As you sit there with a glass of mulled wine in your hand, your feet up in front of the wood burning stove, wondering if your sign outside the house requesting Santa to please stop here will be noticed, it is easy to slip back into memories of days at the Vic. I thought we could share the memorable, funny or stupid events that happened in the place we all love to be in when we have a chance. To start you off here is one I remember. Tuesday 11th March 1969 Chasing promotion to the second division for the first time, the Hornets entertained Tranmere Rovers at Vicarage Road. Goals from Barry Endean and Tom Walley helped Watford gain another valuable two points, but the most memorable strike of the evening came from long-serving winger Brian Owen. His shot was blocked by a defender and ballooned above the crossbar towards the back of the Rookery; Rovers’ goalkeeper Jim Cumbes, also a fast bowler for Surrey at the time, jogged behind the goal to retrieve the wayward ball only to be caught out as it stalled in the wind, dropped on the line and bounced off the hard ground into the roof of the net. The goal was Owen’s last for the Hornets before leaving for Colchester at the end of the following season.
This has piqued my interest OFH, if it ballooned over the bar, is it not probable that it crossed the line before being blown back onto the pitch?
Ahh! The "in off the floodlights" goal. i was there. I wasn't there when Scully dribbled round 5 players, then went back and did it all again when scoring against Stockport, but I've heard about the goal so many times that I sometimes think I was.
Yes! I was there - 13yrs old at the time. Keeper thought it was out but wind held it up. If only there was video of it I must be honest, I didn't remember it was this game but remember the goal well!
I was there also and seem to remember that it hit the ground, bounced up, hit the underside of the bar, came down and hit Coombes on the shoulder before going in. But perhaps I am over-egging the pudding. I was also at Prenton Park for the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Terry Garbett, (known as "Blower" to us for his habit of puffing out his cheeks at every opportunity) hit a blinder on the volley with his weaker left foot from, it seemed, about 30 yards past a bemused Coombes. Coombes also played a large part in Tom Walley's goal in a 3-0 win as I recall. Tom got to the bye-line and smacked across a fierce drive more or less along the goal-line which would have gone out of play on the far side, until Coombes stuck out a hand behind him and diverted the ball into his own net. Cue hilarity among the Watford fans just behind the goal. Our Jim was a better bowler than a goalie. We had a sequence of away wins of 2-0 (Rotherham), 4-1 (Barrow!), 5-0 (Gillingham) and 3-0 (Tranmere), whilst the home fixtures in between produced 0-0 (Torquay), 2-0 (Oldham), 1-0 (Brighton) and 0-0 (Orient) until the sequence was broken with a 5-1 win over Rotherham after snow and straw was cleared from the Vicarage Road pitch. Yep we had a strong defence then but our forward line was better away from home. Sounds familiar.
Coventry, 1984. Steve Sherwood punts it long- very long. The wind is behind it, it bounces in front of Cov keeper Ogrizovic, who misjudges badly. The ball bounces over his head and into the net. The Hornets win 2-1. Happy short drive back to north Bucks.
Much more recent but Heidar's goal against Chelsea in the cup in 2004 always makes me giggle.Half the stadium didn't realise it had been given till they started marching back to the halfway line!
Yup, I was there for that one. A couple of coachloads of Orient fans were there too as I recall, their game at Walsall having been called off an hour before kick off. Good banter but the stewards got nervous and moved them elsewhere.
This has been the subject of talk over many a pint Dave. Did it cross the line or not? Did the linesman (still called that then) have the floodlights in his eyes? As I remember everyone stopped and waited to see what the ref would give. No one really knew if it would be a goal or not. Just one of those things that still gets talked about years later.
Overzealous stewarding as I recall. Everyone was having a laugh, they were happy at watching a game. Still, only takes one idiot to spoil it.
Yes great games... .. I always remember the Tranmere game... I was standing on the terrace at the vic road end on the main stand side..... Great days eh....
One of my favourites was against Reading in the League Cup (I think). The fog was so bad that it was hard to see the half way line from the Rookery. We scored at the Vic end and we could hear a cheer coming round the ground. When it reached us we realised that we had scored.
