Colin Payne goes all the way back to 1978 to say... Forgive GT For I Have Sinned
It was nostalgia, that was what unlocked it – freed the repressed memory from the side of the brain that is supposed to keep it squirrelled away safely. Recalling those halcyon days of old, as a young lad for whom ...
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Nick Catley on the man who would become a nation’s hero
Perhaps the most iconic photo of the second Graham Taylor era at Watford – maybe even in all Hornet history – shows Robert Page lifting the play-off winners’ trophy at Wembley in 1999, shouting in delight as he does so.
When we look at tha...
Peter Morgan on why timing is everything
Geoff Wicken’s article in YBR! 36, about arriving very late at a game, reminded me of a similar occurrence that ended in a truly memorable day and a win for Watford.
My niece, Charlotte, is not only a keen Watford supporter, after being brainwashed sinc...
Gareth Robins on high expectations when you buy Barça players from Wish
I once rode the ‘music as ringtone’ zeitgeist and thought it would be incredibly cool to have one of my then-favourite tracks, Worried about Ray by The Hoosiers (ask your parents, kids), as mine. Unfortunately, like many th...
A Hornet Heaven story by Olly Wicken
It’s the same shape as a goal, but half-size. The two posts are black, and the bar across the top is yellow. Some people call it a ‘crush barrier’, others call it a ‘leaner’. Either way, it came from Vicarage Road and has been propped up against his garage w...
Geoff Wicken arrived late, but just in time
I’m unable to contribute to the YBR! series on leaving a match early and regretting it. I have no such stories. I’ve only left early a handful of times, never missing more than a few minutes, and nothing significant has occurred. There was one occasio...
Nick Catley presents his list of GT's greatest seasons at Watford
By their fourth season in the First Division, Watford’s task was perhaps duller, and yet more difficult than in previous years – to carry on overachieving by being an established top-division club, while making an impact in the c...
Nick Catley presents his list of GT's greatest seasons at Watford
Of my 43 seasons following Watford, this remains the only one where we finished top of the league we were competing in, and might therefore deserve a higher place in the rankings. However, by 1997/98 we were used to being in the ...
Jimmy Bowie was Watford’s ‘Gazza’ before Paul Gascoigne was even born. Olly Wicken explains.
Did you hear the Jimmy Bowie story where, a couple of hours before kick-off at the Vic, he rode a motorbike around the greyhound track to try and beat the lap record?
Jimmy played for Watford in the mid...
John Parslow on crossed wires and a newly discovered legacy
When was your first conscious memory of football? Mine goes back to 1970 when I was just five.
It was around the time of the Chelsea v Leeds FA Cup Final that went to a replay. I remember asking my dad who he supported as a child, and ...
Nick Catley presents his list of GT's greatest seasons at Watford
A reasonably easy choice, this was the only Taylor year (apart from 1995/96, not included as it wasn’t a full season) which saw anything resembling a relegation battle (the writing was on the wall way too early in 1999/2000 to ca...
Nick Catley presents his list of GT's greatest seasons at Watford
If 12th place was one of the easiest to choose, this might have been the hardest. Of the 11 remaining seasons, all involved at least one of promotion, comfortable survival in the First Division, incredible cup runs (literally not...