Watford v Preston Preview

Posted on | October 3, 2008 | No Comments

Before the season started, nobody quite knew where these two sides would finish. Two months on and opinions still vary, although there’s no doubting that both are in poor runs of form and this game could make or break one season.

We’ll start with a look at Watford and what they’ve achieved. Towards the end of last season they went on an absolutely dire run of form and only just clung onto their play off position, and it looks a similar story for this campaign. After a summer of minimal spending and one where key players departed, manager Aidy Boothroyd has it all to do as he tries to mastermind another promotion. The signs at the moment aren’t good though, with The Hornets lying just outside the relegation zone on eight points. They’ve lost their last two games and having not won in the league since the end of August, Boothroyd might start to come under a bit of pressure should they lose on Saturday.

Preston’s story is a little different and after finding themselves right up there at the start of the season, they’ve gone through some terrible form. They’ve lost their last three games and after being in the automatic positions a few weeks ago, they’ve dropped all the way to 9^th and fans must be starting to worry. They only just managed to avoid the drop last season and just like Watford, they failed to spend much money at all during the summer period. This is Alan Irvine’s first job as a manager and he’ll be hoping that after assisting David Moyes for so long at Everton, some of his quality has rubbed off and he can turn The Lillywhites around. There’s no doubt that after last season, the vast majority of North End fans would accept their current position but with results taking a turn for the worst, Irvine needs to make sure they can consolidate.

As for team news, Boothroyd has a few problems going into this one. The influential John Eustace has joined the injury list while Mart Poom recently dislocated his shoulder and is likely to be out for six months. The only positive for Boothroyd is Jay DeMerit, with the American set to make a comeback after missing out recent fixtures through injury. Visitors Preston are in a slightly better position with defender Callum Davidson returning from suspension. However, Michael Hart and Richard Chaplow will both miss out, with the duo suffering from ankle and hamstring injuries respectively.

This is one match which is difficult to predict considering the poor form of both teams. Taking into account the fact that Watford have been so bad at home for the past twelve months we’ll go for a Lillywhites win. It’ll be tight, but we’ll predict a 2-1 PNE win.

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