Apparently from a Watford Football Annual, 1908/09. "(If it rains) Pay the extra charges for the use of the covered stands, or, if you cannot afford them, get wet like men." please log in to view this image
Recently I finished reading 'Watford Forever". It was an enjoyable read, but I found the large number of errors, inaccuracies and omissions to be annoying. John Preston's main focus was on the relationship between Elton John and Graham Taylor, but he either had an agenda do belittle the rest of Watford's history or had done very little research on the history of the club. The period under Graham Taylor was clearly the most successful era in the history of the club, but - according to John Preston - Watford spent most of the 'sixties in the fourth division, never won the Third Division Championship under Ken Furphy and had always lost to Manchester Utd. before the 2-1 League Cup victory in 1978 when Luther scored two goals. Preston claims that Watford had won only two titles at that time: the Southern League Championship (in 1915) and the Fourth Division (in 1978). I attended the game at Old Trafford with my father in 1969 when Stewart Scullion scored a wonder goal and Watford drew 1-1 with Manchester Utd. and I also watched the 1-0 victory at Swindon which ensured that Watford later became Third Division champions on goal difference. The only reference to Watford's cup run in 1969-70 was that they were beaten 5-1 by Chelsea in the semi-final, but the earlier 1-0 victory over Bill Shankly's Liverpool was not mentioned. There are also plenty of mistakes relating to the Graham Taylor era. For example, Steve Sherwood is described as 'she' (probably poor proof reading) or Preston states that Watford had to win their final game away to Hull in 1979 to ensure promotion to Division Two (although the author does later refer to the crowd at Vicarage Road during that game). I could find no mention of the 8-0 victory over Sunderland in Division One in 1982, which I thought was a surprising omission because it was such a landmark result. The numerous inaccuracies make me wonder about the truth of all that Preston writes about the relationship between Graham Taylor and Elton John. Perhaps he is following in the tradition of Herodotus and other ancient historians, who believed that it was more important to tell a good story rather than to be concerned about reliability.
I thought that it was a worthwhile read despite the many inaccuracies. There were some interesting anecdotes because John Preston spoke both with Elton John and with a number of former players. For example, I was unaware of the difficult relationship between Graham Taylor and Ross Jenkins. The author also included extracts from letters to the Watford Observer and quotes from the late Oliver Phillips. I think that part of the problem is that Preston is not a Watford supporter so he lacks familiarity with much of the club's history. There were also some careless typographical errors (which were not the result of a lack of knowledge about the club's history).
It's true there are a few inaccuracies that would annoy Watford fans, but I thought he captured the essence of the story well and for non-Watford fans coming to the story fresh, it would be engaging. I would have liked more on GT and SEJ's second coming in the 90s, but I understand why it focused on the meteoric rise from Div 4 to Div 1.
I felt also that it was well-written (style, if not accuracy) and captured the essence of that period. I enjoyed it so I went and re-read 'Enjoy the Game' ( Lionel Birnie) .
10th February 1974 - our first game on a Sunday. A red letter day for me too - played my first game of cricket in Australia and took 6 for 1 from two overs. And we still lost... https://oldwatford.com/1974/02/10/10th-february-1974-division-three-york-city-2-watford-2/
Exactly half if you count the two who are now in the EPL. I was sitting reading through the results, wondering who the hell the scorers were - then realised it was a York programme...
Here's a little-known but very pleasing bit of history. On Christmas Day 1942, Watford were playing 'Them Up The Road' at the Kennel in the Wartime League South. We turned up a man short. They let one of their players - Billy Bates - play for us. We won. The victory meant we finished above the filthy Hatters in the League. If you're interested, we've created an audio story around the incident in the latest Hornet Heaven series. It's called 'Half-Back'. Good old Billy Bates. A hero to us, a Judas to them!
And then we proceeded to lose the return fixture the very next day - without good old Billy Bates, who was probably cleaning the Kennel toilets as his penance.
Not football history, but still Watford history - I found this in Facebook and it threw me for a while because of the monstrosity behind the church. Said monstrosity is in Clarendon Road, on the site of what used to be the Sun Alliance building, immediately behind which was the original YMCA - my home for around three years. The changing face of Watford - I'm not sure it's changing for the better. please log in to view this image
When we could score free kicks. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...ter-final-win-v-burnley-2003/#comments-anchor
Not a bad free kick by Glass really. He must be one of the very few, if not only, British players who can say that he ended his playing career playing for Carolina Railhawks...
