Watford FC Historical Photographs/Video Thread

Discussion in 'The Golden Years' started by Stevohorn, Feb 24, 2019.

  1. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Not really, although I would have been there. I’m guessing Lawrie McMenemy would just have been happy his team didn’t lose 7-1! Surprising to see Jimmy Gilligan in the team. This would have been around the time Ross Jenkins stopped being picked, but perhaps there was an injury as well for Armstrong.
     
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  2. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Yes commentary mentions lots of injuries to Jenkins and Armstrong hence Gilligan getting a run in the team. Back in the days when we had youngsters good enough to step in. Gilligan, Allen, Sterling, etc
     
  3. Teide1

    Teide1 Squad Player

    The days of 1-11 shirt numbers and just the one sub.
     
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  4. westbridgfordhornet

    westbridgfordhornet First Year Pro

    Yeah I was there for that one and certainly remember Chris Nicholl handing us that particular victory single-handedly. IIRC he had cut his head earlier hence the headband when he scored. Better known for regularly fracturing his nose. Perhaps owner of the most mis-shapen footballing hooter in those days, seen below in all its glory from his Villa days, rather resembling that wacky lectern our shortlived PM wheeled out for her pair of soppy speeches!

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    Separated at birth!
     
  5. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Sadly a victim of dementia these days. (Chris Nicholl not La Truss.)
     
  6. westbridgfordhornet

    westbridgfordhornet First Year Pro

    Didn't know that I'm afraid Willis. It does seem to be a recurring theme among many sportspeople from that sort of era and why I'm very much in favour of better handling of concussion injuries which football and rugby especially are trying to work through.
     
  7. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    I think he featured briefly in a BBC documentary a few years ago when Shearer was tested for brain injury. (He was clear.) Nicholl was cheery and still remembered his career but was sadly unaware he was failing and thought all was OK.
     
  8. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  9. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    Caroline Gillies recruited from the British Tourist Board and Ed Coan. Caroline the first ever marketing manager at a football club. Unthinkable nowadays. Ed was the friendly PR and press officer who has been in some sort of capacity related to Watford for the last thirty years. Wonderful pair.
     
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  10. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  11. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

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  12. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    1919-20:

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    Image repaired by me. At the Cassio Road Ground, Rickmansworth Road in the background. Long time trainer Jack Coulson at the left and local councillor and Watford FC director George Timberlake on the right. Skilly Williams in the middle.
     
  13. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    The late John Williams with Pat Molloy in the physio room:

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    Pat Molloy was a Lancastrian lad of Irish roots who excelled at a number of sports in his neck of the woods Rossendale. But his footballing abilities were not noticed by any of the then mighty mill town clubs. Instead Pat ended up as a mill worker. Bored byu the nature of the job he decided to to try his luck in the Big Smoke. After enlisting in the Army he ended up a a fairground pugilist but distressed by the death of his best friend in the same art he turned to football. Answering an advertisement for a local amateur team Park Royal he was taken on by Fulham.

    Stints at several clubs notably Stockport whom he helped earn promotion followed with a single wartime appearance for the Hornets. For much of the war Pat was a PTI at the RAF but at it's end was offered a player-manager role at Kettering. Something he had to turn down to ill health. Advised by former mentor the then England manager Walter Winterbottom he like Fred Pagnam took a trip to Turkey. There he took Galatasaray to a league title and on the basis of that success was appointed national manager of Turkey. Returning to England a chance meeting with the current Watford manager of the time Ron Gray saw him take up a role as coach and physio.

    Over time over the period 1951-1976 Pat became more and more a physiotherapist moving down the rung to coach the junior sides and take training sessions at various open spaces around the Borough like Watford Fields opposite the still then extant Benskins Brewery, Harwoods Recreation Ground and of course Cassiobury Park. Pat introduced new training regimes and also brought along several remedies for use on the pitch in a special medical box unlike the usual bucket and sponges of the time. His time at Watford came to end with the arrival of GT although he was present around the squad during the 1977-78 season.

    For his long service he was awarded a benefit match at the end of the season in 1968 against Luton Town and a testimonial in 1973 against a Wolverhampton side featuring Phil Parks, Derek Dougan and Allan Sunderland. Pat passed away in 1993 in St.Albans aged eighty four.
     
  14. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Fascinating. I didn’t know about his time in Turkey, but I did go to Pat Molloy’s testimonial match against Wolves. Testimonials were quite popular back then with fans of smaller clubs because it provided a rare chance, cup ties apart, to see top players appear on their local grounds. I also went to Johnny Williams testimonial against Sheffield United, which gave me the chance to see Tony Currie at Vicarage Road.
     
