On This Day...

17 years ago we drew 1-1 with Inter Milan at the Vic. The programme was issued for both this and another friendly against Chievo which was played 5 days later which we won 2-1.



https://oldwatford.com/2006/08/08/8th-august-2006-friendly-watford-1-inter-milan-1/

 

Remembering Jimmy Davis who died 20 years ago today. RIP.



https://oldwatford.com/2003/08/09/9-august-2003/

 

They played Gangster’s Paradise in the buildup to kickoff against QPR. I thought it odd at the time, but maybe it was because of the 20th anniversary. Can’t believe it was that long ago.

 

I remember the Davis incident very well. I was up at Manchester Uni at the time and was coming back down for the game, and ironically passed the spot on the M40 I believe where his accident happened without even realising it at the time. As I was at Manchester the double irony was we had Davis and Webber on loan from Utd that season who I couldn't wait to see and was really excited about. Sadly for Jimmy it was not to be, I think this affected Webber quite badly too as they were mates.

 

I remember the Chievo friendly, Amauri scored one of the best goals I've seen at Vicarage Road - rained so heavily during the game that the dip in the road near Harwoods Park was underwater. Fans had to climb sideways along the park fence to get across.

 

I remember thinking on Saturday that it was odd we were playing Gangsta's Paradise and even thought of Jimmy and the 03/04 season but didn't make the connection as to why we were playing it until today.

 

I remember Jimmy Davis when he played at Aldershot in a pre season friendly 3-0 win. Was a class apart, and also one of the few players who stopped to talk to the fans. Can't have been more than a week or two before he died. Very sad.

 

Watford played and trained in Finland during the summer before the season and Jimmy was very exiting prospect for the season. He was pick of the players during those friendlies.

 

On this day 10 years ago we thrashed AFC Bournemouth 6-1. Unfortunately this would be one of the few high points in a disappointing season.



https://oldwatford.com/2013/08/10/10th-august-2013-championship-watford-6-afc-bournemouth-1/

 

On this day 39 years ago goals from John Barnes, Mo Johnston and George Reilly saw us win 4-2 at Linfield in a friendly.



https://oldwatford.com/1984/08/11/11th-august-1984-friendly-linfield-2-watford-4/

 

I remember getting chatting to some Bournemouth fans in the pub before this game. They were delighted to be in the Champo and were there to enjoy the ride.

I left thinking, ‘what a good set of fans, I hope they stay up’.

Like a Dan Brown chapter ending, little did I know what was going to happen.

 

They always used to be a team I think we respected. The fact Luther played for them and they loved him as much as we did. Also the dignity of their players and fans before the first game we played after Jimmy died. But as you say little did we know.

 

Looks like Billy McKinlay on the right

 

Mods, can you close this thread, please. It's making me feel old

 

I think the 'bad feeling' towards Muff was also from that same season! The game at their hovel that ended 1-1. If memory serves, they were awarded two suspect penalties (the second a blatant dive) and someone was sent off? Might've been Angella? Gutsy second half performance with 10 men to escape with a point but there was a lot of anger in the away end with Muff's antics. Was just a pre-cursor to following games against them where the same thing happened!!

 

On this day 45 years ago we beat Brentford 4-0 in a First Round First Leg League Cup tie.


https://oldwatford.com/1978/08/12/12th-august-1978-league-cup-1st-round-1st-leg-watford-4-brentford-0/

 

GT's first competitive game in charge of us on this day 46 years ago as we beat Reading 2-1 in the first leg of the League Cup First Round.


https://oldwatford.com/1977/08/13/13th-august-1977-league-cup-first-round-first-leg-watford-2-reading-1/

 

On this day 24 years ago with Chris Day playing brilliantly in goal and Tommy Mooney scoring we won at Anfield.



https://oldwatford.com/1999/08/14/14th-august-1999-premier-league-liverpool-0-watford-1/

 

I've only just discovered it but I really do recommend having a look at the oldwatford.com site. It's full of interesting WFC stuff, looks brilliant and is easy to navigate - a big plus for easily confused old duffers like me. Hats off to everyone who took what must have been a considerable amount of time to put it together

 

Thanks for your kind comments Lloyd. Especially appreciated as its a one man operation with two scanners and a rather large programme collection!

 

I have that programme!

And that one!

Nostalgia,not what it was!

