Failing to win at home to Manchester City wasn't the defining moment in Watford's season, but it did signal the end of our very own mission impossible. Having failed to beat Wigan at home back in February the majority of Watford fans (clear thinking ones that is) had already given up realistic aims of us staying up.
It's not, of course, that we didn't want to stay in the Premiership, it just never looked like an achievable aim. Therefore when the final whistle sounded at the weekend it wasn't too much of a blow to us.
The real blow was that we just spent 90 minutes (add to that the 90 minutes a small band of us spent at Ewood Park on Wednesday) watching a really terrible game of football, with very little enthusiasm and even less quality. The disappointment wasn't from finally rubber-stamping our relegation, it was from only having one shot on target even in a 'must win' game.
Manchester City knocked the ball around well but they offered absolutely nothing in attack and were firmly there for the taking. So what did Watford throw at them? Absolutely nothing. Both teams had one shot on target each, and even then Ben Foster played a large part in City's one chance.
This just isn't good enough for the Premiership and it's even worse to think that this isn't the first time we'd passed up good opportunities at home.
With Bouazza's pace on the left wing we cut apart Portsmouth in our last home game, and yet in this game we resorted to throwing long balls up to our strikers again, a tactic that clearly doesn't work for us. This is what I've found most frustrating about this season - our insistence in playing the long ball when it clearly isn't working.
Boothroyd has suggested that we're 'playing to our strengths', but it's quite clear that this hasn't been working since August and yet game after game we try pulling it off. Alright, so our playing squad is never going to produce brilliant passing football in this division, but that doesn't mean we should abandon all hope of doing so.
Many people have summarised our season by saying we're a hard working team (that apparently never gives up) but one which ultimately lacks the quality to succeed at this level. While that's accurate in some ways, this current Watford squad have long given up hopes of staying in the Premiership and our lack lustre performances highlight exactly that.
Always look on the bright side of life
A few days ago I woke to find that Charlton Athletic had sent me an application form for a season ticket at the Valley next season and even declared that I could be their twelfth man. Having thought about it for a few minutes I've come to the conclusion that they were browsing Soccernet and stumbled across my article on the front page and decided that I'd be better off following Charlton's fortunes come August.
I don't blame them really as I wasn't a happy bunny and I'm sure you wouldn't be if you'd just watched the opposition's keeper score from 88 yards. That was weeks ago though and I promise you I've left my pessimistic standpoint behind me and my next article will not taste of sour grapes.
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