Drawing drawing West Ham

Watford 1 West Ham 1

It's an undercover trip to Vicarage Road with Watford fans from my sports book group for this one. Pre-match fare is decidedly upmarket compared to Stratford's egg, chips and beans with a trip to the Fratelli Italian restaurant. I'm joined by the two Peters, Simon and Adrian, a classics teacher hoping for a Homer win. The broccoli tagliatelle is indeed excellent. The only downside is a programme disaster — the club don't print them anymore.

The game begins with the rain coming down, the Watford ultras banging their drum and Elton John's Your Song on the PA, a bit gentle as a rallying cry but nice to hear it again. The lyrics are also written on the back of the stand, which must make Bernie Taupin proud, though he's probably a Lincoln City fan.

Nuno has rather surprisingly dropped Piroe, bringing in Mukasa. Veltman keeps his place and Kyle Walker-Peters is switched to left back while, with the Greek Bloke injured, Golambeckis makes his full league debut.

"Come on your 'Orns!" says the scoreboard and the Hornets do raise their game, causing early problems. Tackles fly in. Kante fires wide with a half-chance but Watford are looking dangerous with the pacy Maamma ("my Maamma we're all crazy now?") causing Walker-Peters problems. Hermanson fists away a dangerous cross and the ball comes out to the tricky Nabizada. Veltman could do a bit better closing him down, but the tricky young Afghanistan winger scores with a clever stepover and chip over Hermanson into the far corner. 

One-nil down after 19 minutes and it looks ominous. Watford almost make it two as only a fine save from Hermansen and great block from Walker-Peters deny the Hornets. Thankfully defender Kevin Keben decides to help, possibly trying to shield the ball out of play but ending up dribbling it along the line towards his own goal. The ball almost goes out but the tenacious Taty Castellanos keeps going to nick it into the goalmouth and it's deflected in off Pollock for a comedy goal. Still, we'll take it.

That goal settles the Hammers who then get on top. Much closer to the pitch that at the London Stadium we get to see some Premier League control from Jarrod Bowen as he expertly brings the ball down. "Buy some fucking players!" chant the Watford Ultras expressing  a sentiment West Ham fans would agree with.

After the break the Hammers have most of the play, though Watford always look dangerous on the break. Bowen has WHU's only shot on target straight at Ravaglia. Bowen's cross then goes dangerously across the face of goal before Solomon has a goal bound shot blocked. Engels comes into the game more and Solomon is dangerous on the left, though the Irons still lack creativity. Nuno brings on Piroe and Orford for Mukasa and Kante. 

Piroe shoots wide from a decent position, Solomon cuts in and has another goalbound shot blocked. Watford break and Bravo fires over before the Hornets force a couple of corners. West Ham almost win it when there's near interplay between Orford and Castellanos to set up Solomon only to be denied by a great block from Pollock. He's the sort of centre back we'll see a lot of in the Championship, big, rugged and committed and West Ham have to learn to never mind the Pollocks and find a way to get behind them.

So it ends 1-1, a hard-fought game and a lesson for the Hammers that this season won't be easy. One bonus is that the 18-year-old Arianas Golambeckis looked composed at centre back and made some fine interceptions. 

There's a chorus of "your getting sacked in the morning!" from the away fans which doesn't help anyone. We're playing a lot of youngsters and new signings and it's going to take time to gel. It's five games in, including the Carabao Cup, and we've won two, drawn two and lost one. Let's see what comes before the window closes and then judge Nuno in the autumn.

So it's a wet slog past the Yellow Brick Road mural to Watford High Street station. Two away draws in the league this season isn't a disaster but we now have to pick up wins at home starting with the next two games against Wolves and Derby. After those we'll have a clearer idea where our season is going.

PLAYER RATINGS; Hermansen 6; Veltman 6, Golambeckis 7, Kilman 6, Walker-Peters 6; Bowen 7, Kante 5 (Orford 6), Engels 6, Mukasa 5 (Piroe 5), Solomon 7, Castellanos 6.