David Harrison on the new manager of his ‘other’ club
You’ve not bought YBR! to read about me, but a little context is necessary for this everyday story of far-flung Watford folk. Bear with me.
Having lived within a few miles of Vicarage Road for 60-odd years and held a season ticket for most o...
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Colin Payne looks at a seldom-recalled episode from 100 years at Vicarage Road
The streets were lined with uncollected rubbish, corpses sat in morgues unburied, and British Leyland workers picked up tools for no other reason than they could down them again prior to walking out. This was Britain...
Nick Catley on the man who changed Watford forever
Asking why Watford fans love Elton John might, at first glance, seem a question not so far removed from that famously posed to Debbie McGee by Mrs Merton: “What first, Debbie, attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” It’s undeniable that...
Tim Turner explains why his Watford heroes have tended to play in a particular position
I have a theory that your favourite footballers, and where they play on the pitch, give clues as to how you see yourself – or, perhaps more significantly, how you would like others to see you.
To take an obv...
Nick Catley on the place that shouldn’t exist, but does, quite brilliantly
It’s been said before, but the Bunker – the home of the 1881 fan group, which opens before matches for food, drink, music and conversation, really isn’t misnamed. Constructed entirely from concrete, and with the only nat...
Nick Catley looks at a period where Watford’s number nines were the footballing version of Hogwarts’ Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers
In the recollections of many Watford fans, from the distant perspective of, at best, middle age, it sometimes feels that in those five golden First Divisio...
Thomas Devon (Aged 11) spends a morning at London Colney
I was really excited when I found out I was going to be playing at the training ground after having my name pulled out of the hat in a Junior Hornets competition. I’ve never been to the training ground before so this was going to be a rea...
Peter Morgan on recovering long-lost treasure
Soon after it was published, I read Tales From The VIcarage 6: Rocket Men. On page 36, it quoted Steve Sherwood describing the scenes after the final whistle on the night in 1982 when Watford beat Wrexham to reach the First Division of the Football ...
Jack Ottman on Lloyd Doyley
The word ‘legend’ should definitely be reserved for a select few players at each football club and it often gets handed out too easily in my opinion. During the time I’ve been following Watford since the early 2000s I would say there have been two players who have gr...
A tale of love from Olly Wicken
It was tough. It was the first new game I went to, after I died. Home to West Ham – just after Christmas.
I’d been up here a couple of weeks by then. Wasn’t easy at first. I was missing Jeanie – my other half. Don’t get me wrong, Hornet Heaven’s got everything yo...
Mark Evans remembers the year Steve Perryman kept us up
If you were watching Watford in the early 90s you were seeing a club in decline and in peril of plummeting back into Division 3. GT had of course gone, Elton had sold the club to Jack Petchey, who ran it purely as a business, and the threa...
Jon Moonie recalls the time when the top deck of the Junior Hornets’ bus were nearly decapitated
It was a school holiday in the late 80s, and the Junior Hornets, led by the legendary Ann Swanson, were on a day trip to Highbury – then Arsenal’s home. I was on the trip and we’d enjoyed a tour of ...