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  15. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

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    Fingers crossed SEJ will be more in evidence next season. Here he is at the end of the 1978-79 season celebrating another goal in the 4-0 drubbing of Hull City as the club finished second to Graham Turner's Shrewsbury. They were the division's joint top scorers with 83 scored with Swansea. Ross Jenkins was a man transformed by the words, coaching and support of GT and in stepped a youthful Luther Blissett to form a deadly strike duo supplied not at the time by Barnes or Callaghan but Downes and Pritchett.

    Steve Sims had been brought in with John Stirk as the mainstay of the defence while the midfield was incredibly industrious and hard as nails. Booth, Joslyn and Bolton terrified and overwhelmed many teams. A smallish squad with both Stirk and Jenkins playing all fifty eight games that season brought another level of cohesion. Such a pity the team of today lacks not even an ounce of the fight, passion, skill and desire to win of that squad.
     
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  16. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    George Harris at Selhurst Park 17th November 1962

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    Lambeth born left winger who had a prolific scoring record for the club and also at his subsequent side Reading whom he left for after Ken Furphy took over and guided the side to promotion to Division Three. He left according to himself because he was unsure of how Furphy would be as a manager. After having bagged 19 goals in one season for the Hornets and a Player of the Season award he scored 25 for Reading winning the POTS for them that season. He was a great header of the ball (having learnt to this in street football in the borough of Lambeth and playing for Chelsea and Tottenham youth) popping up at the far post from right wing crosses and a consummate penalty taker. His goal scoring record for a winger is yet to be surpassed at the club.
     
  17. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Selhurst looking pretty much the same as it does now.
     
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  18. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Jim McLaren at a foggy Vicarage Road doing his best impersonation of Balanchine choreography:

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    Jim McLaren started out at Stenhousemuir before stints at Bradford and Leicester City where he was pushed out by another Scot Sandy McLaren. He was well liked by the fans at Vicarage Road despite his venerable age of thirty six on debut. He proved to be a more than reliable keeper having played at a much higher level than Division Three South. Indeed during his time at the club where the Boy Barnett rattled in goals for fun Watford were always in contention for promotion to Division Two. Watford travelled to Sunderland in the FA Cup third round the week after this photograph was taken.

    Sunderland riding high in Division One and led on the pitch by formidable striker Raich Carter beat the Brewer's 1-0 at the old Roker Park and it was another thirty two years before the two clubs encountered each other again. Sunderland went on to reach the semifinal where they lost to Clem Stephenson's Huddersfield 3-1. In turn they lost to Preston North End in the final the very first to be televised 1-0 with Gordon Mutch scoring and showing the incredible number of Scots playing in the English league.

    The likeable Scot's last game however turned out to be a disaster. It was another FA Cup third round encounter. On a mudheap at the old White Hart Lane player manager Bill Findlay (yet another Scotsman) tried to play a neat passing game (something Scottish football was known for at the time it having proved instrumental in the revival of Huddersfield for instance with their five Scottish internationals) and instead succumbed to Tottenham's long ball game. The score was 3-0 at half time and finished 7-1. The Boy Barnett having managed to send Len Dunderdale through on goal one one one for a neatly taken consolation. Len Dunderdale had signed at the season's start and ended up leaving at it's end after a very successful scoring stint for Leeds. He returned to the club post war and was very active in the local area as a coach for teams like Sun Sports who played in the County League.

    Findlay never picked McLaren again and he was yet again replaced by another Scotsman John 'Jock' McHugh who had been his constant understudy for the previous five seasons. McHugh also stayed very much in the local football scene as a coach and passed away at the sadly relatively young age of fifty seven in Bushey having remained a keen supporter of the now Hornets.
     
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  19. Teide1

    Teide1 Squad Player

    Corrected for you!
     
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  20. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    I believe the winning goal scorer for Preston in that Cup Final was George Mutch, rather than Gordon.
     
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  21. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    More pictures from Watford FC's June 1983 tour of China:

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
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  22. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Luther Blissett Evening Standard Footballer of the Month for October 1978 with God himself, 06/11/1978:

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    This award was in no small measure due to Luthers exploits against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the League Cup earlier that month. Happier days indeed. Oh for Luther and God at the club now.​
     
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  23. Ilkley

    Ilkley Formerly known as An Ilkley Orn Baht 'at

    Ahh. Happy days. That was my second season supporting Watford.
    A couple of years after this Ian Bolton came to talk about his faith at our church 20s and 30s group. He was such a nice gentle chap. You would never have guessed from that what a robust and passionate player he was.
     
