Totally agree with this. Before GT arrived everyone knew that Watford were a Third Division club. I always thought his greatest achievement was to elevate our 'natural' status by a whole division. Even when we were seemingly established in the First Division it still felt like we were one poor year/manager from going back down (and so it proved) but no further than that. Nowadays I still think we are in that situation but I suppose the challenge for the Pozzos is to emulate GT by elevating us a whole division once again. Pretty difficult in truth.
I'm not so sure we were a Third Division club. Furphy took us up to the second, but we soon sank back down again. We were a club that struggled to stay in the third. I'd say we were looked upon as a 4th division team in the main. About the same sort of size as Orient and I suppose with different twists of fate, the positions of the two clubs could easily have been reversed today.
According to the caption that was with the picture - you are correct! I didn't know what he looked like to be able to confirm if the caption was right so I tried searching for a few pictures, but only a couple of an elderly Frank Jackett came up.
Cheers! But not just me there's others like Jossy who have been very active here recording the clubs history. Another pic here.. of the family terrace. Not sure but i think it might have been taken on the opening day which was the first game of the 83/84 season vs Coventry. Ironically there was a bit of a scrap that day nearby when some Cov fans decided to go in the North West terrace. "Murphy's Mob" soon sorted them out though!
Some more memories..... One of my all time favourite players, Rick Holden. This was during our disappointing 0-3 defeat to Forest in the FA cup in 89. Had we won and then gotten past Man Utd, it would have been us at Hillsborough on that awful day (and very likely given the Leppings Lane end due to our support being no where near as large as Liverpool's): And returning to much more recent history - our favourite pantomime villain Knockaert playing his crucial role in one of the greatest moments ever seen at Vicarage Road: Always wondered who left that flare off...?! All large, high res versions of the above mages can be seen here: http://media.*****images.com/photos...ound-watford-v-picture-id79650153?s=2048x2048 http://media.*****images.com/photos...en-by-anthony-picture-id526001796?s=2048x2048 http://media.*****images.com/photos...en-by-anthony-picture-id526001802?s=2048x2048 http://media.*****images.com/photos...-of-leicester-picture-id168603703?s=2048x2048 http://media.*****images.com/photos...-of-leicester-picture-id168603704?s=2048x2048 http://media.*****images.com/photos/fans-of-watford-light-a-flare-picture-id526002074?s=2048x2048
I don't remember him being particularly tall, but he was quite solid and stocky - not fat at all - and always very neat, usually in a suit. Kenny was a few years older than me, but we were at Holywell at the same time by one year, and I have memories of him and one of his mates (can't remember the name) being very good footballers in the playground, and I remember talking to him on his last day at the school as he went home, though he didn't have a clue who I was. I used to get Christmas cards from him, sort of, when I was a teenager, but that was because Sandra (his first wife) was my sister's best friend, and she knew I was a fan, so she always made sure he signed it. I also knew Sam, his second wife and was responsible for them getting together in some small way. I took her to the Cup Final party, and I am pretty sure that is where they first met. B.stard chatted her up in John Reid's back garden whilst I was on the dance floor with Renata (well, we were on the same dance floor anyway)! Kenny's mum, Sheila, was always lovely, loved talking about the Holywell when she found out I was brought up there, and was very proud of Kenny and Frank.
My sister, like many, says I am talking bulls pooh! And sadly it looks like she is right. Kenny left the Junior school the year before I went up, so I must have been in the infants at the time.
Rare old picture here of Kenny in his Bournehall Rovers junior team days.. i think around 1976. The team was run by Watford scout John Hardy. There are three others in the front row who went on to have professional careers. Anyone know who?
Stuart Pearce is next to kenny...Gary waddock also played there I think but not sure which is him, if any !
I played against Kenny Jackett a few times at school, him for Queens, mefor Grange Park. Also played agsinst Bournehall for Oxhey Jets when he played as did Gary Waddock and Steve McKenzie who scored for Man City in the cup final.
