I know what super was getting at he player like a center back scot all blood and guts great play like a few duncan welbourne steve simms all 3 was class in there own way
Born in Bushey , grew up in 'emel . Think I was around 11 when Graham Taylor arrived . Started watching the 'orns in the 4th Division . Doug Brimson lived just around the corner ..and Jeremy Moxey the Wolves C.E.O , same age as me lived across the road . ( wish I had 5% of his money ) . My school ..Halsey in Hemel , won the Herts schools football trophy a couple of seasons running.. When I was around 15 ..Graham Taylor played his entire first team against our first team ...we were defeated 18.1 in a close game , lost count of how many Luther scored ..but it was a fantastic afternoon and great to see all my hero's on our school pitch .
Born in north west Kent but moved to Carpenders Park aged 6 in 1960. Became aware of football gradually over the next four years- remember the 63 & 64 Cup Finals on TV. In October 1964 some class mates from primary school (St Meryl) told me that I should go along to the Vic with them next home game, because it was great. So I did, and it was. No adults with us, just ten year olds out on their own and 'aving a larf. I've said this before, but anyway- when Franchise FC came to MK where I now live, some of my friends said 'I suppose you'll be supporting the Dons now then?' No understanding of what being a true footie fan means. Watford 'til I die!
When AB was our manager they did a meet the fans in stevenage and i told them they need to get the kids early i was then involved in kids football and the Royston crow league had 6000 kid from under 6 to under 18 .Under the then current owners they mucked it up and then did not care because we had just got promoted. As gordon said Watford til i die so get them early
I got to thinking how many professional football matches I have seen live , which have not included Watford. I think it is about five - one England game, one NZ game, two Wellington Phoenix, and Fulham v Huddersfield when I lived in Roehampton. I've seen quite a few semi-professional games, but that is different, somehow
As part of the post-premier league generation, the first team I followed was actually Liverpool. I am from near Kings Langley, but the reason was that the only person I knew who followed a football team supported Liverpool, and as he was a few years older than me he used to give me all his old shirts. Also in the mid 1990s, Liverpool were often live on the BBC playing in the UEFA cup. Like most boys reading Match magazine and collecting football stickers, I bugged my parents to go to an actual game. They took me to see Watford vs Norwich (Vicarage Road was the closest ground), I think in about 1995. It was live on ITV, so in my 8 year old mind that made this game a big deal, I was on the tele! I was sat in the upper Rous, but shouted my little head off whenever I thought the defenders weren't closing down quickly or passing when in possession. I remember the excitement of seeing the pitch for the first time as I came through the turnstiles on the Vicarage Road corner, and the noise of the crowd. Over the next few years my parents (who had no interest in football) continued to take me to the odd game until I had replaced all my red shirts with yellow ones!
My Dad used to work Saturdays so a friend of the Family (Pat Glen) used to take me to Watford with his son, we were both. We lived in Borehamwood and my Dad was An Arsenal supporter. I however think it was love at first sight, even when I was 12 and moved to Welling in Kent I used to go to all the Watford home games. My mate (a Watford convert) and I used to get a red rover and using the same bus routes each week eventually got the journey down to just over two hours. I have reminisced on various other threads but having supported them from 3rd Division South, founder members of 4th Division, Promotion under Ken Furphy, Following Sir Elton John's Dream, both eras of GT, and now these last few years under Pozzo ownership I can say I have loved every minute. So finally thank you so much Pat for introducing to Watford and thank you Watord for welcoming into your family. From a very proud Hornet.
South Oxhey! Dad was a Millwall follower. He was a shop manager (Burton's when they were proper tailors) so he would take me to the Combination games in the midweek. A neighbour took me to my first home match, a 2-1 home defeat to Fulham. Dad changed jobs when Burton's really started to go down the pan in the mid 70's and he took me to Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, QPR (several times more than the others), Spurs... and he refused to take me to Millwall or West Ham which given the era and the travel was hardly surprising. There was no passion in it for me at any of these places, I just wasn't feeling it. So, when asked who I did want to see the answer was simple: we live in Watford, let's go and see them as you took me to the reserves. "Watford? They're 17th in the 4th Division son!" in sheer exasperation. We beat Huddersfield 2-0. The next season Graham Taylor arrived and the rest, as they say, is history.
Grew up in Amersham and up until the age of 11 was a Man U 'fan'. First match was Oct 1981 against Norwich 3-0. Was taken by a friend's dad to the Man U FA cup 3rd round tie on (I think) 2nd Jan 1982. On the way home in the car I decided Watford were the team for me. Was there on the pitch v Wrexham for the promotion and never looked back since. Suppose I was lucky with the timing really. When I was old enough went home and away through the mid to late 80s before I went away as a student. Now live 90 miles away with young family but go when I can. Going on Saturday with my 6 year old son so will hopefully be a great day out that he'll remember forever too.
Was born in Watford and grew up in Croxley. I went to my first match around 67, initially with my Dad who was a Scunthorpe Utd fan and was going on my own soon after. So this moved into the Furphy era, the most impressionable period for me. The promotion season and cup run of the following year are printed in my memory as if they were yesterday. Since those times I have lived in East Anglia, Stoke on Trent and in Somerset (for about 12 years) before moving to Germany (Initially Hamburg) in 1989. I confess to having watched other teams in the areas that I have lived in (Including St. Pauli) but the feeling for Watford is something entirely different. Maybe because most of my life has been spent away from the town, following from a distance, when I go back now I feel like a boy again. My wife cannot understand that when a football fan is walking towards a football stadium that something mystic and awesome is happening similar to a believer going to a place of worship.
