Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein wouldn't fancy Stan's job

Last updated : 07 April 2003 By Tony Scholes

Both managers were stunned after the game, neither able to quite believe what they had witnessed although obviously for the third time this season Watford manager Ray Lewington walked away the happier of the two.

"Plain and simple it was a freak afternoon of high entertainment," said the happy and somewhat relieved Watford boss.

"I’ve just said to my assistant Terry Burton that I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was just one of those days you so rarely get in football where every shot looks like it’s likely to register a goal.

"Let’s be honest it could have been any score, to either side, at half time. I’m not going to put all their goals, or in fact all our goals, down to bad defending. There was some good forward play out there today, and Michael Chopra in particular has shown us what he is capable of after getting warmed up to the task last weekend.

"It’s just one of those days you can’t explain and it wouldn’t have surprised me if we’d gone in behind at the break but all credit to our lads and we made a much better fist of things defensively after the break while still looking a threat every time we broke forward.

"I thought Wayne Brown did very well in Marcus Gayle’s absence, Gareth Taylor is a difficult player to deal with. What we concentrated on at half time was getting the message across that we had to stop the service, the stream of crosses coming in. We did that, and I thought we showed up much better at the back in the second half".

Watford had previously scored just 12 goals in 19 away games and when asked about that Lewington added, "I can’t explain it fully today, save to say that we moved the ball really well in attack and took our chances when they came. I’m sure we’ve been creating a few chances like that in away games this season but today we had a striker in Chopra who is a natural in front of goal".

But he had a word for Stan at the end of the game.

"I felt sorry for Stan. The crowd were on his back towards the end of the game and he doesn’t deserve that. It was not a nice scene for him because he’s brought this club a long way".

Stan himself hadn’t too much to say, like the fans probably shell shocked at what he had just seen.

"It was just a catalogue of defensive errors. We scored four at home but at the back it was just schoolboy errors.

"I couldn’t believe what was happening and I am just lost for words. We gave away free headers and just kept making mistakes, incredible".

And with rumours about whether he wants to remain in the job he added,

"They reckon Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were having a chat and they both said they wouldn’t fancy Stan Ternent’s job".

The question on everyone’s lips now is does Stan Ternent still fancy Stan Ternent’s job.