Watford travel to The Lamex Stadium for their second game of pre-season, as hosts Stevenage look to continue their building run of form ahead of the new season.

The two teams have met just once before, a 1-0 win in Watford’s favour back in the pre-season of 2014, who will come out on top this time?

Watford looking for their first win under Mazzarri

It will be Walter Mazzarri’s second game in charge of the Hornets, following last week’s 1-1 draw against Woking.

League Two side Stevenage are unbeaten in their previous five games, with two wins and draws in all competitions.

It will be a test for Stevenage as they face a Watford side of Premier League standard. However, Watford too will be under some pressure to respond to their lacklustre draw against Woking. Matt Godden, Andrew Fox, Jake Hyde, Shaun Donnellan and Rowan Liburd are all new arrivals into the hosts side and will be eager to impress.

Watford have so far introduced three new additions to the team, strikers Jerome Sinclair and Isaac Success, and defender Christian Kabasele. The Hornets are also aiming to keep hold of the likes of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo, as much of the transfer speculation regarding the club has seen the potential departures of the duo take centre stage.

Mazzarri organises his troops from the bench. | Image credit: David Rogers/Getty Images
Mazzarri organises his troops from the bench. | Image credit: David Rogers/Getty Images

Previous games

In the last game, it seemed that Watford would cruise the 90 minutes of non-competitive action, however, a first half deflected strike by Steven Berghuis was cancelled out by a Woking equaliser, coming moments after Watford took the lead.

Like their upcoming opponents, Stevenage’s first preseason took place last week. An electrifying encounter ended in a 3-2 Stevenage victory, as they travelled to face St. Albans City. First team manager of Stevenage, Darren Sarll has admitted that him and his team are “excited by the Watford challenge@. We’ll see if their desire to win can assist them in pulling off a would-be famous victory over Mazzarri’s Hornets.

Predicted Lineups

Stevenage: (4-4-2) Jones; Henry, Wilkinson, Franks, Fox; Tom, Schumacher, Lee, Conlon; Kennedy, Hyde.

Watford: (4-4-2) Gomes; Nyom, Britos, Hoban; Amrabat, Suarez, Capoue, Berghuis, Anya; Sinclair, Deeny.

It will be an interesting pre-season battle between the two sides separated by three leagues, however, Watford will of course be firm favourites, as Mazzarri looks for his first win as manager.

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