R's Drowned Out By Watford's Webber

A torrential downpour, a perfectly good goal disallowed two poor offside decisions, Saturday’s man of the match dropped and a dodgy new signing. Yes, its back to watching Rangers on the road again.

Since that historic afternoon at Hillsborough, the R’s only away fixtures have been in Scotland (Inverness Caledonian Thistle/ Nairn County) and Bristol Rovers. Now was team for the lads to pick their wits against Watford at Vicarage Road in the Championship.

After all the excitement that led up to the fixture the end product was not expected and nor was the process.

A toothless display at the hands of Lee Cook’s former employers saw Rangers end up on the wrong side of a 3-0 bashing. To make matters worse, the game was screened live on Sky Sports for all to see.

Whatever happened last night seemed to frustrate, annoy, upset, embarrass, shock and disappoint every R’s fan whilst also hitting home some truths about the season that lies ahead.

There are no easy fixtures and your going to need a little bit of luck now and again to survive in this league.

That luck escaped Ian Holloway’s troops yesterday evening as the boys from West London looked to build on Saturday’s point gained at home to Rotherham United. The surprise came when the Stress Test star chose to axe three players from what was a perfectly good line-up.

The weekend’s man of the match Gareth Ainsworth was dropped for Kevin McLeod, Paul Furlong for Tony Thorpe and Marcus Bean made way for new signing Georges Santos.

Matthew Rose moved in to partner Richard Johnson in the centre of the midfield whilst Santos slotted in alongside Arthur Gnohere in the Rangers defence.

Former Hornet Lee Cook was on the bench after recovering from an Achilles injury which kept him out of pre-season for three weeks. Sadly for Cookie, he was not match fit and wouldn’t last the full 90 minutes.

So after some strange decisions the away faithful stopped their discussions as to the whys and what’s of the team selection and got behind the team for the 7.45pm kick-off.

The opening 8 minutes saw the Superhoops contest and compete fruitfully, playing some neat intelligent football when in possession and some sensible, no-nonsense defending when there hosts attacked.

However it was Watford who drew first blood. The Rangers defence were caught high up the field and an exquisite ball from Neil Ardley picked out former Manchester United youth team striker Danny Webber. Webber outpaced the poorly positioned Santos and rounded Chris Day. His side-footed shot from the right-hand side was heading into the unguarded net despite the best attempts of Frenchman Santos. He galloped back and was only able to help slide the ball into the empty net. 11 minutes- 1-0 Watford, Webber

From then on the hosts took charge. Spraying balls across the field, neat interchanging and fabulous turns were leaving the Rangers eleven in a spin.

Despite not managing a shot on target in the full 90 minutes Rangers did have chances of there own.

Martin Rowlands- a shadow of himself from last season blasted a free-kick over the goal from fully 30 yards and Tony Thorpe was inches away from equalising.

Patient build-up play from Marcus Bignot and Rowlands down the right found Kevin Gallen on the edge of the penalty area. His snap shot slid straight across the Watford goal and Thorpe threw his legs at the ball in the hope of turning the ball in. He missed by an inch and Rangers’ best chance had gone begging.

Minutes later the Superhoops had a perfectly good-looking goal disallowed. Rowlands’ cross was met by Hornet keeper Richard Lee. Under pressure from McLeod, Lee spilled the ball for the former Everton trainee to turn the ball home. The referee ruled out the goal for a foul on Lee. TV replays showed that there was only slight contact from McLeod and Rangers were hard-done by.

The Hornets doubled their advantage in stoppage time of the first-half. The fourth official signalled three added minutes due to injuries to Watford defenders Sean Dyche and Neil Cox, and it was the home side who capitalised on the extra time.

Gavin Mahon picked out Paul Devlin in space down the Rangers’ left-hand side following a corner and Devlin’s first time delivery was nodded home by Bruce Dyer less than 3 yards out. R’s players argued with the referee and his officials over offside and TV replays seemed to cement their claims. 45+3 minutes- 2-0 Watford, Dyer.

HALF-TIME: WATFORD 2-0 RANGERS

Ollie made a double change at half-time bringing on Furlong and Bean for the unimpressive Santos and unlucky McLeod.

Rowlands was the second Rangers to be booked in the early exchanges of the second period. An honest challenge for the ball saw him accidentally head Watford full-back Paul Mayo. McLeod was also shown a yellow card in the first period for another innocuous challenge.

Rangers started to get to grips with the game shortly after the interval. There was more bite and intent about their play but that was ruined by another poor decision by the officials. A long ball forward saw Webber race onto goal before rounding Day again and at first hit the post before finishing despite the best attempts of Gnohere, Rose and Day. Again TV replays confirmed the Watford marksman was well offside when the ball was played. But the goal stood and Webber was now on a hat-trick. 59 minutes- 3-0 Watford, Webber.

Former Watford favourite Lee Cook replaced the ineffective Martin Rowlands on the Rangers left-wing to a howling reception. The boyhood R’s fan left the Hornets this summer after rejecting a new deal at Vicarage Road to sign for the Superhoops.

By the time of his arrival the game was already over and Watford were heading to the top of the league after two games on goal-difference. Cook did offer a few glimpses of his talents. Some silky touches, turns and dribbles were what we saw two seasons ago and his class was clearly still there in abundance.

Day stopped Webber hitting a hat-trick close to the end with a trailing leg and the game came to an end with the score-line reading 3-0.