Watford get FA Cup blues
There was little FA Cup magic to behold for Malky Mackay and his men on Saturday as Watford were convincingly taken apart by Chelsea in their 3rd round encounter at Stamford Bridge.
Despite a clear gap in quality and stature between the two clubs, the manner in which the Hornets quickly submitted to the Premiership leaders made for a torrid New Year's afternoon for travelling fans from Hertfordshire.
Watford were well short of finding the energy and desire that propelled them into a 69th minute lead in the same fixture last year, and were 3-0 down within 21 minutes thanks to a host attack which featured the likes of Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Florent Malouda.
Mackay fielded a relatively young side that were noticeably daunted by the task at hand, in turn showing their opponents an abundance of respect that resulted in an early demise.
Scott Severin replaced returning loanee Heidar Helguson while Danny Graham had the difficult task of leading the front line on his own.
Having just witnessed Manchester United succumb to the dangers of the cup, Chelsea were in no mood to play around and had the lead with just two minutes on the clock.
While the hosts possessed plenty of skill all over the pitch, the soaring aerial presence of the defensive pairing of John Terry and Alex proved to be the team's first undoing.
A Lampard corner was met by Alex before being diverted by Terry into the path of Daniel Sturridge to slot in from close range.
Sturridge went just wide shortly after and Lampard saw his shot parried before the Blues doubled their lead on 14 minutes.
A driven effort by Joe Cole deflected off Aidy Mariappa before John Eustace turned into his own net whilst desperately trying to rescue the situation.
Two down and the siege on Scott Loach's goal as the keeper pulled off a fingertip save to prevent Alex before Juliano Belletti's spectacular volley dropped just wide.
At this rate a third seemed inevitable, but it took a piece of luck for the goal to finally arrive.
A long range Yuri Zhirkov shot took a big deflection off the ankles of Malouda, leaving Loach stranded as the ball rolled agonising past him for 3-0.
Despite being at the mercy of Carlo Ancelotti's men for much of the half, the Hornets held on until the interval without suffering further damage.
There were reasons to be positive as the second half got under way, with Ross Jenkins replacing Severin for his first taste of action since October and Mackay's men looking rejuvenated.
A spell of possession yielded some chances on goal for Watford with Henri Lansbury's effort taking a deflection wide and Jay DeMerit's header testing the hands of Henrique Hilario in the Chelsea goal.
However things quickly swung in the hosts' favour again, and a fourth arrived on 63 minutes courtesy of a trademark show-stopping Lampard strike.
Four became five several minutes later as Sturridge found space in the box to steer in his second for 5-0.
It was now a case of damage limitation for the Hornets and despite captain DeMerit limping off, the team held on for the final whistle.
Talking to the club's official website, manager Mackay acknowledged the almighty task his team faced and felt the game served as a good learning experience:
"These are top European players and their standard was shown today, up close and personal.
"You need to start well if you're going to play against world-class players and I think in the first 20 minutes of the match, we were certainly very slow out of the traps.
"Some of the younger ones who aspire to be Premiership footballers, they now know the level they've got to get to.
"It's a learning experience for them today - they should take the positives from it and learn where they could have improved."
It was announced on Monday that Graham Taylor will remain as club chairman until June 2010 when the situation will be reviewed.
The decision was made following a board meeting, the legendary former Watford manager initially appointed as interim Chairman following the resignation of Jimmy Russo at last month's AGM.
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Weather for Tring
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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