is on Talksport talking to John Motson at 8. Might mention his spell with us under GT. 1st ever goal scorer in the top flight for us wasn't he - against Everton.
So did i.. not the first time when ive seen a former players name come up! Gerry Armstrong's story is an interesting one. He played Gaelic football in his younger days and was a rising star when he got involved in a street fight on the Falls Road. He broke his hand in the incident and played his next GAA game in a cast. He then proceeded to break an opponent's jaw with the cast and received a lengthy ban. During this time he started playing soccer and the rest as they say is history. https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaa...ong-from-croke-park-to-the-world-cup-1007341/ Armstrong was arguably the first Watford player to make an impact on the international scene.. famously scoring against hosts Spain in the 82 World cup. On his return from the World Cup he scored our first ever top flight goal. A somewhat fortunate tap in that can be seen on 4.35 in these highlights.. At least the camera's managed to capture his goal.. unlike Pat Rice scoring our 2nd goal on around 12 minutes (you can see it in the replay) This meant our first two goalscorers at the top level both came from Belfast.
That was the game when Neville Southall in Everton's (they have cropped up a lot recently) goal, staged a sit down at half time as he was so disgusted with something, came out early, sat down in his goal until the 2nd half kicked off!
He was raging at the ref after walking back into the goal following Pat Rice's cross cum shot in the 2nd half (see video above) But i think youre mixing that up with his sit down protest vs Leeds at Goodison in 1990.. https://fearandloathinginls11.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/lufc-images-of-199091/neville-southall/
I remember his protest v Leeds, maybe protest with our one was a bit strong but he definitely came out early and sat down in his goal! all that before conceding the 2nd goal!
20 minutes on MOTD! Must have been before they turned against us. Nice introductory commentary though. Referee bias is there for all to see though. Early in the Lino flagged for a foul on Gerry Armstrong but the ref allowed Everton to play on! And, ‘this is the year Everton fans are hoping that they can emerge from Liverpool’s shadow’ It could be almost any season then!
I'm pretty sure the commentary was ITV's the Big Match, as the commentator was the late Brian Moore, they use to have a 20 minute showing on a Sunday afternoon, of a main match followed by snippets from a few others! I didn't up to now realise we were on that Sunday, I do however remember falling asleep in front of the TV and missing Gerry Armstrong opener on the Saturday MOTD (although I had of course been at the game)
From the 80-81 season, after what was dubbed "Snatch of the Day" the BBC lost their exclusive rights to Saturday night football highlights. MoTD and The Big match then alternated on Saturday evenings season by season. For the 82-83 season The Big Match had the Saturday slot and MoTD had a Sunday afternoon programme. That was the last season for this arrangement.
Gosh you know more than me, have you ever thought on going on Mastermind! Great answer I had forgot they swapped around at that time!
Was it 81-81 "they" came up with the "good idea" of having no TV coverage at all to stop the decline of numbers on the terraces. Also wasn't the Big Match "odd" because the featured game wasn't always from Div 1 (RIP) - it was based on regions? I also seem to remember that SEJ was a reasonably frequent guest on it?
Great watch Steveo, brought back some great memories, have you got any more of these you could post on here? I'm sure not only us oldies would appreciate it, but a lot of our younger fans would probably love to see some of our WFC legends in action rather than just hearing about them. Maybe we could even open a new subject heading specifically for vintage WFC footage etc. What do you say Mods?
Ha! I'm just a fraud really.. good at Googling stuff. There again it does help to have a grounding of general knowledge and i did recall that there was some shifting around at the time. Didn't recall the exact details mind but was able to find that on Wikipedia.
I think a quote in there refutes that: I seem to remember a Paddy (apols) gooner (who was something in GAA in England) friend telling me that Jennings turned up to watch some of the kids matches and was convinced it was his experience ofGaelic that "made" him as a keeper
I had contemplated Jennings (and Frank Hoddinott and Tom Walley) but as far as i know none of them did anything of note internationally. Jennings for instance played just twice for NI while a Hornet and i could be wrong but i dont think that would have been in high profile matches. Armstrong scored on the biggest stage of all so i'd say he was our first international of note.
If you're looking for videos then www.oldwatford.com is a great starting point. Not sure who runs Old Watford but he or she is also posting links to the 100 Greatest Wins countdown from my own site, goldandblack.me. Wherever I've been able to find highlights I've embedded the videos. Old Watford also has a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLc2Mq_4_-Zd26MZxVk8Olw And there's also Stevohorn's YouTube channel here, which has some gems on it: https://www.youtube.com/user/stevohorn And finally Watford Videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHaixtBiF7xfvwMHUdY5xXw This one has all the old season review videos in their entirety. Plenty there to while away a few hours.
Being a bit biased i'd point anyone first in the direction of my own Youtube channel.. https://www.youtube.com/user/stevohorn/videos There's 50 odd clips on there. If we were to start a seperate thread for old match highlights etc it would be best to do that in the "Golden Years" sub forum.. especially as it's all gone a bit stale down there.
Watching the video of our first match in the top division brings home how much the game has changed, now it's so technical which in a way is good, however it takes the excitement out of watching sometimes, or is it just me!
The 1881 season? There was always talk of how TV coverage impacted on match attendance but the only time i recall the football authorities taking any action about it was the blackout for the first part of the 85/86 season.. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...e-big-yin-knew-who-mcavennie-was-2052962.html The Big Match was indeed regionalised.. until 1983. Hence we were the featured game a few times even when down in the lower divisions. Here you will find a list of all the featured games on LWT's Big Match.. http://qprreport.proboards.com/thread/13558 There used to be a website that listed all the matches from all the regions (where that list was taken from) though sadly it doesn't seem to be online anymore.
I remember an abortive attempt at live Friday night football which was late 60s or early 70s. One match was scheduled - Bolton v Newcastle - but I think it may have been pulled before it happened. There were no others. It was called The Big Game and was I think on ITV
Watford v West Ham on Friday, October 28 1983 was supposed to be the first live league game broadcast on BBC1. However, there was a strike among BBC technical staff and so the broadcast was cancelled. Probably best because the game ended 0-0. As a result the first league game to be shown live was Man U v Tottenham on December 16. The fact Watford played that West Ham game on Friday night meant that Graham Taylor could head up to Scotland (with his wife Rita) to watch Partick Thistle v Airdrieonians on the Saturday and it was after seeing him that afternoon that GT decided to take a punt on Partick's striker Maurice Johnston.
Not high profile but his first of those two games was also George Best's NI debut. Both made their debut in the same game, v Wales I think in 1963 (don't quote me on that date though).
Well, Watford were really not like other teams: They payed a fast tempo, while others were playing a crap version of the 'continental' game, keeping possession, etc, lots of back passes to the keeper and so on. The other teams just didn't know what hit them - 2 wingers and 2 centre-forwards, what!? - You can see it in that Everton video, Watford just looking to get the ball forward as early as possible and pressurising the opposition and then 'pressing' (before it was called that) if they lost possession. Based on higher levels of fitness than any other team of the time. I believe GT really was ahead of his time.
April 64 apparently. A 3-2 win in Swansea (Home Champs) The 2nd game for the pair of them was a 3-0 friendly win over Uruguay and i guess that must have been Pat's last NI appearance while a Watford player.
I didn’t remember this but, strangely, there was another Watford/West Ham game affected by a BBC strike. It was the FA Cup game at Upton Park in 1978 and we were excited that it was due to be on MOTD that night. But I think it was the cameramen who were on strike at the last minute and it wasn’t shown.
I also enjoyed the bit that said Everton had had a good season the previous year...when they finished 8th! Nothing new under the sun.