of them after Sadler had had a particularly enthusiastic go at Halmosi’s shirt, and then Halmosi decided to do his Gazza impression. Whereupon chaos descended.

It’s worth observing that, whatever the whys and wherefores, if it is the case that a Watford player (was it Kabba, Stewart or Bangura? I’ve heard all three) was racially abused, then Argyle need to come out right now and condemn it; take concerted action to ban offenders; perhaps consider closing the Mayflower terrace for the remainder of the season as an indicator that this behaviour will not, ever, be tolerated. No excuses. It’s also worth saying that the moment Halmosi made the tackle, after which Joslin played a bizarre advantage, the entire Watford bench were surrounding the linesman, the fourth official and when play stopped Joslin himself, demanding he produce another yellow card. Presumably having seen Chelsea get away with it, Boothroyd thinks it’s a tactic worth copying - and they had been in the face of the lino and the fourth official all afternoon. Some bright spark on the Watford bench thought it appropriate to spray the obviously badly hurt Halmosi with water (he left on a stretcher and his season is now in the balance). It was at this point that something was said which encouraged a couple of the Watford bench to attempt to leap into the crowd, calling upon the full resources of our excitable stewards. Eventually, order was restored, Halmosi was sent off while on the stretcher, and the game continued.

Oddly though, Watford seemed reticent to press for the win. A Shittu drive over, and a Paterson clearance off the line aside, they didn’t really threaten, while Easter continued to be a thorn in Shittu’s side and Wotton had a low freekick pushed on to the post by Lee. And in all honesty, you had to count to remember that Argyle were playing a man down. Where Joslin got ten minutes of injury time from I know not, but that is what we played and in the end a point each was probably the right result.

Racial abuse is wrong. It’s always wrong and there’s no excuse for it. Watford brought a taste of the Prem to Plymouth - and underlined just why it is the most charmless league in the world. It’s a shame Boothroyd appears to have decided to mould his team, and his backroom staff, in that charmless image.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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