Richard Lee's BLog

Highs & Lows

info@impaktmedia.co.uk — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The week began with a fantastic away performance and result against Swansea. We gained revenge for the previous game with a display which was quite possibly the best of the season so far. We defended resolutely and always looked capable of scoring at the other end. It was certainly the quietest game I’ve had for some time.

After having a tough few games on a personal level it was pleasing to get a solid performance behind me and one that I built on against Barnsley - unfortunately though we came out of that game with a defeat which was certainly a disappointment after going one up with a relatively short time remaining.

We just seemed to have a crazy five minutes where we lost our shape and ultimately cost ourselves the game. It was a game where both I and the Barnsley keeper had plenty to do and a game from which a draw was probably the fairest outcome...but as we know football is very rarely fair.

The positive angle on all this is that we are playing some very impressive football and seem on the verge of putting a good run together; things would be different if we were getting rolled over every week but I’m positive that the tide will turn and we’ll get a string of good results very soon and find ourselves climbing this table.

It’s not all doom and gloom despite what the table says, we know the area we need to work on and we’ll be doing our up most to improve and turn this into a successful season.

We also found out that we’ll be facing Spurs at home in the cup. An exciting prospect and something to look forward to but we know that the league takes priority for now and we’ll worry about that when it comes.

This has been a week spent largely in hotels with three away games so it’s nice to have a quieter week in preparation for the run of games we have coming up, starting Saturday.

Until next time...

An Eventful Week

info@impaktmedia.co.uk — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A very eventful week followed by defeat at Swansea. The news of Aidy’s departure shocked everyone at the club, things haven’t been great in recent weeks - but I don’t think anyone had foreseen the defeat against Blackpool being his final game in charge.

From a personal point of view I have much to be thankful to Aidy for. He gave me opportunities in the Premiership and in the Championship last season that may well not have happened had he decided not to give me another chance after returning from Blackburn. I’m sure once the dust settles he’ll be remembered as one of the most successful Watford managers of all time.

As for the Swansea game, it was yet again a disappointment. I feel at the moment we’re finding it tough to get a break, both personally and as a team. As for their first goal, I was deceived by the flight of the ball, when it left his foot I thought it was going to my right only to come back to my left.

Despite the scoreline, a draw would probably have been a fair result but we know we can’t keep saying that. I’m sure things will change; we just have to stick together and keep believing.

We have a great chance to get revenge on Tuesday and we’ll approaching that game with the same attitude as we did today’s and hopefully the outcome will be different.

See you next week.

A Tough Week All Round

info@impaktmedia.co.uk — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Football can be a cruel game - on a personal level and as a team this has been a tough week.

Two defeats from games that could, on other days, have produced six points. We played well against Preston and deserved more than the 0-2 scoreline we ended up with - and the same can be said against Blackpool.

Despite the horrendous weather conditions we played some very good football that could’ve resulted in a comfortable victory. The problem is that we are saying the word ‘could’ far too much lately and we know we need to start turning these opportunities into positive results otherwise this could be a long season.

As I said it’s also been a tough week or so on a personal note. After the massive highs of Southampton and Cardiff I seem to have hit a little patch where things don’t seem to be going my way. I’m training as hard as ever and going into games feeling good but, for one reason or another, I’ve made mistakes lately and am experiencing the other side of being a keeper. There were positives to take from yesterday’s game but sometimes it can be hard to see them when you end up losing 3-4 after being ahead more than once.

As with all my past setbacks I’ll be sure to get my head down, train harder than ever and work my way through it. As players, we're more frustrated than anyone but we all know that football is full of highs and lows, so for me and the team it’s a case of putting the situation in perspective and continuing to work hard towards our goals of this season.

We were going to have a bad run of results at some point; let’s hope we’ve just had it and now we’ll move in the right direction.

As for the week ahead, there are no midweek games which means a tough week’s training and and opportunity for any of the lads carrying niggling injuries to fully recover and ready to face Swansea. We’re not where we want to be right now but there's no group of players in this division that'll work harder to put that right.