 

I was on holiday in Italy with my family for this one (Amalfi coast if I remember rightly), gutted to be away from the UK. I remember looking up the score on some patchy teletext in a random room I found a TV in the hotel. As was usual the teletext was all broken up and I saw we had scored 1 through Mooney but couldn't see what Liverpool had. Naturally I assumed they had at least 2 or 3, cue my surprise when the teletext briefly righted itself and saw it was Liverpool 0-1 Watford. I think the whole of the hotel heard my shout of triumph! The Sprite 16 year old me drank that evening never tasted so sweet.

 

On this day 53 years ago we beat Blackburn 2-1 in the opening game of our second ever campaign in Division Two. Manager Ken Furphy ensured once again that we avoided relegation but left at the end of the season to take over at Ewood Park.



https://oldwatford.com/1970/08/15/15th-august-1970-division-2-watford-2-blackburn-rovers-1/

 

Decimalisation happened in Feb 1971, so interesting to see the price of the programme six months ahead showed as 1 shilling with the decimal equivalent.

 

The WFC marketing department should definitely revive the scowling Hornet logo

 

Always seemed bizarre to rank clubs by "goal average" rather than "goal difference". I don't understand why anyone ever thought that more complicated method was in any way a fairer way to order a league table.

 

True but goal average was used for a very long time. Everyone would agree goal difference is better, clearer and easily calculated in your head; so I don't get why it wasn't used earlier than it was (I think GD was first used from 79/80).

Goal difference rewards attacking teams who score a lot and goal average rewarded defensively disciplined teams who conceded fewer. I don't know the real reason GA was used in the outset but I would hazard a guess that in the late 19th century teams would play a 1-1-8 formation and the authorities felt that teams who conceded fewer was the answer to encouraging lower football scores. The problem with it was that winning 1-0 was technically infinitely better than winning 5-1.

The main problem that I can see is this, two attacking teams do well over the season and defend well. So come May the league championship could be decided by GA.

Consider Team A, they score 80 and concede 35, that's a healthy +45 in GD.
Team B on the other hand score 78 and concede 34, giving a GD of +44 and as such Team A win the league with a better GD of +1 and everyone would agree it's fair. Had Team B scored one more or Team conceded one less then there equal GD currently means that Team A would win on goals scored.

Using those numbers Team B would have won on GA, because 78/34 is higher than 80/35.

Effectively under GD you can improve your chances of being one place higher than a rival because in a few games you put 4 or 5 goals away, under GA you could lose out because in one game Team A are 5-0 up and let up in the last 5 minutes and concede 1.

 

As a final point, I'm sure a number of fans remember the final match of the 88/89 season. Due to the Hillsborough disaster the last league game was Arsenal's visit to Liverpool. Prior to the match Liverpool had 3 points and a GD of +4 more than Arsenal, but Arsenal had scored more so any 2 goal Arsenal win would have given them the Championship. Which it did by a last minute goal to make it 2-0.

Had Goal Average still been a thing according to this table, Arsenal would have had to have won 5-0 to take the title!

 

On this day 35 years ago we celebrated Luther's testimonial with a 3-1 win over our friends up the road.

https://oldwatford.com/1988/08/16/1...blissetts-testimonial-watford-3-luton-town-1/

 

I went to this game, sat in the Upper 'Rous' as it was (think the Lower Rous was closed). I used to love midweek games as a kid because it meant I got to stay up late. My folks were separated so me and my brother would be waiting at the front door for my dad's car to pull up and we'd then excitedly dash out down the garden path.

The thing I remember most about the match was Barnes playing. In the pre-internet days there wasn't a lot of information available for games, especially friendlies/testimonials, so we all remarked they'd got the programme wrong. Cue much confusion when Barnes ran out with the team for the start of the match.

The other thing that stood out is that with Barnes playing we were actually very poor. It turned out he'd been given special permission by Dalglish to play the first half on the basis he 'took it easy' as they needed him for Saturday's Charity Shield (in fairness, can you imagine in today's game someone like Klopp letting Salah play for another team on a Tuesday when they were playing 4 days later!)

Rick Holden started the second half in his place and we immediately looked much better and recovered from a 0-1 half-time deficit to win 3-1 (think Wilkinson might have got a couple, or possibly Glyn Hodges).

The daft things you remember.

 

A rare sighting of the legendary Stuart Rimmer there!

 

On this day 39 years ago we met Barcelona in a friendly in Majorca going down 2-1.



https://oldwatford.com/1984/08/17/17th-august-1984-friendly-barcelona-2-watford-1/