AFCB Vital Match Zone

Will Bournemouth Get Stung By Watford Again?

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Written by billythekid

Another 1-2 defeat last night against Cardiff City, that is after the 2-1 defeat against QPR. The Cherries have swapped places with the Bluebirds for the last play-off place at the moment. Our next game will be the second this week in the Championship at Dean Court, the visitors are our ‘old friends’ from Hertfordshire, Watford (the Hornets). The game is again another live game on Sky on Saturday at the earlier time of 12.30 pm.

The last time we played Watford was back in October when their manager was Vladimir Ivic, again in a similar situation to AFCB and Cardiff City they sacked their previous managers during the season. Ivic was replaced by a relatively unknown Spanish manager, Francisco Javier Munoz Llompart, known as Xisco, who has little managerial experience. He took on the job in December last year and has had a good start with 8 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in the Championship. Watford have won their last four games.

In his last games in charge at Vicarage Road since our visit there, Ivic had 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat which was against our Wednesday opponents Cardiff City. Away his team won 1, drew 4, lost 2.

Xisco in his away games so far, his team have beaten Stoke City 1-2 and Preston 0-1 and Wednesday night they beat Blackburn Rovers 2-3. Drawn with Millwall and Coventry City 0-0. At Vicarage Road in his first game in charge, his side beat Norwich City 1-0. Further home wins were Huddersfield Town 2-0, Barnsley 1-0, Bristol City 6-0, and most recently Derby County 2-1. Lost 1-2 against QPR.

The Hornets last visited Dean Court last season in the Premier League and Watford won 0-3. After 22 games it was the first time Watford had moved out of the bottom three, but as we know by the end of the season both the Cherries, Watford and Norwich City were all relegated in the same order they went up into the Premier League in 2015.

AFCB in home league games against Watford, have W 21, D 20, L 13. In all competitions, AFCB have W 38, D 40, L 40.

AFCB v Watford

AFCB Win

AFCB Win

Draw

Draw

Watford Win

Watford Win

AFCB Team News
Jack Stacey, David Brooks, and Dominic Solanke all missed the game against Cardiff City through injury. Solanke is on the return to fitness and should be back in training, though this Saturday’s game will probably be too soon.

AFCB Player To Watch
Junior Stanislas was probably our best player on Wednesday night, another player who could be back after being on the bench in the last game is Jack Wilshere, we could do with him showing his skills at the moment.

Watford Team News
They signed three players in the January window. Forward Philip Zinckernagel from Boro Glimt and defender Achraf Lazarus from Newcastle, both players were free signings. The third was our old midfield player Dan Gosling for an undisclosed fee.

Watford Player To Watch
Ismailia Sarr is always a threat down the wing, has scored 8 goals and 4 assists this season and their young striker Joao Pedro is the leading scorer with 9 goals, 3 goals in his last 3 games. If he plays Dan Gosling.

Your say…

Cheerupcherry wrote…

Three defeats in a row or players earning their keep and going the extra mile to keep up our promotion chase. If it’s the former then I think we can realistically forget promotion – our run-in of fixtures is far tougher than our last 12 games. On a positive note, we will be in a position to have a clear-out in the summer and rethink our future. Just glad I haven’t been able to go to the matches this season – might easily have said far too much on the terraces when players have lethargically passed the ball around when we’re losing and time is ticking away fast. – Join the conversation, click here.

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DJ

Up The Cherries!

1 comment

  • Michael Dowding says:

    I’m not such a pessimist but am disappointed to hear the manager say that ‘we’ made individual mistakes, I blame the manager, I thought he was supposed to train our team in such matters! I think we have a large enough team of talented youngsters and experienced players to be shaped into a Premiership chasing side. I’m optimistic enough to think we will get into the Play-offs. Jonathan is building a team of guys behind him who I hope will help him ‘do the business’
    I have been following the Cherries since I used to cycle down to Dean Court and stand at the Brighton Beach end 70yrs ago, My work, away from Bournemouth, including National Service, has meant that I have been unable to attend many matches but have usually been able to listen to commentaries especially Cox’s boys in1956.
    UTC

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