Match report written by Team Manager Alun Dorrington..

With a new season it brings new challenges.

With GB training meaning five of Watford’s younger players were not available for selection this gave debuts to 4 new under 18 faces; Owen, Niko, Rishi and Gethin. With Lucas also playing his first NCWPL game for Watford.

The rest of the team were young at heart but with many years’ experience under their belts.
First up were Avondale. They had a flying start scoring first but, following an exclusion, debutant Rishi scored his first goal at this level and the first for Watford.

This was followed up by a goal from captain Wayne and another from Luca. Avondale won and converted a penalty, but then debutant Niko scored his first NCWPL goal to finish the first quarter 4-2.

The first half of the second quarter we traded goals before Watford had a flourish to end the first half 9-5 up.

Bertie opened the scoring in the third quarter following an exclusion then we traded goals again to end 13-9. The fourth quarter started well with a goal after 11 seconds to extend the lead 14-9. Then, from nowhere, Avondale got a second wind and scored 3 unanswered goals.

Coach Paul called a Time Out to settle the team as we only had a 2 goal lead with 3 minutes left. Settling the team down and focusing on game management worked, a tense 3 minutes ended with Danny scoring to give a 3 goal lead and that is how it ended 15-12.

On to Sunday and a lunchtime showdown against Castleford, who are known as a physical team.

The team talk primed the players, especially the debutants , to play our own game and use our tactical nous rather than play a game that would suit Castleford’s physicality.

Castleford had two very strong players who scored eleven of their goals the previous day.

The first quarter did not start well with Castleford opening the scores.

Following an exclusion, Veli scored and so the 1st quarter ended 1-1.

Solid defence from both teams made scoring difficult. The second quarter also started badly with Castleford scoring 2 unanswered goals to lead 3-1 before an exclusion which Wayne scored off to make it 3-2 and debutant Owen went early to score his first NCWPL goal.

At half time we were tied at 3-3. Castleford again started well scoring first, but then 3 unanswered goals including one from Lucas, his first for Watford in NCWPL, meant for the first time we lead the game. Castleford managed to score 1 to finish the third quarter with Watford just in front 5-6.

The breaks between the quarters seemed to reinvigorate Castleford as they came out and scored first making it 6-6.

Following an exclusion by Castleford, coach Paul called a time out which Wayne converted to give us a 1 goal lead. Wayne followed this up with another goal one minute later to give us a 2 goal lead with just 4 minutes left.

Two tense minutes passed with both teams defending well. Goalkeeper Dan, who has had a short break from waterpolo did an amazing job between the posts especially in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Castleford scored with 1:45 left to bring the score back to 8-7.

Fortunately, all the swimming training Matt has been doing recently paid off with a fantastic cover back to prevent their star player scoring an almost certain goal.

Another exclusion from Castleford and Paul called a time out with just 51 seconds left and the slenderest of leads. Veli showed fantastic strength in his legs to rise out of the water and stayed high in the air for what must have felt like hours before the ball was passed in for an amazing goal.

With 33 seconds left and a 2 goal lead we were able to relax for the first time in the game. An amazing team effort combining youth and experience with solid defence limited Castleford’s strong attackers to only 4 goals between them.

Special mention for John often covering pit defence ensuring no one scored off him and committed no majors (all weekend); a textbook example of how to handle physical centre forwards.

Two wins out of two and we are only behind the Army on goal difference - a great start to the season.

Next round is weekend of 26th of October when the team will play City of Birmingham on the Saturday & Colchester on Sunday.