This week The Scratching Shed is pleased to welcome Matt Rowson from the Watford FC Blog B Happy for a look ahead to Saturday’s clash.

You’ve had a bit of a mixed start to the season but results seem to have picked up a bit lately. What are your expectations for Watford this year?

Survival is the objective; not very sexy, but we’re on a low budget for the division and that’s the brief. After an iffy start, survival now looks possible; beyond that of course it doesn’t take an awful lot to get within a sniff of the play-offs, but we’d take mid table with both hands.

What do you make of Sean Dyche? Is he the man to take you forward?

He was Malky Mackay’s assistant and appeared to be the continuity candidate when Mackay upped sticks to Cardiff. He confounded that expectation a little by changing tack completely; the attacking football with lots of kids in the team was ditched, and we are now much more defensive and have a more experienced squad. As you’ve noted, results are coming together slowly and we certainly look solid, but I’m disappointed that Dyche chose to change direction and suspect I’m not the only one. Last season was much more fun than fourteenth probably sounds. Dyche is a good honest guy though, you want him to do well.

Marvin Sordell is your top scorer and an England U-21 international. Do you think he will be attracting attention from Premiership clubs in January?

Quite possibly. He’s not there yet… still young, only 20 I think, and a bit raw. His performances are up and down as happens with young kids, but the raw material’s there. He won’t go straight into a Prem team yet, but I can certainly see bigger Championship teams coming in for him.

Who else should we be looking out for in your team on Saturday?

Our stand-out player this season has been Adrian Mariappa at centre-back. A first team player for about 5 years now, he’s settled at CB over the last couple of seasons and has reached a level where it looks rather easy for him most of the time. Quick, disciplined, comfortable on the ball, he’s a prem player and we’ll do well to hang on beyond January. Also Michael Kightly, on loan from Wolves and looking like the player he was before his injury – more effective at home, too.

The Championship 2011/12 – 3 up, 3 down?

Up – West Ham, Cardiff. Ummmm…. Leicester maybe. Last one is open.
Down – I said Cov, Donny and Posh at the start of the season. The first two look decent bets, I hope Posh stay up but a team that scores and ships a lot of goals is always prone to a bad run. So I’ll stick with that.

If you could sign one current Leeds player for Watford, who would it be?

Does John McClelland count? He’s still does the stadium tours? Macca, every day of the week, don’t care how old he is. Failing that, Snodgrass. But we won’t have Leigh Bromby back, thanks all the same.

Finally, what’s your prediction for the game?

Will be tight. Your midfield getting crocked at the weekend won’t hurt us. One all.