Yes remembering hearing that and actually Liverpool fans probably see Man U as their big rivals now? Maybe it's because Everton haven't been up there with Liverpool and feel they are looked down on by the neighbours. Having an official song with words including "We don't care about the red sh**e" probably doesn't help! TBH I wasn't really aware Man U and Man City had a history of trouble between them hence the "earlier" kick-off time. Suppose that is what social media and some forums do to people these days.
Watford Legends Sir Elton John and Luther Blissett wonder what happened to their wallets after this snap.
Keith Mercer aged 16 a member of Watford Youth and still at school just prior to being called up for his first match against Tranmere Rovers in February 1973. Keith ended up at Blackpool and became a Tangerine man. Two legends of the club and defensive stalwarts at Hillsborough at the start of the 85/86 season. John McClelland and Tony Coton.
Newcastle United players (in stripes) attack the Watford goal during an FA Cup, 3rd round match at Vicarage Road 23rd February 1924. Newcastle won 1-0 after a goal by Stan Seymour: 1909 forward Fred Cleaver: Tony Coton saves from Craig Johnston of Liverpool First Division Vicarage Road, Watford, 1984: Jay Demerit heads in Watford first goal at the Millenium Stadium in the Championship Playoff Final, Cardiff 21st May 2006:
Keith Mercer had to get permission and the afternoon off school, travelled on the coach to Tranmere and at 16 years and 125 days became the youngest player to play for us when he came on in the 2nd half!, it was a Friday evening game!
Pat Jennings has statue dedicated in Newry his home town. https://twitter.com/JustinMcNu1ty/status/1722250976319709448
Loved Keith Mercer. So committed, so brave, great striker, his bravery ultimately costing him his future with us after bravely scoring a cup game vs Colchester or gillingham.
Talking of ex-managers at the Cup Final; on the staff coach, heading back along the streets of Wembley after the game, Les Simmons (legendary groundsman) spotted Mike Keen walking home and tried to wave him on board, with all of us eaagerly encouraging him. Mike waved with a big grin on his face, but refused the offer.
I don't know if this has been posted before but this just popped up on X: Their No 5 sounds like he could be useful.
GT’s best day at Wembley . https://x.com/WatfordFC/status/1928723125211996602 A wonderful ending to a fantastic unexpected season.
Above is a picture of some local Watford fans from 1926 in the East Stand. All very formally dressed in the fashion of the time & all long gone now sadly. You never know a relation of yours may be in that picture. Mostly men but several women too. There is one connection to the Watford of that period who is still part of the team. Young Jack Grieves out on loan at Ross County & sparingly used there. His great grandfather was Reg 'Skilly' Williams a Watford lad was a legendary player for the club (record number of appearances as a keeper). His son Reg Junior played for Watford at left back & then for Chelsea. Skilly's grandson Danny Grieves father of Jack didn't make the grade & neither did another grandson Grant Cornock at Watford though both showed great initial promise. Grant's focus on nghtclubs & Paradise Lost not Milton's book is part of the reason for that. He played alongside the great Tommy Smith in the same youth side. At the time the above picture was taken it would have been Skilly Williams last season 1925-26. The other is a photograph I dug up & cleaned of a match at Vicarage Road. In the background in what is now the Graham Taylor stand is the old East Stand that was transported from West Herts Sports Club which was where Watford after a merger of two local clubs used to play. Behind that are the chimney stacks of the old Shrodells hospital now part of a decaying Watford General Hospital & gardens & former Victorian workhouse. Back in the day motorcycle football used to be very popular especially after WW1 where there was an excess of former military bikes. Today there are two teams left & there was an exhibition of the sport at Brooklands. It's pretty much the same as football but riding a motorbike with the keepers the only unmounted players & an exclusion area around the net for obvious reasons. I expect the bikes would have made the groundsman's life a nightmare but then again pitches were often either baking hard or mudheaps.
