Little for Watford fans to enjoy during 6,600 miles of travelling

How ironic. A moment of genius that filled everyone with hope to kick off the away treks, and then what has become the almost obligatory collapse to throw away points to round things off.

Watford’s season in a nutshell really. We set off with hope, we ended waiting to see when the Hornets would buckle.

Notwithstanding some people have different start and finishing points, if you take the journey from stadium to stadium then the 23 away games have seen a total of more 6,600 miles in round trips.

That’s roughly the same as a jaunt from Watford to the popular holiday destination of Malaysia. I’ll let you make your own jokes about being on the beach…

The Hornets managed less than a goal a game, and their tally of 21 goals on the road is the lowest at Championship level (or the equivalent) since the 2002/03 season under Ray Lewington, when at least there was the run to the FA Cup semi-final to provide an unexpected and pleasant distraction.

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There were just five away victories from 23 attempts, and all of them against teams currently 12th or lower in the table. The average league position of teams Watford beat on their travels is 18th.

The Hornets garnered just four points from their away games against the teams currently in the top 10 of the Championship.

The second half of the season has been particularly slim picking for away travellers.

The last three points on the road were earned at Norwich way back on January 2, when Slaven Bilic basically selected the last 18 players able to stand as the injury/hamstring crisis really took its toll.

Since that memorable win at Carrow Road, Watford have drawn four and lost five on their travels, taking just four points from a possible 27.

The Hornets have ended their away fixtures by playing for 13.5 hours without winning. Just think, that’s a decent Netflix series’ worth of travelling to watch Watford without being able to celebrate at the end.

Sunderland was another occasion when Watford let something slip away. They lost a total of 11 points from winning or drawing positions on their travels . . . the difference between 13th place and fifth place.

Only once did Watford come from behind to win away (Cardiff), while they only rescued a point from losing positions twice (Birmingham and Rotherham).

Putting that Sarr stunner at the Hawthorns way back on Monday August 8 to one side, highlights from away trips are thin on the ground.

The win at Norwich, given the circumstances and the timing of Vakoun Bayo’s winner, is certainly a trip that was very enjoyable.

Then there was the extremely false dawn of Slaven Bilic’s first away game, the 4-0 victory at Stoke in October.

Coming so soon after the unforgettable derby win over Luton, the wins at Wigan and Cardiff meant Watford won consecutive games for the first and only time this season.

Joao Pedro’s two goals at Huddersfield were well worth the trip, and his strike at Burnley was another fine finish but that was also a night when a couple of points were tossed away.

And, for the masochistic among the Watford away fans, the game at Preston saw the one and only time Bayo and Rey Manaj started as a forward pairing.

Rey Manaj in action at Preston (Image: Action Images)

Anyone who went to St Andrews in August will also have witnessed Manaj’s only Watford goal in the 1-1 draw with Birmingham, though I’m yet to see any angle of that which convinces me the Albanian did any more than divert the ball in with the draft created by waving his foot at it.

Therewith, we reach the bottom of the away-trip highlights barrel. Sadly, there is far more to delve into when we come to the tub of travelling torment.

It says much about this season that there are so many contenders for worst away offering that I cannot honestly select a ‘winner’.

Therefore, those Hornets who are regulars in the away end can themselves pick from Blackburn, Blackpool, Millwall, Swansea, QPR and, of course, Luton.

I suspect the latter may well top the vote simply because the fans turned up and the players didn’t for a local derby, but put the added agony of being rolled over by your arch-rivals to one side, and those other grim away days listed were all truly dire.

The defeat at Blackburn back in September led to a lot of hostility from the travelling Watford fans and was probably the night that put the writing on the wall for Rob Edwards.

As with so much connected to that premature, typically knee-jerk decision to remove the young English head coach everybody hoped was the right man to lead a cultural change on and off the pitch, the manner of defeat at Ewood Park turned out not to be something that was stopped by bringing in a new coach.

The ‘SB’ adorning Bilic’s training wear had barely been ironed on when he got a taste of the passionless white-flag waving that Watford could serve up for away fans when they lost 3-1 at Blackpool.

I clearly remember the Croat looking utterly shell-shocked when he spoke to the press straight after that awful afternoon at Bloomfield Road. Little did he know he’d feel even worse, and by half-time, in the next away game at Millwall.

That was the night when some Watford fans left the ground so early they were back home before the final whistle went.

Despite those two horror shows though, the away-trip nadir for Bilic was possibly the 4-0 mauling at Swansea, coming as it did in that odd period between Christmas and New Year when everyone is usually full of good cheer.

When Chris Wilder arrived in March, he could not have envisaged a worse start than the abject performance at QPR (although Bilic and Edwards could probably have given him a word to the wise).

Chris Wilder in the dug-out at QPR (Image: PA)

Rangers were winless in 13 outings before that game but, using a phrase I wrote at some point which people seemed to enjoy, Watford once again proved to be the paracetamol of the Championship by easing QPR’s pain and lost 1-0 without landing a blow on the West London side.

That Rangers then lost their next four games after beating the Hornets shows just low they had to stoop to lose – and that’s before you factor in Rangers completed the double over Watford that day.

Of course, just when you thought it could get no worse, Wilder’s next away game was at Luton. That disaster was there for all to see on TV, which actually helped explain just how limp and disinterested Watford were when discussing the game with neutrals.

If there were a scale of ‘upness’ for that derby day, then the Watford fans were at one extreme and the players were at the other.

Wilder’s honest, brutal and painful evisceration of his players after that game probably summed up what most fans thought, but it was also similar to what Edwards had said that night at Blackburn and Bilic had proffered following the visits to Blackpool, Millwall and Swansea.

The away days have served to show that aside from the names and the voices describing the performances, little has changed from August to April.

Not much to enjoy, plenty to be upset about and, for those who travelled around the country for those 23 Championship away fixtures, a lot of hard-earned money spent on tickets, travel, food and drink at a time when those who don’t earn a footballer’s wage are feeling the pinch.

It’s easy to deride those who have been on the road with Watford this season, and I’ve seen all the jokes and comments about the travelling fans being mad, gullible or both.

I take my hat off to them though, whether they go by coach, train or car. I’m fortunate, I get paid to go to away games and my expenses are covered. Yet even I found it difficult to look at upcoming away trips during the season and not ponder what else I could be doing.

Many times, on my journey home, I’ve seen Watford fans at service stations (Tibshelf and Sandbach are my favourites) and all too often the pain has been etched on their faces.

Now we all have a few months until we take to the road and rail again. All we can hope is for change, of some sort – in performances, results, attitude, resilience and, most of all, the culture that is the foundation for all of those.

Plymouth on a Tuesday night in November, anyone?