I've just watched the last half hour of the Wrexham - Luton game and it took no time at all to realise the gulf in class between us and them. It will be a long time before we play them in a league game unless something catastrophic happens to us. So - is it possible to ditch them as rivals, which they clearly are not? Is there an alternative? Do supporters need another team to hate?
I see little point in regarding them as rivals anymore. Look at the records and you can see that back in the dark days they were more successful than we were, yet times change and for a very long time they have been in decline. They are one of a handful of clubs who have been shafted by owners and have never recovered. I was reading about the hope that Pompey have since they have been taken over by the fans. A long hard road lies ahead for them, they even think it could be 20 years, but I am not sure that Luton have the fan base to achieve something similar. Their current manager was successful, but had a large budget, something he no longer has. As I said on another thread 14 clubs in that division were FL clubs at one point and most of them will hope to return. The longer you are stuck down there the harder it becomes I think to get the right team together to get promotion.
A matter of age I think. For younger supporters who have never really known a Watford - Luton rivalry then yes it will become history. For those of us who remember bitter trips to the dogs kennel then probably not. Stevenage as local rivals ? Not sure about that one. London clubs like Q.P.R. will always have more sense of rivalry to each other than to us, and Reading (who we've played more than any other club) doesn't fit the bill either. I would guess at Q.P.R. though I don't hate them in any way, although the rivalry would come more from our side than from theirs because they already see Chelsea and Fulham as their local rivals. Personally the team I enjoy beating most is Leeds UTD.
WE didn't play Luton for 26 years between 1937 and 1963. That gap didn't diminish the rivalry. If we need a temporary rival then I think Reading fit the bill, especially as they rarely play their traditional rivals such as Oxford Utd and Swindon Town these days.
It's the latin name for the only native British hornet - which if recent reports are correct will soon be joined by a rather more dangerous cousin Vespa Velutina (the Asian hornet)
Thanks, my latin is not up to much, although I did have an Asian Hornet in my garden today after the pears.
Absolutely spot on cologne!!!!! I will loathe them, no matter which division they are in, until my last breath. Interestingly in the early 60's my main focus of "derby" antagonism was QPR, because we regularly played them (and just as regularly lost to them) and they were (arguably) the nearest club to Vicarage Road. When L*t*n came down to the old Div. 3 in 63 and we were in opposition for the first time since the 30's my father (a Watford supporter since the 20's) tried to kindle in me the same feeling he had for them. I just couldn't see what the fuss was about until the last game of the 63-64 season when we lost 2-1 at the Kennel (with O'Rouke sitting on Pat Jennings for the winning goal) to deny us promotion. The gloating nastiness of their fans and my utter despair combined to create an undiminishing hatred for them which was only reinforced by our subsequent encounters for the next 30 years and the absolute hostility and violence from their fans which regularly occurred. No-one who was at the Battle of the Kennel in May 69 can possibly harbour anything but intense loathing for their fans, players, club and town. To pay a visit to their "Outlaws" website is to discover what vile, racist, homophobic vermin many of their fans still are. No, I wish them nothing but further subsequent relegations and eventually going out of business. Rant over.....
Not to mention the referee who, for reasons best known to himself, sent off Barry Endean for having the temerity to allow himself to be dragged over from behind in a necklock by Alan Slough. No consolation at all that Slough was sent off too. Harbour a grudge? Who - me?
Also, it was in a game at the Kennel Wilf Rostron got sent off, meaning he missed the FA Cup Final and GT said "our chances of winning the cup disappeared down the tunnel with him". Although, the Centenary Book lays the blame fully at the incompetence of Roger Milford.
they represent all that is wrong with football/society-- they are a club who revel in reactionary ideas,parochialism and thuggery--whereas i think most of watfords following are the opposite......i do bear a grudge from going to the kennel in the early seventies....
I too remember those days or yore - the Wilf Rostron sending off in particular when despite the away fans ban many good Hornets saw L***n once again demolished - but as for rivalry now - why should we bother with those no-bodies anymore - they're even less relevant to us now than 5-live's comprehensive coverage of football each week. For my part I don't hate Stevenage (I like them) or Barnet or any of the others around us - unless its Tottenham - in my view they are the ones to rival/dislike. No idea why except that their supporters always annoy me as they think their far superior to everyone else - which of course they aren't.
Why should we bother with those no-bodies? Because for years they lorded it over us, gloating about their superior league position, their record in local derbies, their bigger crowds (yes, for most of the 50s, 60s & 70s they drew bigger crowds to the Kennel than we did to the Vic), their supposed "passing football" over our "kick & rush" etc. etc. Now it's our turn to look down on them and follow their spiralling decline with great glee! Does anybody really think that if our positions were reversed that their fans would be looking for alternative rivals? No, the vile hatred they have for us would be doubled, trebled, quadrupled and they would be laughing like hyenas at our fate, whilst pouring vitriol (and possibly petrol) on us. Less relevant to us? Oh no, more relevant than ever - after all but for the Pozzos we could well be following in their path. The reason that (I suggest) no Watford fan dislikes Stevenage, Barnet or even Wycombe Wanderers is that no Watford fan has been subject to violence, coin-throwing etc. from their fans, or been crammed into a terrace behind fences unable to see most of the pitch or been kept in after the game by the police only to be let out right into the path of waiting local thugs or being spat upon while walking on the footpath behind the (laughingly named) Bobbers "Stand" or been set upon in their town centre or......or..... BTW yellow, away fans weren't banned from the Kennel for the game when Wilf was sent off, which was in 84 - I was there. Away fans were banned for the game over Christmas in 86 when we were the first away side to win on their plastic pitch.
You're probably right about the different games - my memory isn't what it was. But like you I too have been subjected to their abuse, savagery and violence - but you know what for me I really don't give a **** about them any more cos they're once and for all so far below us I couldn't even sh1t on them with any great accuracy. They're has beens and are never likely to darken our door steps again unless its in a cup match and then - like so often in the past - they'll no doubt turn up like the savages they are and disappear like the losers they always were. Forget them Vic - they're as ancient as Rome and far far less interesting than the insides of a slug.
dave, living in WSM, I'm guessing you might know some Yeovil fans. Do you know if who they consider their rivals to be has changed as they've risen up the leagues?
I personally don't know any but I believe they regard the Bristol clubs as their rivals! That's the way it reads on the forums that I've seen!
