Hornets seeded for 2nd round draw

Phew! Watford have scraped into the Carling Cup pot of 25 ‘seeded` balls for the 2nd Round draw after somehow managing to cling onto the coat tails of the ‘big boys` by snatching the 25th place in the list of the top 25 ranked clubs.

That ‘seeding` means the Hornets can`t be paired against any of the 13 Premier League sides entering the competition at this stage or high profile Championship sides?

So no ‘Man City at home` money spinner for the accountants to get excited about or a plum tie against West Ham or Spurs to fill up the club coffers.

?you can almost here the Vicarage Road moneymen crying into their calculators.

It also means Watford avoid Newcastle, Blackburn, Sunderland or Boro and the ‘Reading at the Vic` draw that some Glory Hornet boys want simply to boo Brendan Who? can`t happen now.

There`s no easy route though. There`s still the small matter of some established sides ready to create a c`upset – Forest, Leicester, Posh and Donnie to name a few – and what price on us being drawn with Palace in the cup (again!) ?

There are a host of banana skins to be faced, and after struggling at Barnet through 120 minutes of action, trips to Leeds, Huddersfield, Gillingham and er, Port Vale won`t be high up on Malky Mackay`s wish list.

No doubt we`ll hear the same old ‘no-one scares us` line from the club but truth of the matter is, all the fans want at the moment is Hereford [h] to be plucked from the velvet bags to to build the confidence.

The seeded teams Watford CANNOT face:

Birmingham, Blackburn, Bolton, Bristol City, Burnley, Cardiff, Hull, Ipswich, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Preston, QPR, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke, Sunderland, Swansea, Tottenham, Watford, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham, Wigan, Wolves.

?and those ready to be Giant Killers:

Accrington, Barnsley, Blackpool, Bristol Rovers, Carlisle, Crystal Palace, Doncaster, Gillingham, Hereford, Huddersfield, Leeds, Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich, Peterborough, Port Vale, Rotherham, Scunthorpe, Southampton, Southend, Swindon, Tranmere, Coventry/Hartlepool, Macclesfield/Leicester, Nottingham Forest/Bradford.