Ah OFH yes Rodney Green, the original Super Sub. I went to the away game at Gillingham in January that promotion year, It was 0-0 at Half Time, with about 25 minutes to go on came ROD-DER-NEE who scored from a corner with his first touch, the flood gates then opened and we won 5-0 with Barry Endean scoring a hat trick. Mickey, Mickey Walker was also a hero that year I think he broke the record for the number of clean sheets in one season, I'm sure he didn't let in a goal for more than half of our games that season.
I think you're right - we only conceded 34 League goals that season, and 22 of those were scored in 9 matches. 10 of those came from Stockport and Barnsley...
I have mixed feelings about wanting these precious memories to have been recorded. Too often I have been to matches, seen goals, incidents etc. live then on TV and over the following years it is the recorded version that I tend to remember not my actual experience. When I remember Endean's goal against Liverpool it is from the camera angle above the Shrodell's stand, Lugg's nutmeg and cross, Endean's header off Lawrence's hand from that angle. It takes a real effort to visualise the goal from my position in the LH side of the Rookery. Of course none of this helps those who weren't there.....
...and 5 of those from Eric Bloody Winstanley - 2 at Vicarage Road and 3 at Oakwell after we'd helped the Barnsley groundstaff fork the pitch to get the game played!
Some of you with better memories than me may be able to remember how many W Watford players we had in the same team. Could look it up I suppose but I remember Walker, Welbourne, Walley,Wiggs, Wood at the very least but canot remember how far they overlapped - I just remember as a youngster thinking I wonder if we can field a team consisting only of players beginning with a W. Again I am sure it would be possible by crossing eras to do that.
I remember the cross coming over, I was almost in line with it, and Endean rising and meeting it perfectly. i got carried a step or three down the Rookery by the surge as it went in. They were wide steps, too. As you say it's only in hindsight I remember the build up, especially Ray Lugg's nutmeg, as seen from the Shrodells.
Oxford away - who knows when - the wall behind one goal had collapsed so bales of hay were used to keep the supporters from spilling onto the pitch. Mick Walker made the most amazing save I have ever seen. It was way better than the Banks save in Mexico. He was by one post. The ball was crossed over him and an Oxford player headed the ball down from two or three yards towards the other post. Walker dived backwards, across the goal, and tip the header away. The whole thing defied physics.
I can really only remember it from the Rookery - it seemed to me that Endean was horizontal to the ground & about head height next to Geoff Strong (?) when he connected. The Flying Pig in goal had no chance... Have viewed clips of it plenty of times, but never in colour - and just stumbled across this one..
Great clip BB..... and didn't we have lovely pitches in those days! Pitches have certainly improved over recent years
I think that was the cup match early in 1971 - only a couple of weeks after the Ibrox Stadium disaster. His save was a wasted effort though - a 1-1 draw and we lost the replay four days later...
I do know who caused the crowd to surge and the wall to collapse. But I'm not saying - and it was not me......
Woodfield played (admittedly only very briefly) in one match in 71-72 with the first 5 - Woods was missing that day. We also had a Watt and another Walker (Paul) play during that ill-fated season.
Barry Endean was straight out of a boy's comic. Offered the chance to play for Everton, but was homesick and left the club. Spotted playing for his local pub he was offered the chance to play for Watford where he scored goals because no one seemed to know what he would do next. In two seasons he became a bit of a legend before the need to cash in meant that he was sold to Charlton. After only nine years his life as a footballer finished at Hartlepool United, yet no one from Watford will ever hold him in anything but the highest regard for giving us such great entertainment
I can remember that as well - we were all crammed onto the London Road End at the time. So many memories on here - there must have been quite a lot of us then behind the goal at the Stoke and Liverpool games. We could have been stood next to each other - and now over 40 years later we're all communicating using weird, then unknown, names using a medium which we could never have dreamed of then. Thanks for all the memories Ken.
I wasn't aware of what any of the managers or players before GT came were like, as my first game was in March 78. That was until I read the Centenary Book and Ken Furphy seemed so different from any of the other managers we'd had before, I just wish I'd been able to see a WFC team under his leadership play. RIP Ken Furphy and thank you for the memories you gave to those who are able to tell the stories to the fans who were born after your time at the club.
Barry, you have to remember that back then we were supporters of a smallish local football team in a bit of a rundown ground with a greyhound flapper track around the pitch. Most of us used to stand on terraces that was really a mud slope that had been covered in clinkers (remains of coke - not the drink but a coal product) to give you a grip. We had one stand (which has just been pulled down and rebuilt) we supported a team in league division three south. We were that good we became founder members of the Fourth Division. We saw Watford lose more games than they won but we supported them week in and week out. Suddenly we had Ken Furphy, as a modern manager who started to build a team, he also started to build a dream for us all, that maybe one day we could achieve something. I wonder if a young Reg Dwight stood with us on those clinkers and started his dream for the club too. Then the impossible happened, promotion, okay we went down again a few seasons later but our cup runs kept our dreams alive and we achieved more than I ever hoped for but having achieved it want more. I still get the same thrill every time I enter those gates and feel my fellow hornets around me and see our new posh stand. Pride in my team. Don't worry Barry about when your memories started, enjoy our stories, tell yours to those younger than you, just remember we all live the same dream. Come on you 'orns !!!
Good post Charlie. Barry had me thinking about the misery I had been through mainly before Ken finally won us promotion to the 2nd division. 1950 Ron Gray We applied for re-election having finished 23rd in Divison 3 (South) 1951 A Green finished 21st 1952 A Green replaced by Len Goulden finished 10th still Division 3 (South) 1953 Still Len Goulden and we finished 4th. Things on the up. 1954 Len Goulden again, but only finished 7th Rather disappointing. 1955 Len started the season and ended it as manager, but J. Paton was manager in the middle of the season. All very strange and we only finished 21st. 1956 Neil McBain is dragged out of the pub to try for a second spell to do well at the Vic. Finished 11th 1957 Still Neil McBain who fails to prevent us falling into the new Division 4. Finished 16th 1958 McBain replaced by Ron Burgess with 10 games left. Finished 15th. 1959 Ron Burgess who gets us into 4th place and promotion to the 3rd Division. 1960 Ron Burgess gets us up to 4th again, but only the top two get promotion to Division 2 1961 Ron Burgess, but a disappointing 17th 1962 Ron Burgess, and no better than 17th again. 1963 Bill McGarry and missed out on promotion by 2 points. 1964 McGarry leaves and Furphy arrives. Being a Watford fan takes stamina.