I’m struggling to reconcile that stand in the second picture with the one I knew as the Shrodells stand from my first visit in 1970 until its demolition in 1986. It looks the same except that In the picture it is much lower to the pitch level because, during my time, there was a terrace in front of it where I stood. This then became bolt-on seating in 1980, causing me to move along to the North-West terrace where the gap is in the picture. Was there some major excavation or levelling that took place to enable the terracing to be constructed? Here it is post-1980.
This popped up on my YouTube feed yesterday. It’s an old Big Match Revisited with a long forgotten match v Newport from GT’s first promotion season with Watford in 1977-78. It’s worth a look for those who haven’t seen it if only for a pretty good quality look at Vicarage Road from nearly half a century ago. Highlights include: the dog track still being in place (!), a typically brave headed goal from Keith Mercer, a very young Luther coming on as sub and Gary Plumley (the fall guy in the ‘87 Cup semi ten years later) playing in goal for Newport. Oh, and Watford looking very smart in a strip with black shorts and socks. Afterwards there is also an interesting interview with both the young GT and Elton, who claims he had given up drinking!
I'd been looking for these highlights for years as I was sure it had been televised. As you say Gary Plumley in goal. Vague recollection (not watched it yet !) that he played quite well which might have been part of the encouragement for GT 10 years later ...?
I remember the excitement of being able to watch, for the first time, the highlights on TV of a game that I’d been to. …and Plumley made a terrible mistake to gift us the 2nd goal ….and wasn’t great for the first !!
Great find there Willis. Didn't make that match as I'd not long headed off to college and was already revising for December exams. Try telling the youngsters of today...insert an old bore's reminiscences here... etc etc. But you missed my 2 favourite takes from your highlights. How wonderful to see the great Roger Fitzpatrick reffing in looks and character as Mr Pickwick (mutton chops prominent) and nearly creating a goal for the woeful Newport County through nodding off at a corner. And GT's lurid orange waterproofs when he sat on the bench. I gather them up the M1 adopted THAT colour initially from 1973. Did no-one advise him - as a recent incomer from Lincoln - that this was not on?!
Kirkpatrick had a novel way of ensuring the defensive wall was 10 yards back at free kicks. He’d measure the distance by walking straight at the wall whilst counting the 10 steps and if he reached the wall before he’d finished he simply marched them backwards with him.
Interesting. I too have always been told the stand came from Cassio Road and that the basic structure had never changed. Indeed the authoritative voice on football architecture, Simon Inglis, writes as such. (As a tangent, if those lovers of football grounds have never read Simon Inglis' work, then get a copy of his first edition "Football Grounds of England and Wales" from 1983 off Ebay and revel in a glorious read of all 92 pre Taylor Report stadiums of the day.) To me: the stand in Smudger's motorbike picture could be a mistake in that it is not Vicarage Road. Most puzzling in my mind is that the brick workhouse, later hospital, building I thought predates the 1920s and is missing from behind the stand in his picture but clearly evident in yours rising above as many of us will remember. However, knowing Smudger's long standing input into this forum I have been trying to work out how to reconcile what we see if assuming the picture is correct. In this case the only thought I have is that possibly this is the same base and location of the stand we knew growing up. However the roof is definitely a later upgrade (see pitch and pillar spacing) and that at some point prior to the 70s the division between the seats under the roof and the paddock below (was terrace, then seats) was created. On balance, I believe the two pictures are not of the same location.
I think these two pictures do prove your point WWTW. First is from just before the move to The Vic, the second just a few years after. The background of the mass of workhouse/hospital buildings, and in particular the location of the chimney, do not match the motorbike picture being the old Shroedells Stand. But Smudger, please don't let this put you off your excellent work in this thread. I for one love reading your contributions. ST
I am now of course going to lose many hours of my Sunday trying to work out where the motorbike picture is from exactly. At least I dont have to buy the Sunday Times today purely to do the "where was I" puzzle.
Good work! Case proved, I think. Just one last thing: although your second photo is very blurry, it still looks as though the drop from the bottom of the stand (where the pillars end) to the pitch is smaller than shown in my later picture from the 80s. I still wonder if some excavation or levelling took place when the terrace I stood on there was put in place.
