Hang the DJ!
By Matt Rowson
This is never a particularly easy thing to face. I've wittered about my Dominic Ludden problem often enough before, so this wasn't a new thing for me personally. But no, never easy.
Other players do worse, of course. Stan Collymore, Paul Gascoigne. Jon Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, allegedly. Clayton Blackmore...or not. But they're different, you see, they're drawn from the immeasurable ranks of players from Other Clubs, as dispensable and irrelevant as Roman legionaries in an Asterix book. They never played for Watford. In particular, they were never heroes of mine when I was a kid. That's why learning that Nigel Callaghan is a sad bastard really hurts.
This will not be news to those who have chanced across "Greece Uncovered" in the uncharted waters of Friday night TV. Looking a very mature forty, boasting several spare tyres (not that I can really criticise on that score...), he is a million miles from the skinny winger many of us remember. Perhaps this is why he feels the need to remind us that he once created more goals for Watford than John Barnes. He is a cartoon-character, every inch the hackneyed ex-pro. A later instalment sees him pulling a condom over his head and inflating it through his nostrils. Hang the blessed DJ, for pity's sake!
Pursuing this line of thought often leads to the conclusion that it's safer never to meet players at all, better than having my illusions shattered, even at twenty-seven. But that's rubbish, of course. It must be rubbish, or else why is forgetting to shake Nigel Gibbs' hand at the WML bash last April such an ongoing cause of distress? No, the problem is that I still want these guys to behave like heroes. And if they want to behave like pissed arseholes they can bloody go and join someone rubbish like Fulham or Spurs, and forget they ever played for the Hornets.
And if you think that makes me a hypocrite, well bloody come here and say that. I can drink you under the table any day of the week....
Callaghan's departure to Derby in 1987 was significant for me personally, as well as for the club. It was the first time I ever doubted GT's judgement...a difficult conclusion to reach at the age of fourteen. GT later signed Callaghan for Villa, but his initial doubts about Callaghan's attitude were eventually proven right, and conclusively. When Nigel Callaghan was twenty, he was called into an England squad. Ten years later, he was playing for Berkhamsted Town.
In between times, Callaghan scored the final goal we conceded at Vicarage Road in our last stint in the top flight, a glum anticlimax. Once again, Derby seem to have rubber-stamped our demotion...a win at Goodison last weekend coupled with County slipping up in the East Midlands derby with Leicester and it would have been game on. Watford's chaotic defending put pay to that possibility, and Derby emphatically stamped on any lingering optimism on Sunday. Most galling of all is that none of the Rams' Websites seem to have been considering a threat from a resurgent Watford a remote possibility.
In goal for the Rams will be the enormous Estonian Mart Poom. A superb shot-stopper, Poom is sometimes guilty of not dominating his area. With the departure of Russell Hoult to Portsmouth, cover is provided by Andy Oakes, a summer signing from Hull.
County will play three centre-backs, most probably Horacio Carbonari, Stefan Schnoor and Jacob Laursen. Carbonari, an Argentine with an Italian passport (and thus eligible to play rugby for Wales...probably) has had a shaky run of form. The long-serving Laursen has recently retired from international football following barracking from a section of the Danish support. Schnoor, meanwhile, is holding off the challenge of Tony Dorigo for the left-sided role. Waiting in the wings is youngster Stephen Elliott, whilst Spencer Prior has left to join Manchester City.
Wing-backs will be Rory Delap and Seth Johnson. Delap's form has also suffered recently following a strong performance against the Hornets in January. However he is a talented, pacey player and experienced a return to form against Leicester on Sunday. Robbo could have chosen a better day to be suspended. Johnson was signed from Crewe in the summer, and his game is alleged to have suffered from him having to curb his appalling disciplinary record. His cover on the left is Paul Boertien, a former Carlisle colleague of Allan Smart and Nick Wright.
The two workers in midfield are captain Daryll Powell, having a strong season, and the rugged Craig Burley, who marked his return from injury on Saturday with a twenty-five yard screamer. Stefano Eranio is expected to miss Saturday with an injury sustained at the weekend, whilst Avi Nimni has returned to Israel and Lars Bohinen is injured.
In the hole behind the front two is Georgiou Kinkladze. Still outrageously talented, still holds on to the ball too long, Kinkladze's better performances have been at Pride Park. He came close to a red card following a spat with Neil Lennon on Sunday.
Up front, Sunday saw Branko Strupar partnering Dean Sturridge. Strupar has increasingly appeared lethargic and unfit, and can control the ball an alarming distance. However, as we found to our cost in January, he likes the sight of the goal in front of him, and is a threat from set pieces. Sturridge, occasionally lethal, has been about to leave Derby for about three years. Another, recently employed option has been Malcolm Christie, a recruit from non-league, although recent games have seen him on the bench. Mikkel Beck is on loan at QPR and won't be welcomed back; Esteban Fuertes, or a version of him, is back in Argentina unlikely to return at all, and Lee Morris is out for the season.
It would be nice to beat Derby. They stole Nigel Callaghan. They helped send us to Division Two with a dodgy penalty at the Baseball Ground in 1996. Derby fans were at the business end of my one close-up with "soccer violence". And their fans never saw us as a threat, the bastards.
Most of all, Derby were the first team to beat us in the new millennium. It would be nice to put off someone being the first side to beat us twice.