As Teide 1 has just posted i always thought it was Waddock next to kenny and then Stu Pearce? Or is it maybe the other way round? The third player is indeed John Humphrey of Wolves, Charlton & Palace fame.
I vaguely remember John Hardy, but, if you said there was a Watford scout in that picture, I would jave guessed, poorly I suspect, that is Dennis (Nigel's Dad) Gibbs on the far left, mostly because of the jacket and the hair!
They were a pretty special team to have 4 players to have better than average careers in football! 3 of them to be Managers and those 3 to play international football with 129 caps between them!
Continuing the Kenny Jackett theme - Taking on Bryan Robson during our 0-1 defeat in 82: And hurdling the challenge of QPR's Gavin Maguire in another 0-1 defeat during our relegation season 87/88 (Maguire was the player who ended the career of Tottenham's Danny Thomas, so probably just as well Kenny avoided contact here):
Some team photos of the past I stumbled upon - If anybody can name any of the players here - very well done! 2 pictures from the 1960's: And one from 74/75: Can anybody put names to faces?
And three random images - Cliff Holton, 59/60: A well known picture of the demolition of the Shrodells stand - only I managed to find a high res version of it without any watermark (had only seen lower quality versions before): And the team entering the pitch for our 2-2 draw against Shef Wed on 2/2/91:
My favourite ever Watford kit. PS Billy Jennings looks like a movie star! No wonder we had to sell him.
Do you think they're wearing the "Rasta" kit? You can just about make out stripes and the date's good....
Regarding the flare photo had they taken the photo with the other side of the stairs you would have seen me.
Would be this one i think.. That might be the first ever photo of a Watford fc team.. as the club was formed in 1898. That was also the first season of professionalism. The trophy i think is the Herts County cup won by West Herts in 1896/97. Our top scorer that season was the fantastically named "Tuggy Beach"
I think Tuggy Beach might be a resort in Bulgaria Bit of a cad was our Tuggy.. this from the wfc archive.. (From the Uxbridge Gazette, 4 December 1897: “Beach, the ex-Uxbridge player, and now of the West Herts team, had unpleasant experience through fog last Sunday. He had been to Uxbridge and started to walk to Pinner in the evening (and train thence to Watford). When some distance out, and in spite of the brilliant light from a candle he carried, he fell into a deep ditch or culvert and was soaked with water and mud ere he scrambled out. Afterwards, he and his companion tried to retrace their steps and got lost in some fields where, by shouting, they were ultimately found by a country constable who put them on the right track, after having questioned them as to the probability of their being poachers”
View attachment 540 View attachment 541 Aitken, Welbourne, Walley, Eddy, Furphy, Williams, Garvey Scullion, Hale, Slater, Dyson, Lewis. Furphy, Lees, Williams, Packer, Scullion, Walker, Sinclair, Lewis, Green, Endean, Aitken Hale, Garvey, Walley, Eddy, Slater, Garbett, Welbourne, Packer, Owen. Think the mascot is Furphy's son Keith And one from 74/75: View attachment 542 Molloy, Markham, Goodeve, Dalrymple, Rankin, Lees, Jenkins, Woodfield Morrissey, Butler, Jennings, Keen, Bond, Downes, Scullion Morgan, Craker, McGettigan, Walsh, Williams Warrington Hornet - Outstanding work!
Maybe! But the biggest question is - did the fans at the time complain that the kit was awful and just a copy of something else?!!
This one is the era when I started coming weekly and I sat yards away from where this would have been taken, in the front few rows of the Family Enclosure so seeing this angle is tremendously nostalgic. I was in awe of Paul Wilkinson and remember begging my parents for a pair of cycling shorts just like those! If I could have grown a Coton/Wilkinson perm/moustache combo I would have done! Is the number 7 Liburd Henry? [EDIT: Just did a bit of research on oldwatford and realise it was actually Rod Thomas]
The "great escape" Oxford game - pictures courtesy of https://oldwatford.com/ And brief highlights of the game, starting at 57:57:
Indeed. I remember feeling distinctly uncomfortable...however soon forgot when Wilko scored and the drive home was just ridiculously fun.
