As a very young lad armed with a milk crate I was taken to Whitehart Lane and watched the likes of Gilzean, Greaves, Peters and latterly Chivers. It only seemed like a short drive then and in between taking myself to the Vic the Watford/Spurs thing became part of my DNA, I did try the Arsenal but George Graham ended that! Watford is my team and wherever I have been in the world is the result I look for first thanks to the World Service. SalisburyKev, I used to go and watch Salisbury when they played in Victoria Park but haven't been since they moved to the park and drive! Would love to see a 3 way pre season, preferably in Spain or Italy, I'll drive the bus....
When I was still at home, me and a few mates used to go to Stamford Bridge on non WFC weekends. It was the great cup wining side- Hudson, Harris, Houseman, Hutchinson, basically anyone beginning with H. The contrast to being in a 6-10 thousand crowd at the Vic and a big 50,000 crowd at the Bridge was very exciting at that age. This affiliation wore off quickly through the seventies and nothing of it remains. Got attached to the great Ipswich teams because of Mrs GG and still wish them well. Have to, really. Just wish she'd reciprocate!
The Spurs side that I would see from time to time was like this: Bill Brown Peter Baker Ron Henry Danny Blanchflower (c) Maurice Norman Dave Mackay Cliff Jones John White Bobby Smith Les Allen Terry Dyson There were some very good players in that team, but the real difference is that I needed to look up some of the names to complete the team, whereas I still remember the entire Watford team from the same time.
Would be so much easier if they still played at Victoria Park as is a lot nearer to where I live, but they have decent parking up at the RayMac (where, plenty of parking on another footy pitch), so a mate often drives up, and is only a couple of quid! If that tour happens, count me in!
Forest Green Rovers are based in Nailsworth near Stroud in Gloucestershire. The small town (not village actually ofh) has a population of around 6,600 so is larger than many small towns but considerably smaller than Abbots Langley which considers itself a village. Whichever way you look at it FGR are doing very well to be where they are currently.
The only other team whose results I regularly look out for is that lot up the motorway - but you could hardly call "them" my second team.......
What is the difference between a town and a village I wonder? When I lived on the Oxon/Warks borders we had Shipston-on-Stour, which thought of it's self as a town, but was a lot smaller than the large village of Kidlington. 10 years ago Kidlington had a population of over 13,000, which has grown a lot since then, but the residents had a vote on becoming a town and didn't want to, so it remains a village.
As far as I know the definition of a town used to be that it has a lord mayor, municipal buildings, a magistrates court and a weekly market, don't know if these criteria still apply. A village, on the other hand needs to have a church which forms its own parish and is not part of another - no church and it becomes a hamlet. I was once told that Croxley Green was the largest village in England (pop. 20,000) and Ripon was the smallest City with less than half of this number.
That's what i like to hear. As for the teams you like to see winning - is it anyone who is playing L***n!?!
And that is how it sould be, one team from each country plus your national team. What if (when) we get promoted? Or another 2nd team relegated to our league? not a good situation to have a 2nd team in the same league scheme.
My Grandad in his youth used to go to all the grounds including Swindon, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Fulham, Charlton and of course the mighty Watford when they were in the division 3 south. Thats what i call a football fan.
I'm not sure there would be a conflict of interests if another club which you liked were in the same league as Watford. There is the World of difference between the club you were brought up with, in my case Watford, and another club who you often went to watch because you were geographically located there through work or study. I spent about 3 years watching Port Vale every week, providing Watford themselves were not playing in the north west at the time, but if they (Vale) were promoted twice and had to play Watford then they would just be another opponent to beat. - at least for the duration of the match.
Soft spot for Arsenal at least since Wenger has been in charge and they started playing 'attractive' football compared with their more reknowned style... and Mrs H-F is a card carrying Gooner. And what with Sarries beating the Queens it was indeed an excellent weekend save for the chavs winning at the Emirates So in France it's Lens; Italy it's Lecce; Germany it's St. Pauli. Lens ("Allez les sang et or") and Lecce wear predominantly Yellow and Red colours, though much more red this season apparently...
I got chatting to a Belgian chap at the Phoenix - West Sydney game the other day about 'our' teams. He pointed out that you can change your wife, your nationality, the way you look, but you can never change your football team. I suspect all these extra teams we have talked about could be changed but Watford will never change.
