Which football player made you start loving football?

I'm having trouble deciding - so have plumped for two from the same Watford team.

George Harris and Charlie Livesey did it for me.

 

Terry Bly in our '59 cup run!

 

Brazil world cup team in 1970... Pele especially and the match with England.
First Watford 1st team game was a 2-1 home defeat to Fulham... a wretched season that was - all I really remember about it was the Fulham 'hards' with their flares, long hair and sideburns in the Vic Road End.

 

Scullion

 

Cliff Holton. He scored from the edge of the box in the first game I saw at Vicarage Road. I've never seen a ball hit so hard. Had the goalie reached it he would only have gone back into the net with the ball! I was captured at that moment for WFC!
Apart from the obvious magic of George Best (who was better than Pele as a) he could tackle and b) he could read the game from a defensive midfield position, and distribute it like Tostao at his finest), I was amazed at the spectacle of Eric Winstanley, a magnificent centre half for Barnsley in blood red (bit like liverpool in 60's) who got fed up with his forwards being so useless when we were winning 2-0 (I think) at Oakwell one evening, went up front and smashed in a hattrick, probably all with his head. As I was a weak left winger, I always admired the powerful players !

 

For Watford Stewart Scullion. Elsewhere Eusebio and Bobby Charlton (always the gent.). On the managerial level Bill Shankly.

 

I think that as a youngster it will always be a player that scores goals, so the very first would have to be Maurice Cook. He didn't compare though with Big Cliff, who brought success to Watford on a scale never seen before, and he was only a part time player.

 

I was there for that too - it was in the 1968/69 promotion year. Barnsley beat us home that season too - the game Brian Owen scored after 9 seconds - and I'm sure Winstanley scored then as well.

 

Maurice Cook gave me a slide rule pass of a pint of lager down the bar in the Odds, Apsley. Great skill.

 

Luther, Cally, Big Ross, Ian Bolton, Studs Joslyn, McClelland, Barnsey, Simmo... and my namesake, of course.

One?

Probably Andy Rankin, I loved his athleticism, his tipping shots over the bar or round the posts. He made me want to become a keeper.

Cloughy as manager, ignoring my first choice of Sir Graham, obviously.

 

If it had been real ale it would have been better.

 

I think my Dad knew Maurice Cook.

 

better or bitter ?

 

Revealing a mild side, SH?

 

When I was young I looked at Kenny Jackett as he was someone born in the town playing for the club. I had an appreciation of just how quick Cally was when I was on his back in a piggy back race at the Family Enclosure Xmas party one year.

 

Well I just got into football as it runs in the family but there were quite a few great players in the early 90s..

We had the likes of Paul Furlong, Gibbsy, David James whilst generally you had generally honest players who played for the love of the game.

 

Ronnie Allen and Derek Kevan, though standing behind the goal at the Hawthorns I was hardly big enough to see over the wall. Ronnie Allen actually burst the ball with a penalty in one of the first games I ever saw...1955 I'd guess.

 

I also remember going up to Barnsley so see us over powered by EW

 

Not a Watford player for me, I fell in love with football watching world cup 1994 and Romario for Brazil in that tournament. Bergkamp when he moved to Arsenal was the other one. Richard Johnson was probably the first Watford player.

 

Stuuuuarrrt Scullliiionn


I have always since then loved wingers....