I was born in the shrodells wing of Watford General, and so I suppose it follows that I had yellow blood flowing through my veins... My dad tells me my first match was when I was around 6 so 1978-79. To be honest I have no recollection of the game or who we were playing, but I do remember doing a mighty fine job of picking out the moss on the terrace steps and creating a god awful mess that I presume some poor youth team player would have to clear up. The earliest real recollection of supporting Watford was the season we first got promotion to Div 1 in 1981-82, I went to a few games that season and remember my dad lifting me over the turnstiles with the wooden stool he had made for me to stand on. We duly took our places in the vicarage road terrace in front of the old scoreboard and I recall being given an endless supply of foxes glacier mints by one of the supporters that my dad knew. I remember that the terrace really rocked when we scored and a number times felt as though me and my stool would be carried right onto the pitch. The next season was amazing with so many great games and results. My abiding memory is us winning the last game v Liverpool and then finding out we had come second in the league. The elation, of being the second best team in England ahead of Spurs, Arsenal, Manure etc, as a ten year old was unbelievable. As I got older school, uni and other things including my own football 'career' meant I didn't get to Watford very often, but the pain when we lost still ruined my weekend and other days until we had a chance to put it right. I am now a season ticket holder with my two boys, and come up from Brighton (it amazes me how many horns live in Sussex) for home matches. My wife hates the fact that although my boys are Born and Bred Brighton, they support Watford and they themselves have yellow blood. I had the chance of tickets in the Brighton end last Sat and asked my eldest if he wanted to go, thinking this would test his resolve (he gets a lot of stick from his classmates for supporting the golden boys), initially he said he wanted to go but in the morning he came up to me and said..." I don't think it is right for us to sit with the Brighton fans I don't want to support Brighton I want to cheer Watford!! What happens if Deeney or Matty (matej) score I won't be able to cheer." We didn't end up going as I don't think I could have trusted myself either It has never ever crossed my mind to support anyone other than the golden boys, and to this day as a 41 year it has an effect on the highs and lows in my life. Now there are two more boys who are "Watford 'til I die" - I wonder how they will remember their first watford experiences and the reason why they started supporting watford, one thing is for sure they had a great introduction with the football Zola had us playing. So many memories (FA cup semi v Plymouth, Tony Cotons debut conceding 5 goals v Everton, UEFA cup matches), albeit less than some of the other posts on here who really did experience the full effect of the first coming of God - hopefully more to come, starting Saturday
And I think I may be right in thinking that that was the game we had two sent off when the score was 0-0...
I went on two exchange trips to Hamburg and I am the proud owner of two St Pauli shirts. As an aside also a Lens shirt of a yellow and red stripes variety... allez les sang et or
I am sure that I contributed something along these lines several years ago, but it will no doubt come out differently this time. I was also brought up in Bushey and lived there until I was married in 1964. In 1950 a friend of the family asked if I would like to go with him to watch Watford. My father had no interest in any sport, but had to work Saturdays anyway. Taking me into the Vicarage Road end he put me at the bottom of the terrace so that I could watch through the railings across the dog track. I was hooked and asked if he would take me again the next Saturday. "No game next Saturday, but there will be one in two weeks if you really want to go again" I wanted to go, and wondered if I could last two whole weeks without it. Several more visits, then the bombshell. There might not be any football next season as the club have to apply for re-election. Well after that the only way was up. By the time I was thirteen I needed to find a way of fueling what had become an addiction. So I found a paper round that paid me 10/- for a seven day week. It was the round that no one wanted as it was spread out so far, with countless papers to be delivered to an old people's home, a trip into Oxhey for a couple of houses, the two masonic schools with papers and magazines for the masters, then a few outlying houses in Bushey. Thursday gave you an insight into what was going on at the football club when the West Herts Post was published, but the weight on my handle bars increased greatly on a Friday when the Watford Observer with far greater coverage of the football club came out. If something of importance was happening at the club I was late getting the papers delivered as I would stop and have a read before putting them through the letter boxes. I had quite a long wait from those early days for the first real excitement of the Holton era. I find that I can still recite the team names from our promotion season, whereas I might have trouble telling you who played last month. My to be wife suffered some terrible afternoons stood with me on the old near deserted Rookery terrace, on the promise that we would go into town after the game for something to eat, then a visit to the Palace Theatre where Jimmy Perry ran the repertory company. After I was married and moved away it curtailed my visits to the Vic somewhat, but with parents still living in the area we did manage some games each season by planning our visits when there was a home game. Today when I can plan a visit, the walk to the ground also takes me back to the years when I would join the throng going in hope and expectation rather than certainty. Strangely enough it was only about ten years ago that I discovered that my maternal grand father is buried in the Vicarage Road cemetery, so these days as I walk past the wall, I feel he has kept my connection with the club unending.
Great recollections OFH. My earliest memories of Vicarage Road in the late 50's was going to the greyhound racing (dogs) with my father who must have been slightly dodgy as there were often instances of deliberately slowing dogs or speeding them up with pills. I remember making a hasty exit on more than one occasion. I also recall a greyhound that was blacked up with shoe polish so it resembled another dog before entering it into a race. It was a bit like peaky blinders without the dodgy haircuts!!
Where I lived in Hamburg (Ottensen) was 5 km. away from St.Pauli's stadium and about the same from Hamburg SV. From our house you could hear Pauli's 25,000 as if it were next door - in contrast the 60,000 at Hamburg SV sounded like church mice.
HHTFC, judging by what you've said, I'm just a few months older than you. Were you a member of the Junior Hornets, and if you were, did you go on any of the JH special away trips? Two that stick in the mind are Palace where we had burgers and beans for lunch with the Junior Eagles, and Leeds in October 88 where we were in their Family Enclosure at their request - we still had to pay for our tickets, but we were the first away fans to be allowed in that area of Elland Road
W Which school did you go to, Cologne? I went to Ricky School. I think we are about the same generation.
