The Interviews

Colin Payne talks to Luther Blissett in YBR!   Certain people only need a first name, their surname just a luxury add-on for official business, a requirement only on passports, driving licences, or their Tesco Clubcards. Luther is a fine example. Now 62, it feels there’s never been a time when he...

Alongside the small nucleus of players who were destined to reach the pinnacle of the game as part of the incredible journey from Fourth Division also-rans to First Division runners-up under Graham Taylor was a larger group, whose contributions to the lift-off phase were less celebrated, but sti...

Nick Brodrick explores the 50-year football journey of a fleet-footed winger, whose energy and drive helped the Hornets achieve successive promotions in the late Seventies, before becoming one of the country’s most respected youth coaches.     One of the most memorable mental images of the Watfor...

Several decades before the phrase ‘box-to-box midfielder’ was first coined, a vivid prototype was busy plying his trade at Vicarage Road. The man behind the flowing locks and piratical beard, the lung-bursting runs and audible tackles was Roger Joslyn, and he was to become a Watford legend. Nick ...

Throughout the eighties, Steve Harrison played a major part in the progress made at Vicarage Road. However, more than that he came to represent the spirit of something truly unique. Colin Payne merely switches on a tape machine and listens…    “I’m laughing because I’ve heard the end of it before...

Richard White talks to Peter Walker, who was an integral part of the Watford squad between 1954 and 1962.     In the late 1940s and early 1950s football was massively popular, with the home entertainment industry not providing much competition at the time. Making dresses out of old curtains and h...

Reckon you’ve got a lot of Watford memorabilia? You’ve got nothing on Nigel Gibbs. Olly Wicken has the privilege of exploring Nigel’s stash.     In the living room of his Watford home, about an hour into our conversation, Nigel Gibbs shows me a photo he recently found online and saved to his iPad...

Richard White talks to Walter Lees who played 253 times for the Hornets during the sixties and seventies.    Fittingly described as a ‘rugged, dependable Scot’ during his time at the club, Walter Lees forged a role as Watford’s starting centre-half for eight seasons between 1968 and 1976, under t...

Ben Foster talks to Olly Wicken about his first spell at Watford from 2005 to 2007.    Ben Foster is an easy-going man. This is obvious from the start of our interview because he’s in his underpants.  “Is this alright? You don’t mind?” He’s lying on a treatment table in the medical room at Watfor...

Steve Palmer talks to Geoff Wicken about numbers, innovations, and a different kind of life in football    Steve Palmer was one of the heroes of the second Graham Taylor era. His six years at Watford began just prior to Graham’s return, and – more than 250 appearances later – he left the club sho...

Luther Blissett talks to Geoff Wicken about some of his favourite football memories    “Look at that!”, laughs Luther. “I’m not even listed in the team!” He’s flicking through the programme from the Swansea match in April 1976 – his first start in the first team. We’re sitting in the sunshine on ...

In 2019 Geoff Wicken had the pleasure of talking to the late-Keith Eddy about his team-mates in that historic season. We reproduce the article as it was published at the time.   It may have been 50 years ago, but Keith Eddy’s recollections of his fellow players in the team he captained to the Div...