Dirk Thrust's 'View from the Rookery'

After watching his beloved Watford fall to their 3rd successive defeat to Swansea, Dastardly Dirk Thrust says:

"The game that I feared.

Whilst we were clearly unlucky to lose [the stats say it all really - ed], we do struggle to break down good defensive sides due to a lack of pace and effective width.

Clever Tom Cleverley was always going to be a huge miss but Don 'The Cow` Cowie has no excuse for his poor second half. Yes Swansea marked him tighter but his lack of physical courage saw him surrender the ball far too often.

Adrian Mariappa is not playing well but Cowie is not easy to play behind. In his good displays he still usually disappears in one half or the other.

Malky Mackay and I saw a different game against Derby [you, and the rest of us Dirk - ed] mostly and starting versus the Swans with Jon Harley after his very poor showing on Saturday and then NOT subbing him at half-time was just ridiculous. I like Harley but recently his complete lack of pace has been even more marked and last night he was so far out of effective impact as to be a passenger.

Swansea were quick and athletic and wee Stevie McGinn (or Michael Bryan) should have started. I felt sorry for Lloyd Doyley as time after time Harley failed to get into position for a pass and Lloydinho had to hold it [well, that`s better than him finding touch or picking out the linesman - ed].

All of this meant that, with nothing on the flanks, the front 2 had to fight for long balls and did as well as they could against an experience Swans defence. Lansbury was excellent as was Danny Graham, but John Eustace continues to look slow as he also did at Derby."

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