HaroldHornet

We may have dropped down the table. Quite a bit actually. But we're still safely in a mid-table berth, and in points terms at least, nearer to the play-off places than the relegation zone.

But there's a nasty pattern emerging, particularly away from home.

Only a few short weeks ago we were brushing aside anything put in front of us on our travels. Now, we can't hold onto a lead.

Twice in the space of a few days - at Palace and then Burnley on Saturday - we fought back from a goal down to lead 2-1, and ended up losing 3-2.

And the thing that is really worrying is that we are shipping goals. The Burnley defeat made it 13 in the last four away games. And it's not like we're without any injured defenders. This is our best line-up.

I think Watford fans always knew they had this sort of sequence waiting around the corner, and the amazing start to the season makes it harder to take. Our season so far has been one of extremes - third and then 13th, winning for fun then losing four out of five.

I still think we are very much a mid-table side, and that is not a lack of ambition. With the cost cutting and squad trimming we've been through, anything better than spending the season scrambling around at the foot of the table was going to be a bonus.

So, for now, no panic. We're at home this Saturday after all.

That's our home - where we've won twice in eight attempts.

Still not panicking though.

It looked like as close to a good thing as you can get - backing over 2.5 goals in last night's Watford game at Crystal Palace.

Two teams who let goals in but also know how to score them at the other end. At odds of around 1.9, it was a bet I had to have.

And it won. Great.

Trouble is, it didn't materialise in the way I had hoped. I pictured a Watford win, say 2-1 or even 3-1 (wasn't banking on a clean sheet, we don't do those).

At 1-0 down at half-time, both the bet and my Watford win theory looked a bit rocky. But within 10 minutes of the second half starting we were 2-1 up. And within another 10 minutes we were 3-2 down, and that's how it stayed.

One of those nights when a winning bet meant next to nothing really.

Plus, due to decorating upheaval and a badly-timed phone call for my wife, I was forced to watch the second half unfold on Sky Soccer Special  . . . but with the volume turned off.

So, they crossed from the studio to the reporter at the ground, who was very animated and excited. Except I had no idea about what.

In fact, the only clue I had was the body language of the fans behind him - there was a clear view of the home end over his shoulder, and so I began to work out if they were all standing up, Palace were piling forward. If they were sat down, Watford had the upper hand.

Not a nice experience - watching a game via a reporter without sound or a view of the pitch.

But we're still in mid-table and that's fine. Would just like us to break this losing run. We were third a few weeks ago. There's a long way to slide from third.

For a multitude of reasons, I couldn't go to the home game with Nottingham Forest. Let's just say it was 'family stuff'. If you read that as I was told by my wife I had other things that needed doing which were more important, you'd be getting close...

I did make sure my two season tickets were used by friends, so I didn't rob the Golden Boys of a couple of voices.

But I wasn't there myself - and that's not something that sits comfortably with me. During the period I didn't have a season ticket, missing games was fine. But since I've been a season ticket holder again, I find it hard to accept there's a home game and I'm not there.

To me, it's a bit like throwing a sickie from work. You could go, but you don't. And you know you could go. And still you don't.

I was out and about doing 'stuff' on Saturday, but I was still home in time to see Iain Dowie reporting back from Vicarage Road for Sky Soccer Saturday. I could almost see my seats over his shoulder....

And no disrespect to Dowie, but nothing he could say or do made up for not being there. Seasonally, it felt like standing in your back garden watching someone else's fireworks from over the fence.

As for the game, it sounded like we played okay and got a point we deserved. We're nicely in mid0table and I'b quite happy if we emerged at the other side of the winter in the same place.

I know we've been in the top six, and one national newspaper still described us as having 'play-off aspirations', but I'm still looking at this season as being one where we prove we're not a relegation candidate.

I'll be back for the next home game, and I won't be missing another one this season (just hope my wife's not reading this).

I really like the Sunday papers. You can immerse yourself in them: mug of tea, bit of background music, chill out.

But there are some weeks when I'm really not fussed about buying them never mind reading them. This was one such week.

When you've been done 4-1, reading various reporters' view of such a defeat doesn't make you feel any better about it.

I actually don't know much detail about the game, other than the order that the goals went in. To be honest, I don't want to know much more. You can be unlucky losers sometimes, but it's hard to make a case for being robbed when you've let when four in.

Yet we're still in the top half and despite the recent slide and three defeats in four, I'm trying to keep the positives in my mind. This is still better than I expected the season to be.

