Watford Sting Toothless Town

Beppe Sannino's Watford side beat Mick McCarthy's Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon at Vicarage Road. 

In a rather underwhelming first half, Ipswich had the better of the opening 15 minutes. Frank Nouble was a thorn in 'Orns wing-back Davide Faraoni's side. But Johnny Williams' movement was stretching Watford's defence, with a shot from Williams not convincingly dealt with by Manuel Almunia, who was lucky that neither Anthony Wordsworth nor Daryl Murphy were following in on the Watford captain's risky punch away. But, and against the run of play, the Hornets then took the lead. 

Riera celebrates with Daniel Tőszer

The ball came to left wing-back Albert Riera, who took on Ipswich right-back Luke Chambers, before leaving him for dead and cutting inside and unleashing a curling shot past ex-Bristol City goalkeeper Dean Gerken into the back of the net. The ex-Liverpool player showed why he might well be loaned back to Watford when he starts his contract at Udinese in the summer with a goal that would be more expected in front of the Kop at Anfield. 

After Watford had taken the lead, the remainder of the first half settled into more of a balanced contest. The first half ended with a good chance for the visitors, with Nouble’s athleticism causing havoc down his sides left, before the ball came to Johnny Williams. However, the on loan Crystal Palace man couldn’t find the target with his shot missing the goal by a relatively small margin. 

As they had in the first half, Ipswich started off the stronger side with Williams feeding Frank Nouble, but the ex-West Ham striker got too far underneath the ball and sent it flying somewhere in the direction of Stevenage. Watford’s repost was a shot by Troy Deeney that, despite being on target, wasn’t challenging Dean Gerken. 

The game was about to get more frenetic, however, when after having been put under pressure by a back pass Manuel Almunia had little option other than to gift Ipswich a throw in. From it, Nouble’s deflected cross found Anthony Wordsworth. His side-foot finish was a very easy one in truth, with poor marking from Swede Joel Ekstrand, and a lack of authority from Almunia gifting the former Colchester man a rare goal. Town would then have another chance when another Johnny Williams cross was headed towards goal by Luke Hyam, but Almunia tipped the ball on to the bar, before Daryl Murphy fouled Albert Riera before missing the rebound. 

The save by Almunia would be the turning point in the game. A free-kick from Daniel Tőszer floated on to the head of Gabriele Angella, the Italian defender getting a free run on goal and flicking the ball past Gerken for Watford’s second of the afternoon. Mick McCarthy accused his defence of “Switching off” at that set-play, and they did in all fairness allowing Angella to bag his eighth goal of his first season in England. And as if the “Yellow Army” weren’t getting enough enjoyment from watching their team, Watford would score again. 

Scorers Riera and McGugan celebrate with Almen Abdi

Davide Faraoni had the ball on the right wing and passed it to Tőszer, who managed to avoid the temptation of going down under the challenge of two Ipswich defenders but lost the ball. Luckily for Watford, Lewis McGugan pounced on the loose ball to get Watford’s third.

The former Nottingham Forest midfielder managed to thread the ball through the legs of both Christophe Berra and Dean Gerken on the way into the net. That was the end of the goals, but that wouldn’t stop both teams having two similar chances to add to their tallies.

First, Stephen Hunt, on as a substitute for Ipswich, took the ball down before volleying just over. Watford sub Sean Murray would also take the ball on the volley, but his dipping shot didn’t dip enough for a fourth. 

Man of the Match: Albert Riera was a threat down Watford’s left flank, scored the goal of the game, and received a standing ovation when he was taken off for Daniel Pudil late on. The former Liverpool and Manchester City man is set to join Udinese in the summer but, as most of the players in Watford’s match day 18, may be loaned back to Watford next season.

Gillingham undone by fluent Os

David Mooney scores Orient's first goal of the game

Leyton Orient returned to form with a 5-1 thrashing of a lacklustre Gillingham side on Saturday afternoon at Brisbane Road. The match itself started, like every other match in the top five divisions, seven minutes later than usual as a mark of respect to the 96 Liverpool fans that had died at Hillsborough in 1989, but Orient seemed unaffected by the relative sombreness of the occasion. At the heart of what was an excellent first half performance by them was the quality and, at times, incisiveness of their passing, which enabled them to dominate play and helped to revive their main strikers, all of whom had been rather quiet for several games. 

Orient’s first goal came following a great passing move down the left-side that found Everton loanee John Lundstram, who’s beautifully weighted through ball gave David Mooney what looked like a tight angle to shoot. But shoot he did, and drilled his shot past former O Stuart Nelson to score his 19th goal of the season in all competitions. With the goal timed at just five minutes, Gillingham fans and players must’ve been expecting a long day at the office. However, even the most optimistic Orient fan couldn’t have envisaged what was about to happen.

 A few minutes later Orient left-back Elliot Omozusi received the ball from Lundstram, and advanced into the Gillingham penalty area before finding Mooney. The Irishman managed to turn 2 Gillingham defenders and laid the ball off to Dean Cox, who scored his 14th goal of the season with a right footed 20-yard pile-driver which flew into the corner of the net.

And it was Cox switching the play to Moses Odubajo that set up the third of the afternoon. The young wide man, who has been scouted by Tottenham recently, baffled Gills left-back Joe Martin before firing in a powerful cross for Kevin Lisbie, who used the power from the cross to head home past Nelson, giving the Gillingham bench plenty to consider. Orient, on the other hand, were flying high and scored again about 30 seconds later.

 Almost straight from the restart, dawdling by right-back Elliott Hewitt allowed Lisbie to knick the ball from the young Welshman, before heading straight for the Gillingham penalty. As Lisbie cut in from the left, his strike partner Mooney anticipated his intentions perfectly, latching onto a perfectly weighted squared pass to bag his 20th goal of the season. The striker is currently having his best season in England and, despite inconsistent form recently, is only two more goals away from 20 league goals. Gillingham fans were probably wishing that they had a striker of Mooney’s calibre as the goal prompted a notable exodus from the visiting supporters' stand for some early refreshments. Those who weren’t heading for drinks were chanting “We want our money back”, which was justified considering Orient’s whirlwind 35 minutes. Gillingham hardly posed a threat all half and were thankful that Orient didn’t score again.

The second half was a more cagey affair, but with 12 minutes to go, after a Gillingham corner was cleared by Lundstram, Lisbie knocked the ball down 40 yards out for Mooney’s replacement Chris Dagnall. Dagnall then ran forward to the edge of the Gillingham penalty area, with both Jake Hessenthaler and Adam Barrett desperately trying to usher him to a safe area. Just as it began to look as if Dagnall’s chance to score had gone, he managed to slot the ball between the two defenders and past Nelson for goal number five. The goal itself led to a great number of Gills fans heading for the turnstiles. But those who stayed were to witness a late consolation.

Joe Martin’s cross from the left came all the way to Craig Fagin, whose volley hit defender Mathieu Baudry, who was trying to clear the ball, before finding the net. The Gillingham fans that had stayed then began ironic chants of “Easy, Easy, Easy”, which was greeted by laughter from around the ground. But the damage had already been done and Orient fans could go home happy with the result.

Man of the Match: There were several really good performances from Orient players in the game and picking a single man of the match isn’t easy. However, Orient’s domination of most of the game was made possible by the excellent central midfield pairing of Romain Vincelot and John Lundstram pulling a lot of the strings. Vincelot looked back to his best, but Lundstram showed why Everton may need him in a few years’ time. His tackling was spot on, his passing was top notch, and even experienced players like Nathan Clarke were looking for the Liverpudlian at times which just shows how good this young man is. My man of the match award therefore goes to John Lundstram.