Early Team News
Will Hoskins who made his debut at
On the injury front Lee Williamson has not recovered from a broken toe picked up whilst with Rotherham United and James Chambers is still ruled out with a gash, both players joining longer term injury victims, Clarke Carlisle and Marlon King on the treatment table.
Blackburn Rovers are expected to retain the majority of the side that continued their recent fine away for by comprehensively defeating
Brett Emerton is likely to take Ooijer's place with Jay McEveley retaining his spot in the left back berth.
Strikers Matt Derbyshire and Paul Gallagher, who have both signed new deals, are pushing for places, but Jason Roberts will not feature as he is still two weeks away from a return after suffering a broken metarsal.
History of the Watford v
The last time the two teams met in Hertfordshire was back in February 2001, with Blackburn Rovers inflicting a narrow one goal defeat upon
For a detailed analysis of the head-to-head between the two sides, click here
Recent encounters between the teams: | |||||
2000/2001 | Tue 20 Feb | 0-1 | CHMP | ||
2000/2001 | Tue 12 Sep | 3-4 | CHMP | ||
1995/1996 | Tue 24 Oct | 1-2 | LGEC | ||
1992/1993 | Wed 09 Dec | 6-1 | LGEC | ||
1991/1992 | Sat 11 Apr | 2-1 | CHMP | ||
1991/1992 | Tue 17 Sep | 1-0 | CHMP | ||
1990/1991 | Tue 19 Mar | 0-3 | CHMP | ||
Recent respective form guides
Watford's poor home run has seen them win just one (
The Golden Boys' poor home record has been a major factor in seeing them stuck right at the bottom of the division with their 22 games having yielded only 12 points.
Blackburn Rovers' recent away form meanwhile has been exceptional, and Morten Gamst Pedersen's double at the weekend against Manchester City (3-0) helped Rovers to their third successive away victory, the others being an eye catching win at Everton (4-1) in the FA Cup Third Round, which in turn followed a similiar triumph at Wigan Athletic (3-0) just before the turn of the year. 
Priot to this upturn, a 2-1 success at Reading had sandwiched a heavy defeat at Arsenal (2-6) and a disappointing one goal loss at struggling Charlton Athletic at the start of December.
The greatly improved run has catapulted the
For a detailed analysis of team form guides throughout the leagues, click here
Current form guides: | P | W | D | L | F | A | P |
6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 4 | |
6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 4 | 15 |
FootyMad's Prediction…
Nothing seems to be going right for
A victory may be out of the question given Blackburn Rovers' recent form, but we feel Aidy Boothroyd's men are capable of holding the
Sequence statistics: | |
4 games since last home draw. | |
3 successive away victories. | |