Plus we're bringing through plenty of homegrown talent and the fact the youngsters are giving a decent acocunt of themselves gives hope that we'll not be left exposed by the thin nature of our squad.

Having said that, a home win - and one where we aren't clinging on for the last 20 minutes - would be very welcome.

Having expected a bit of a struggle this season, and then seeing us climb to third in the table in midweek, losing to Scunthorpe was confusing.

Am I supposed to be disappointed that we lost at home to a team we should, on form, have beaten?

Or should I be pleased to see us sitting fifth in the table, and way, way ahead of where I thought we might be at this stage?

I think, on balance, I'm happy with where we're at, even if the manner of the defeat to Scunny was pretty abject. I saw some other Watford fans on a messageboard saying that we could have extended the second half to a couple of hours and we wouldn't have got back into the game.

Be fair to Scunthorpe, they came with a game plan, executed it perfectly and did a proper good job on us.

I'm feeling sorry for my eldest son. He's not seen a Watford win or even a goal so far this season. I've explained that's how it goes sometimes. Actually, I pointed out that it took me nearly a season to know there was a version of the song '1-0 to the Golden Boys' where you changed 1-0 to 2-0.

This wasn't what we expected.

Even the most hopeful of Watford fans would have gladly taken a season of hanging around in mid-table, not really threatening to go up but, more importantly, not in any danger of going down.

We know we have a small, largely inexperienced squad. Manager Malky Mackay worked wonders under similar financial restrictions last season but even then we had a brush with the drop.

So, this season, security was the key. Or so we thought.

A dozen games in and we are third. The tabloids are referring to as 'promotion chasers' in their match reports.

Tuesday's win over Ipswich was hard-earned. It looked as if we'd win relatively comfortably when we led 2-0 at half-time, but so far this season we've shown a fair degree of nerves in the closing stages of home games, seemingly dropping deep to protect what we have.

It happened again on Tuesday. The home fans were pleased to hear the final whistle, put it that way.

And so we're third. Nose-bleed territory.

Yet I bet I'm not the only fan who is still thinking more about getting another 29 points on board. There's something about 50 points that makes you feel you definitely won't be going down. In truth, you probably need two or three more to be totally safe, but that 50-point threshold is a big marker.

At this rate, we'll get there in January and February.

If we do that, then I might start looking up the table, rather than down it . . .

So, why the name? Why 'For love, not glory'?

I would think that statement applies to the reasons for supporting just about any club outside the Premier League. In fact, you could probably say that, these days, it applies to fans of just about everyone bar the big five (or big four, or big six, or however many teams you personally think have a chance of winning the title).

For me, it's Watford.

I was born next to the ground, I've lived in and around the town all my life, I didn't really have much choice. Not that I begrudge it, mind.

When I was a lad (the days when you just had one substitute and the only live football each year was the FA Cup Final), supporting Watford put you in a minority. In my class at school, it was a minority of one. My friends supported Liverpool (glory), Man Utd (glory), Tottenham (their Dad's team), Chelsea (their brother took them to games) and Coventry (two lads picked a name out of a hat, such was the lack of appeal of supporting their local team).

Yet I got on the Watford bus just as it was heading somewhere interesting. My second season on the terraces saw us promoted to the old Division One. Suddenly we were on Match of the Day.

My third season saw us finish second. I took it all in my stride back then, as things like a newly-promoted team finishing second wasn't overly rare. Imagine it now though. Blackpool finishing second.

After that there was glorious defeat in the FA Cup Final, three rounds of European action in the UEFA Cup and several seasons of thinking Watford were here to stay in the top division.

Yet even with that relative success, there was still little or no glory. Watford were dubbed 'long-ball merchants'. Apparently our long passes were hopeful hoofs - but when the likes of Hoddle hit a 40-yard ball from back to front it was sublime skill.

I've lived with it for years. Every time Watford in the 80s under Graham Taylor gets a mention, invariably someone throws in 'oh yeah, that's when you used to whack it so high it came down with snow on it'.

And our recent success has always come at a price. We've been in the Premier League twice - and finished botttom both times.

We've had financial problems, we've got a stadium with only three sides and we're seemingly signed up to a life of aspiring to be a top 30 club, a yo-yo club: a club that might go up, but will definitely come down.

And yet, for Watford fans - and fans of other clubs like us - we do it for the love. Secretly, we might even hope we don't actually go up, as there is more to enjoy in being a top eight Championship club than there is being cannon fodder for the big boys.

Yes, it's love over glory every time.

And I'll be telling you exactly how much love I have for the Hornets, going forward, in this blog.