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Watford & Reading – Why There Could Still Be Room at the Top

Sean O'Conor

The quayside of the Premiership seems an ever more lonely place for those new arrivals off the Championship boat.

More a closed shop than an open house, the top flight resembles a members-only club where Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United seem to be sailing away from the rest with their ever-increasing stadia and Champions League windfalls.

But to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and for fans who don't support those teams it means cheering on the underdogs of the top flight. Wigan were a revelation this season, playing some quite exquisite football at times and two of next season's arrivals from the Championship are set to impress the big boys with their unique playing styles. Trust me on this.

Reading, the runaway winners of the Championship, play a telepathic passing game that overwhelmed all their opponents this season. An analysis of their attacks would probably reveal a number of repeated patterns of their short passing game but it won them an English record of 106 points, making them the nation's most successful team of 2005/06.

There are no obvious stars, but some key individuals in Senegalese stopper Ibrahima Sonko, midfeld weaver James Harper, who is always demanding the ball like a schoolboy, the American express on the left Bobby Convey and his bald World Cup compatriot Marcus Hahnemann in goal, right-sided supplier and Reg Varney-lookalike Glen Little plus wily and underrated attacker Steve Sidwell.

Reading's ability to survive is still doubted at large but the Premiership should be be wary of how they steamrollered the other teams in the Championship.

Watford on the other hand are a very direct team but comparisons with the long-ball days of Graham Taylor fall short.

The Hornets, marshaled by their 35-year-old coach Adrian Boothroyd, shift the ball from back to front as quickly as possible but what they lack in guile and deception they more than make up more in power and controlled directness. As their thumping 3-0 knock-outs of Crystal Palace and Leeds United in the play-offs exemplified, this is no team to underestimate.

Watford have a tree-trunk spine in tough centre-backs Malky Mackay and Jay DeMerit, midfield anchor Gavin Mahon and centre forward Marlon King, none of whom one would choose to meet down a dark alley. The rest of the midfield and attack consists of slight but highly creative players like Ashley Young, Matt Spring and Chris Eagles to pleasingly complement the brawn of their central axis.

Despite being tipped for relegation after finishing two points above the drop zone last season, Watford steamed into the Premiership with a growing team spirit and a simple system that does the basics right. They surprised the Championship more than any other team, so something must be going on at the Vicarage.

On Tuesday night the Hertfordshire town celebrated their team's unlikely ascension to the top as the players embarked on an open-top bus parade. Boothroyd has already told his players next season they will be aiming for the UEFA Cup. At least you cannot accuse him of lacking ambition after only one season of management.

The arrival of Reading and Watford, as well as Sheffield United, in the top division is something to celebrate and although the gap between England's first and second divisions is ubiquitously assumed to be an invisible chasm, the players and fans of the Royals, Hornets and Blades are out to prove everyone wrong and we should all be cheering them.

Images © Sean O'Conor

Sean O'Conor

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