Yes, I was there. Daft thing is that all I really remember about it was thinking, no, believing, no, knowing at half-time that we were going to win the tie never mind just the match. Other than that my mind is a bit of a blank.
Yup, I was there standing on the open Vic Road terrace. I was with 2 of the people I was also in a pub with in Manchester last Saturday!
I was there. After all this time I have no idea why I went as I was living in Roehampton at the time and getting to Watford on public transport was a pain. I have two over-riding memories. One was the bemused grin with which I said, "Hello," to someone I met coming out of the ground who I hadn't seen since primary school. (I have not seen him since!) The other was a man and two children in red and white scarves making their way to their car. I really felt for them. I knew I was going to float home to Roehampton, but they had a long drive back to Southampton. It was one of those very special Watford nights that everyone knew would live in their memories forever.
I was out in London during the day... had forgotten about the game happening .... and when i remembered didn't think it was worth going
I had just returned from a family holiday with my parents. where we were staying there was a family from Southampton who had great delight in ribbing me about the first leg result for the rest of that week. After the second leg I bought a postcard of Watford in Woolworths and sent it to them with just a "greetings from Watford" message on the back. It seemed like sweet revenge at the time for a sixteen year old.
Living in East Kent, no M25, didn't get to games for those few years. Plus I would have been deep in the stress of embarking on a new school year; a new class full of Sheppey-ite horrors to whip into place. Missed it.
Agreed, but not well enough. We showed him how you really take apart a side, to the point where we had to score for them.
I wasn't able to go - I was 7 and didn't go to midweek games. What really annoys me about that is the following season our whole family went to midweek games as we were season ticket holders in the then new Family Enclosure, including my sister who is nearly 3 years younger than me and doesn't even like football.
What is often forgotten in regards to this match, is that in the next round we beat the European champions 4-1.
Did Ross Jenkins get a hat trick in the Forest game? I was at both of those, season ticket holder in the 'New' stand as it was still called! Two things I remember about that game was the sinking feeling when that really unfortunate ricochet off of Steve Sims went in for the own goal, and this young kid Nigel Callaghan coming on and scoring the 6th to put us in front for the first time on aggregate.. really was comic book Roy of the Rovers stuff that night.
