Taylor made for Watford

Last updated : 19 September 2004 By Neil Andrews
Dichio
Millwall slumped to their second home defeat of the season this afternoon as they went down 2-0 to Watford. However, the result had more to do with the incoherency of referee Paul Taylor rather than the performance of Dennis Wise's men.

Taylor was poor, make no mistake about it. His unpredictable decisions and whistle-happy manner made it very difficult for either side to string any sort of game together and the game was broken up so badly in the first half that it was difficult to see where a goal would come from. Naturally wheb the deadlock was finally broken in the 65th minute by Watford's Danner Webber, Mr. Taylor was at the heart of it.

However, by that point, the referee had already stamped his mark on the game by disallowing what seemed to be a perfectly good goal by Millwall's Barry Cogan from a corner. Mr. Taylor indicated that it was for a foul on the goalkeeper, but Richard Lee in The Hornets' goal seemed to spill the ball into his own net after colliding with one of his own defenders rather than one of his own players.

It wasn't the last time the referee blew for a foul on the goalkeeper either. Lee seemed to ride his luck on more than one occasion when tested by the Millwall attack and was having difficulty dealing with high balls into the box. Shortly before the break, the Watofrd goalkeeper came rushing out for a ball that he had no right to go for on the edge of his box and missed the cross completely for colliding with the stationary Danny Dichio on the 18-yard-line. Inexplicably, Mr. Taylor awarded a freekick to Watford and booked Dichio for the "challenge".

Straight after the break, Mr. Taylor was at it again and thirty seconds into the second half he booked substitute Dennis Wise for his first challenge - an ariel collision going for a 50-50 ball. Understandly, the Millwall players were upset by the decision as Wise had only come onto the field after Adrian Serioux was knocked cold by Gavin Mahon, after the Watford player - who escaped without a caution - had led with an elbow going into a header.

The game continued in the same stop start pattern until the 65th minute. A high ball into The Lions' box left midfielder Marvin Elliot injured in the six-yard- box after an apparent accidental stamping and as Millwall pushed out, Watford took advantage of the situation and the ball was knocked back into the area. However, Elliot had managed to limp upfield, leaving both Webber and Heider Helguson in an offside position. Play continued and Webber scored from the rebound after Graham Stack pulled off a save from Helguson's inital effort.

Nine minutes later, The Lions were reduced to ten men after Dichio was booked for the second time. The centre forward had cause to argue his case after going for a 50-50 ball with Bryniar Gunnarsson and it must be said, Gunnarsson made a meal of the challenge.

The sending off left Millwall vulnerable to the counter attack as they went in search for the equaliser and Helguson wrapped things up shortly afterwards with a well taken individual goal.