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  24. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    I loved that season. Piles and piles of goals, particularly from Luther and Ross Jenkins, culminating in promotion on the last day.
     
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  25. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Yes a fabulous season...so close to throwing it away until that comeback in the 2nd last game to win 3-2 at SW. Ian Bolton scoring that high pressure pen to win it after missing one a few games earlier allowing Plymouth to come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 and cost us a point. Respect.
     
  26. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

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    Not that well known or perhaps respected for what he achieved at Watford Steve Perryman is of course a Tottenham legend. Jack Petchey brought him in from Brentford (where he had signed Dean Holdsworth a big mistake on our part) with Watford rooted to the foot of the old Division Two. To Steve's credit with very limited funds, an awful training facility he managed to restore confidence in the side with a superb late run of form mirrored the following season that rescued the team from relegation with a game to spare.

    Perryman made some shrewd signings in his time such as Peter Nicholas and Paul Furlong. Then there were the veterans like Luther, Gibbo and Gary Porter, hopes pinned on products from the youth side like Barry Ashby, Jason Soloman and Drysdale that perhaps did not pan out but performed sterling service for a side starved of funds. And others like David James ousting American Tony Meola who did go onto to the international stage. Not forgetting moustached mulletman Paul Wilkinson knocking in goals for fun and for three seasons being the clubs top scorer before moving with Willie Falconer to Boro as Petchey sought to balance the books at the end of Perryman's first season.

    Perryman did not achieve any spectacular success at the club barring the knocking out of the champions Leeds United with David Holdsworth and Drysdale contributing to a 2-1 win. However his mild manner, knowledge and wisdom steered Watford through a very difficult phase in the wake of GT leaving stabilizing the club. He only left when the assistant manager role was offered by former team mate Osvaldo Ardiles at Tottenham.
     
  27. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Nice piece, but I suspect Gary Porter and Nigel Gibbs would have objected to being called “veterans” when Perryman arrived. They were 24 and 25 respectively!
     
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  28. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    I meant to refer to the fact they were seasoned professionals by those ages. I'm sure the pair wouldn't mind having met them numerous times. Gibbo still has his hair cuts at the barbers not too far away from the Vic.
     
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  29. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

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    Steve Terry looking a little worse for wear not with his trademark headband but a woolly hat. Born in Clapton in the East End of London Steve's father Peter was an amateur at Enfield Town and also influenced his son into being a Spurs fan. Steve did have trials at Tottenham and West Ham but these never worked out. He was spotted at Cheshunt by none other than Tom Walley who saw something in the gangling right back and took him under his wing fashioning him into an uncompromising centreback.

    Walley was a magician with the youth team and alongside Terry coming through in the Reserves and debuting at just fifteen was none other than Kenny Jackett. Steve enjoyed the rise of the club up the pyramid making his debut in the penultimate game of the 1979-80 season. With safety assured Watford went down rather tamely 5-0 but it did not deter GT from picking him encouraged by the reports from Walley along with Kenny Jackett and in the thumping of relegated Burnley Cally.

    A dependable performer for several seasons (he started wearing the headband after a nasty gash inflicted by a clash of heads with John Fashanu) notably alongside John McClelland he departed at the end of the 1988 season to Hull City following issues in his personal life and the emergence of David Holdsworth. No doubt the presence of Dennis Booth assistant at Hull, Richard Jobson and Alex Dyer helped the transition and he was yet again a solid and reliable performer when available until the arrival of Stan Ternent and was replaced by Malcolm Shotton. Moving to Northampton for £70000 he was unable to prevent a relegation in his first season with the Cobblers but was part of their attempt's at promotion with the side at times on top in the bottom tier before falling away for the next two seasons.

    In latter years Terry drifted into the non league playing for Enfield where his father had an active role for several seasons.
     
  30. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  31. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

  32. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  33. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    21st May 1999:

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  34. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  35. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    There used to be great camaraderie between the two Scouse teams’ supporters in those days, compared with other local derbies, with fans commonly mixing at the games between the two. This certainly continued up to and beyond the Hillsborough disaster, but in more recent years in the PL era real hatred has been ramped up. The reason for this escapes me because Liverpool’s success has been nowhere near as great as in the 80s.
     
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