Preview: Watford away

Wolves face a difficult trip to Watford this weekend. We have often struggled against Watford, winning just twice on our last six visits to Vicarage Road. Games between the two sides are often scrappy - as determined by the state of the pitch. However, much like with Brighton, the Watford side we face this weekend is different in many ways to previous Hornets sides. New owners have meant new investment, and new boss Gianfranco Zola has benefitted from this by having no fewer than 10 players arrive on loan from Italian club Udinese.

Not only this, but Watford signed goalkeeper Manuel Almunia on a free from Arsenal - a very impressive signing at Championship level and centre-back Fitz Hall from fellow London side QPR. However, this hasn't yet brought the results that had perhaps been hoped for. Whilst they've enjoyed very good results - including a 3-2 win at Huddersfield and last weekend's 6-1 demolition of 9-man Leeds at Elland Road - they have struggled to beat a lot of the sides above them, suffering 2-1 defeats to Middlesbrough and Cardiff and dropping points to Millwall, Bristol City and suffering a heavy early-season 5-1 defeat to Derby. These mixed bag of results have left Zola's side sitting in 12th place (albeit 3 places above Wolves and only 4 points off the play-offs).

Michael Gray celebrates his winner at Watford

Our last game at Vicarage Road was quite a thriller. A game that twisted and turned before ending up with a Michael Gray winner bagging us a 3-2 victory. In that game, a mistake from Watford allowed Chris Iwelumo to sneak in and give us a first-minute lead. I'd certainly be very happy with that tomorrow! We will need to be alert early on, as Watford will be looking to carry on their form after their result last weekend. Having Roger Johnson back on form is crucial for us. He leads the back-line so well - so much so that there's been talk from some fans of making him captain in Karl Henry's absence. And it is that missing midfielder that will play a big role in how tomorrow's game goes. Previously when he has been out the side (or even been substituted off), we've been incredibly poor. Indeed, Brighton was the first game where he was off the pitch and we still played exceptionally well! I'll be intrigued to see how Solbakken covers the hole he's left. Davis isn't good enough right now for me, so we have the option of Doumbia and Edwards in midfield - one I feel would be incredibly open. So to close things up, I would play our usual 4-4-1-1 but with Pennant and Forde on the wings and Sako in behind either one of Doyle or Ebanks. It's compact, but can be extremely lethal on the counter-attack. Plus it's becoming clear to all of us that Sako would be much more comfortable just behind the striker, rather than out on the wing.

Can't see either side really grabbing this game by the scruff of the neck. Both teams are quite inconsistent too, so this one goes down as a draw for me.

Prediction: Watford 1-1 Wolves

In Stale We Trust.