Part of our history was the team that won promotion to the 3rd division for the first time in the 1959/60 season. Slowly with the sad news today, that part of the club is dying. Many people who remember that era will recite the team from memory, and there is now just the one left. Jimmy Linton d. 2018 Bobby Bell d. 2007 Ken Nicholas d. 2007 George Catleugh d. 1996 Vince McNeice d. 2022 Sammy Chung d. 2022 Mike Benning d. 2019 Dennis Uphill d. 2007 Cliff Holton d. 1996 Barry Hartle Freddie Bunce d.1991
Barry Hartle was before my time - he had moved on to bigger & better things by the time I started going to Vicarage Road - but am sure he played against us in later years for Stockport County. He was near-ever present for them when they did the double over us the year we won the Third Division.
He was one of the ones we had to sell to keep afloat and Sheffield Utd were always prepared to stump up for our better players. It was believed he went there for close on £3,000. He was the creative brains for Holton and Uphill to score the goals that flowed, so it was a surprise to find that after he left Watford he was mainly played as a left winger.
On this day in 1980. I was there - who else was? https://www.watfordfc.com/memorable...jSq_xg_fcQnSQU6GrbW1M813yM-eOgyfUlVq0raKD-W6g
I was there. After the final whistle everyone seemed to have an expression on their face that said that they didn't believe what they had seen. I saw someone I hadn't seen since primary school. We just grinned at each other. I haven't seen him since then. I also saw three Southampton fans, a dad and two boys. I wished them a safe journey home. I got a thanks in response. They seemed as bemused as everyone else. That game was unique.
I was also there, I did not have a voice for about four days after the game. During the first game, I was away with my family, and a family from Southampton was staying at the same place as us. They made the rest of my holiday hell rubbing in the result. I managed to pressure my mother into giving me their home address which she had to send to send them a Christmas card as our holidays used to overlap over a number of years. I sent them a postcard with greetings from Watford on it. Suffice to say I did not get a reply.
I was a 7 year old lad on holiday with my mum and dad in Ibiza My dad had got talking to a couple of Baggies fans and the next morning they told him the result…he didn’t believe them and had to wait until the following day to check the English papers to confirm that the Baggies fans weren’t on a wind-up with him!!!!
I remember a similar reaction after the 8-0 Sunderland... going home on the train from the High St everyone was in a state of happy shock....people who regularly got on the train after matches were all inanley smiling and no one could speak.... great feeling... and yes ... very rare......
I didn't go because my wife was unwell and I had to take her to the doctors The only home game that season that I did not see
That was my last match of an extended stay in England - I flew back to Australia the Monday after - was still so high from the match that I could have flown back without a plane...
And, if I remember rightly, before we opened the scoring Ally McCoist missed two easy chances to score for them. Our side that day was probably the best we have ever fielded - in my opinion. The only weak link, if he could be called that, was a getting-on-in-years Pat Rice - but what his legs lacked in energy his guile and experience more than made up for.
Funny how we remember this game. I have absolutely no memory of the next home game, a 2-2 draw against Norwich, but I will have gone to it.
Funnily enough, the next match I attended was against Norwich - in the lead up to the 1984 FA Cup final. I wish I could forget the 6-1 defeat but sadly can't...