In 2011 Lionel Birnie published a book called 100 Greatest Watford Wins. Saturday's win got me thinking, where would recent wins figure? The three that stand out since the book was published are: Leeds 1 Watford 6 Watford 3 Leicester 1 Watford 4 Huddersfield 2 Here's the top 10. The Leicester game has to be a shoe-in for the top 10, but where? 1. Bolton 0 Watford 2 (1999 play off final) 2. Plymouth 0 watford 1 (FA Cup Semi-Final) 3. Levski Spartak 1 Watford 3 (UEFA Cup) 4. (Dirty) Leeds 0 Watford 3 2006 play off final) 5. Man Utd 1 Watford 2 (League Cup) 6. Liverpool 0 Watford 1 (Premier League 1999) 7. Watford 3 Kaiserslautern 0 (UEFA Cup) 8. Watford 2 Everton 0 (1st ever top flight win 1982) 9. L*t*n 0 Watford 4 10. Watford 7 Southampton 1 (League Cup)
It depends on how you define "greatest". Is it in terms of upset, or importance. Numbers 3,5,7 and 10 are clearly great upset wins. Numbers 1 and 4 are the most important financially. The others are of "I was there" importance. There are other matches that are important for other reasons. The 5-1 win against Scunthorpe in the fourth division was important for Ross Jenkins because both he and the fans realised he had a future with Watford after he scored a hat trick. He was seen as a donkey before that.
Best comeback has to be the 4-3 against Bolton. I was at University at the time, and had come home for the weekend as it was my sister's 18th birthday on match day.
Difficult one, we all have our favourites and the wider context has to play a part. The Leicester match certainly had some great moments, not least the stunning finale. For me the greatest win has to be the 3-1 win at Levski Spartak. Quite whether it was the most entertaining or memorable is up for debate but as a win.... When talking about Saturday's triumph over Huddersfield there's several things to consider: the amount of chances created by both sides, some abject officiating, the behind the dressing room doors goings on, the previous season's capitulation, the fact that we played an awfully long time with ten men... for me I have far more personal reasons for this day being so special and in that context there will be no better, sweeter or more satisfying victory ever. Other favourites are missing from Lionel Birnie's list: 3-2 v Tranmere 92-93 (John Aldridge throwing his toys out of the pram); 5-1 v Man Utd; 4-3 away at Peterborough; 1-0 away at Oxford; 5-1 at Tottenham; 4-1 v Cloughies Forest the round after the Southampton 7-1. As Watford fans we are blessed in this respect. Far too much to choose from. Where does anyone start?
Agreed Fez, where does one start. For me the 1-0 win at Swindon, our main rivals for promotion to Div 2, was pretty amazing. Then there are wins that are impressive because we actually won. I'm thinking of the 1-0 win against Grimsby when we scored in the first minute and probably didn't get our of our own half for the next 89 minutes. It's great to have lots of old farts on this forum who actually remember the bad old days of third and fourth division football.
I will never forget the Swindon away game. The game against stoke with the colin franks goal Barry Endean in several games the 8-0 of course.... What was the promotion home game we won with a dodgy goal in off the bar?
I like to split them into 'special nights' - the cup runs - and the 'bread and butter' wins in the League. The game at Swindon was just one of latter from that season for me - two others that stand out were away games played in the same week against teams 4 & 5 in the table, Plymouth and Bournemouth. The win at Plymouth on the Tuesday night was all the more special as we did it without our two talismen, Endean and Scully - and when the teams were announced over the tannoy that neither were playing the whole 16000 or so crowd groaned with disappointment, such was the pulling power of both. The win at Bournemouth the following Saturday brought home the realisation that promotion was ours for the taking - and the old wooden stand for the away fans was swaying for the whole game, packed to the rafters with singing and foot stamping 'Orns.
For me, it woulf have to be the ones when I was there... So; The 2 play off final wins, The Porter hat-trick to comeback against Bolton to win 4-3, 3-1 away to Arsenal in the cup
Not a great win against all odds, but the 8-0 was a truly great win for the sheer élan in the manner that we dismantled a shell shocked team. I was going to add the Plymouth semi final but then noticed it's 2 in LB's list. That was certainly not won with any élan, but what a feeling when big George scored, and the ride down the yellow bedecked M1 in the evening sunshine was like I imagine it'll be approaching the gates of heaven. Whoops, slipped into hyperbole.
I'm astonished noone has mentioned the 1-0 FA cup win over liverpool - 1970 ( after a win over Gordon Banks stoke - that too was impressive). But the liverpool win was against a brilliant team - well until then. I think that after this game Yeats, Lawrence & Stevenson never played for Liverpool again. Ok I'm biased - I was there !
I'm glad someone else mentioned the Arsenal game. Still my favourite ever. Another that stands out for me was when we beat sunderland 2-1 in the 99 promotion season. The atmosphere that day was as good as i can recall it and that really was a hell of a decent Sunderland side..
The Plymouth semi was an awful game tbh My 2 favourites amongst many are from many years ago - 1-0 win over Liverpool in FA Cup '70 which I watched from the Shrodell's family enclosure and the 4-3 win over Luton at home in the FA Cup replay in '84 Both were great games to watch
Glad you mentioned the 4-3 v Luton - it was on my 11th birthday. There was also this important 2-0 home win over Wrexham on 4/5/82.
I enjoyed the bad old days - it is where my Watford experience started in the 60's and although he did not set the world alight I enjoyed watching us under Mike Keen in Division 4. But that could just be as seen through the rose tinted spectacle that came afterwards with GT. I could not have a a top ten that did not include Watford 8 Sunderland 0
I have great memories of the 1970 Liverpool game, partly because I have a faint memory that there is a photo (Wobby, probably) taken from somewhere on the Shrodell's side which shows Endean in mid-leap, and yours truly somewhere in the crowd in the Rookery behind the goal, mouth open, arms half raised, about to proclaim the goal. I've just watched the highlights again, just to check I haven't confused this with being picked up on the BBC cameras. I wasn't, but it was great to watch the game again. Scullion! Boy, what a player. And the pitch- I think we forget how bad pitches were back than, and how we've got used to billiard table green surfaces nowadays. In fact the Classic Cup Encounters DVD does contain a good percentage of games being mentioned in this thread. Think I'll settle back and watch the whole thing again. Mmmmm. Doesn't help, of course, with Bloother's original question, but hey. We have drifted off down memory lane again haven't we?
