Watford Crash Out

So, after the immense high of a fantastic win at Millhillians the previous week, Watford travelled to Barnet for the quarter finals of the Herts Presidents Trophy. The majority of the team were surprised when the game went ahead, having been postponed for what felt like the entire season due to various scheduling issues etc. Upon arrival, eyes were immediately drawn to the large bath. Old school facilities at their finest – unfortunately the post match bath would be the highlight of an otherwise pretty woeful day for the visitors.

The spark and intensity from the previous week was still somewhere in deepest darkest Mill Hill, with Watford guilty of going through the motions during the warm up. When it came to kick off, we were surprised to see Barnet’s colts apparently lined up against us. Unfortunately, these were no colts but a fully fledged senior team who belied their tender years to put in a performance of great physicality and discipline. The rascals.

Watford were on the back foot immediately, playing into a strong wind Bram failed to make the required ten yards by the smallest of margins. From the resulting scrum, Watford were caught dog-leg-ing with Barnet showing some neat interchange play to score in the corner. Extras missed, 5-0 to the hosts.

With the traditional slow start now out the way, we grew into the game. The set piece was solid as always, however ferocious Barnet defence led to Watford showing an all too real demonstration of ‘making the hard yards’. On a heavy pitch and playing into a hurricane we inexorably inched towards the opposition line, eventually forcing a penalty. Knowing he had to give the ball a serious thump given the conditions, Josh pulled his effort wide. Salt rubbed into the wound when Barnet then hit back with a penalty of their own.

The game was an increasingly dour, stodgy affair with chances in the first 40 at a premium. Watford came close with a driving maul, but the majority was fought in the middle of the park.

Half time a blessed relief for all, 8-0 to the hosts.

Knowing that things could only get better (D-Ream in the house) with the wind behind them, Watford took the game to Barnet on the second period. Carries that had before been rebuffed were now making yardage, we were actually able to utilise a kicking game and looked to put some width on the ball. Poopy pants Bees came on to good effect despite making a mess of himself at the first scrum, carrying with pace and purpose. Watford thought they had scored when Greyling went over, only for the referee to deem he was held up.

Barnet struck back, ferocious Watford defence repelling a series of drives towards our whitewash. With Pie braying in the wind for us to stay strong, we kept our nerve and forced a turnover to clear our lines. Back on the attack went the men in red white and blue, Barnet defence become increasingly border line and eventually resulting in a penalty for killing the ball on their own line. Ollie channelled his inner Danny Care with a quick tap, only to run straight into a lingering Barnet child soldier who was given ten minutes on the naughty step for his indiscretion. Line out was the option, man of the match Radish hit into touch just short of the line.

The siege continued, but Barnet just would not yield (as shown by a witty exchange of ‘banter’ between Horrocks and a Barnet player who was particularly clingy). Speaking of Horrocks, he swears blind he scored. Pie swears blind he scored, and Adrian was pretty sure he scored too. Your fearless scribe can’t comment, being on the floor on the other side of the pitch having cleared a ruck 28 phases earlier. BUT, from what I saw James ran a great arcing line, beat his opposite man and slid over to score. However, the referee saw things differently deeming him to have been held up (if James was held up it’s nothing short of a minor miracle from the Barnet player), much to the disgust of the players and travelling fans.

Scrum 5, the Watford pack did what they do best and marched towards the line. The Barnet scrum was in splinters, yours truly being instructed to ‘use it’, picking and finding the entire opposition backrow ready and waiting. Penalty Watford. No time left. Tap and charge once more into the Barnet wall, time and time again but with no joy.

Final whistle came, the Barnet celebrations showing that they new they had been in a serious dogfight. Given Barnet’s status in the league above, whilst there can be a degree of pride about our efforts we know ultimately we didn’t play to our potential and left a win out there. Best of luck to them in the next round, and given the age profile of their side one would expect Barnet to be a real force in the coming years.

Positives – we all had a bath together.