Baggies look to end Hornets’ home run

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·13 December 2024

Baggies look to end Hornets’ home run

Watford v West Bromwich Albion; Vicarage Road, Sunday 15th December 2024, 2pm

After securing a first home win since September on Wednesday, the Baggies travel to Hertfordshire on Sunday aiming to make it back-to-back wins for the first time since, well, September, thereby ending Watford’s unbeaten home record. After five wins in their first six league games of the season, Carlos Corberán’s team have managed just two in the next fourteen but, hopefully, the win over Coventry City will prove to be a turning point.

Albion may have been unfortunate to have only drawn Sunday’s match with Sheffield United given the balance of play, but lady luck was at least smirking a little on Wednesday with the players’ performance levels nowhere near those shown against the Blades. The stroke of fortune that led to Tom Fellows’ equaliser on Sunday was deserved given Albion’s overall contribution, and few would deny that they deserved the lead following a quick start against the Sky Blues even if it was another lucky goal that produced it. Lampard’s team, however, can count themselves a little unfortunate not to have equalised by the time that Grant’s superb equaliser sealed the points. Albion certainly had Alex Palmer to thank for a string of important saves.

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In the half hour either side of half time, there were signs of the familiar caution from Albion and it took substitutions to speak the team back into life. That suggests that it is not Corberán’s tactics that are dictating that caution but, perhaps, a lack of confidence amongst the players themselves. Josh Maja had something of a nightmare on Wednesday and was withdrawn at half time – hopefully that was down to fatigue rather than a complete loss of form – while Mikey Johnston faded badly after the break and was obviously struggling with two starts in four days.

I thought John Swift actually did quite well when he came on and was certainly able to link up the play much better than Maja had been doing before the break while the other substitution that had an impact was that of Bartley for Styles. It wasn’t that Styles was doing poorly, in fact he had another good game, but Bartley does provide that air of calm in defence and it was Heggem, restored to left back, that provided the assist for Grant’s goal.

Watford will present a different challenge for Albion with Tom Cleverley’s side seemingly ready to challenge for a top six spot. The former Manchester United player took over in March when the former Baggies boss, Valérien Ismaël, was sacked and initially failed to spark the team into life winning just two of his nine games at the helm last season. The start of this campaign was excellent, however, as the Hornets won their first five games in all competitions, three of which were in the Championship, and while results have been more inconsistent, they have kept themselves in touch with the play-off spots and are in eighth spot ahead of the weekend’s fixtures, just a point behind Albion in six with a game in hand.

The Hornets are on a five match unbeaten run but will have been disappointed to only draw their last two matches at Hull City (1-1) and at home to QPR (0-0). Since their 6-2 hammering of Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough at the beginning of November, they have scored just five goals in six games but conceded only five. They are currently unbeaten at home this season having won seven and drawn two at Vicarage Road in the Championship this season – only Leeds United and Sheffield United have secured more points on their own patch. In fact, Tom Cleverly is yet to see his side lose at home with their last home defeat coming against Coventry City in March in what was Ismaël’s last game in charge.

Corberán stated in his pre-match press conference that he is to assess the readiness of Grady Diangana and Karlan Grant ahead of Sunday’s match. Diangana was in a similar position ahead of Wednesday’s match and he was ultimately deemed not ready to be included in the matchday squad, while Grant is being assessed for fatigue – he has started the Baggies’ last eight matches playing the full game in each of the last three, and only being substituted very late in the two before that. He is one of six players to have featured in all twenty of Albion’s league games this season. Grant’s absence would be a massive blow given his importance to the team this season, while Diangana’s return would be welcome.

If Grady were to be included in the matchday squad, it’s not obvious who he would replace. Given that Swift, Wallace and Dobbin have all been used as substitutes in recent games, Devante Cole might be the one to drop out. That Corberán didn’t feel tempted to use him when Maja was withdrawn at half time on Wednesday adds further weight to the feeling that the Spaniard just doesn’t trust Cole to do a job.

I loath to say that I would take a draw in this fixture given Albion’s recent results but, like against Sheffield United, a draw away to a team with an unbeaten home record would be a decent outcome. However, I believe this team are capable of getting a victory if they play somewhere near their best, and it should also be noted that all but one of Watford’s home league victories this season have been by the odd goal. It is a game of fine margins and they could easily fall Albion’s way.

History

Albion are currently on a run of seven games without a win against Watford having not beaten them since a 3-1 Premier League victory at the Hawthorns eight years ago. The Baggies’ last win at Vicarage Road was in November 2007. Both games last season finished 2-2.

The only current member of the Watford squad to have played for the Baggies is goalkeeper Jonathan Bond who returned to the UK in the summer to join the Hornets having spent three years with LA Galaxy. He moved to California when he left the Hawthorns in January 2021 – he never played a league game for Albion but made seven appearances in cup competitions.

No current Baggies player has previously played for the Hornets but Nathaniel Chalobah, who left the Hawthorns in the summer, was on loan at Vicarage Road from Chelsea when he made his debut in senior football in a Championship game with Brighton in 2012 and would go on to sign permanently for Watford in 2017. Jake Livermore was at Vicarage Road last year having signed on a free transfer on leaving the Hawthorns in the summer of 2023 – he was released at the end of the season.

Andi Weimann, who was on loan at Albion last season, had two loan spells with Watford during his time at Aston Villa while Craig Dawson, who had nine years at the Hawthorns, eventually left to join Watford in 2019 before moving to West Ham, initially on loan, a year later.

There have been plenty of well-known players to have played for both clubs over the years with some achieving legendary status with one or both clubs. Super Kevin Phillips started his Football League career with Watford in 1994 before moving to Sunderland three years later while England goalkeeper, Ben Foster, went on loan to Watford from Manchester United early in his career before moving to Vicarage Road permanently in 2018 after Albion were relegated from the Premier League.

Luther Blissett was a Hornets legend having stayed with the club for 13 years through their rise from Division Four to the top flight in the late seventies and early eighties, eventually leaving to join Bournemouth in 1988 – he had a brief loan spell with the Baggies in 1992. Carlton Palmer started on a YTS at the Hawthorns in 1984 before moving to Sheffield Wednesday four years later and eventually making it to the England team; he had a short loan spell at Watford in 2000.

Paul Robinson, who had six years at the Hawthorns from 2003, had spent the previous eight years with Watford having made his league debut for them against Luton Town in October 1996.

Others to have played for both clubs include Keith Andrews, Gerry Armstrong, Craig Beattie, James Chambers, Lloyd Dyer, Tomasz Kuszczak, George Reilly, Brian Talbot, Garry Thompson and Colin West.