Soccer, British TV and the BBC

Championship, Tues., Aug. 16, 2011—7:45 p.m. EST

Vicarage Road, Watford, Hertfordshire
Watford vs West Ham Utd,

I am predicting a second West Ham away win on the trot. Watford has had the kind of form in the Championship over the last dozen games as West Ham had in the Premiership/Championship over the same time period up to the Doncaster win (see below). Julian Faubert is now fit, and John Carew is being looked at as being potentially match fit, although I doubt we will see him in this game.

Here’s a question. When I was a kid there was a show on British TV showed that was centered on a group of young football fans. They were in the Watford junior supporters’ club, and each episode had various problems to sort out—truancy, stolen club funds, betrayal, that kind of stuff—and the action, such as it was, was often divided by awful segues into taped, “real” Watford games. One was supposed to believe that the actors were actually there. It all felt slightly similar to Grange Hill, if you remember that, which I am sure you do if you are around 40 (not that I am!!!!). Anyway, does anyone remember the name of that Watford show? Maybe you refused to watch it on principle? This was in the early 80s, and some of you might remember it as a year when Watford actually for a couple of weeks topped the First Division and had in Luther Blissett, the league’s top goal scorer, who was then signed to AC Milan. (I also remember with some pain when Millwall was top of the First Division in 1988.)

Last GameChampionship, Sat., Aug. 13, 2011
Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster, Yorkshire
Doncaster Rovers 0 West Ham Utd. 1

Okay, so this blog is no shorter than any of the others, is it? As we all probably realised, BBC Radio London on its Website kept saying that I was listening to was commentary on Doncaster-West Ham when in fact what it was was QPR-Bolton, which was entertaining, especially as I was in a very good mood after running nine miles and still getting home after a shower and with a coffee to listen to England mop up the last wickets in the Third Test against India.

Anyway, the one goal came early, a surge forwards by James Tompkins, a lay-off to Jack Collison, who moved around a Doncaster midfielder and lobbed it over the heads of several defenders to meet the boot of Kevin Nolan, who half-volleyed into the roof of the net. It was pretty much impossible to defend. Nolan came close to a second, a delightful chip-shot hitting the crossbar. West Ham dominated, but Doncaster had a header that went inches wide, with Rob Green stranded. So, we got our first three points (something we did precious little last season), and we’re on our way.