Gray day for Horns

This isn`t going to be your conventional match report, more than anything, it`s going to be me complaining about several things that irked me about last nights defeat at the hands of Owen Coyle`s Burnley.

Prior to the game, confidence was high, Burnley were going to attack, and usually when sides attack us, we attack back and prove our quality. Half that prediction was right at least, Burnley attacked, but we waited until the last ten minutes and we were 2-0 down before we actually looked like we cared.

Another thing I`ve complained about before is Aidy`s ineptness at substitutions, this was a couple of months ago, and so I`d like to pat myself on the back for my foresight. What was the man doing last night? With 25 minutes to go, Tamas Priskin and Nathan Ellington were warming up, but Priskin only made an entrance 10 minutes later. Ellington, all 4.5million of him, got about 7 minutes.

Since Adam Johnson has gone, just two games ago, we`ve failed to pick up a point, scored just three goals, all through one individual, a centre back. There has been no creative spark, and I`m sorry, Steve Kabba isn`t a left-winger, he`s a right-footed striker. Like England, Boothroyd needs to play players in their actual positions. Why isn`t McNamee being given a chance to earn a new deal having done so well in the Carling Cup?

Right. Moans over. To the game, we didn`t look like a team top of the league, if anyone did it was Burnley. It`s annoying to lose points at all, to lose them at home is infuriating, let`s be honest, before the season, we`d have wanted 6 points from Barnsley and Burnley. We`re lucky that every time we get beaten, West Brom or Charlton or both drop points too.

Burnley, to their credit, and I seem to be saying this a lot this year, zipped the ball around nicely and made the most of the greasy surface. That is all except Graham Alexander who skewed the ball out of play every time he had hold of it.

Watford hadn`t really shown a huge amount by the time Burnley went into the lead after 58 through Andy Gray. Wade Elliot had the beating of Jordan Stewart down the right and the cross met Gray plum on the forehead to score.

Ten minutes to go and it was two, Joey Gudjonsson, who seems to take personal pleasure from scoring against us every year, rounded Mart Poom after a huge Burnley clearance and having rounded the Estonian slipped home number two.

Game over, cue a mass exodus, and rightly so as far as I`m concerned, we were that bad, bad a couple of Shittu headers and Marlon`s 1 v 1 shocker of a miss, Danny`s 86th minute wallop that somehow found the net from 20 yards was scant consolation.

Full-time: 1-2

I will lay a certain portion of the blame at Aidy`s door, maybe management is harder than it looks, but when you are two down at home, stick a striker on? I just hope the painting on the changing room walls is peeling…