Monthly Archives: May 1999

31st May 1999- New Division One Playoff Final, Bolton Wanderers 0 Watford 2

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4359

BSAD imageMany BSAD reports:

We’ve only gone and bloody done it! We’ve only gone and bloody done it!

“Unforgettable”
“Wembley glory”
“Can life get any better?”
“Images”
“It’s a long way to…LA”
“The Horns of a dilemma?”
“If you want to get to heaven let me tell you how…”
“Something else”
“Fifteen years”
“The best day of my life”
“Tears at tea-time”
“Here’s to the next time”
“It’s a long way from…NG7”
“Nice and ‘isi”
“Emotion”
“Wembley’s Way”
“A magnificent obsession”
“A good day out”
“Why a grown man would cry”
“Winning at Wembley is better than losing on IRC”
“The Hornets have landed”
“Twenty years”
“Wem-ber-lee”
“The scoreboard said…”

Wembley photo gallery
Victory parade photo gallery

BBC Sport Goals from Nick Wright and Allan Smart sent Watford soaring into the Premiership after back-to-back promotions.

guardian Minute by minute report

Daily Telegraph, 1 Jun 1999
Daily Record, 1 Jun 1999
Evening Standard, 1 Jun 1999
https://oldwatford.com/2014/08/09/9th-august-2014-championship-watford-3-bolton-wanderers-0/

Twenty Years Ago: Richard Johnson

Twenty Years Ago: Michel Ngonge

Twenty Years Ago: Micah Hyde

Twenty Years Ago: Ciaran Cosgrave

Twenty Years Ago: Tommy Mooney

Twenty Years Ago: Robert Page

Twenty Years Ago: Nick Wright

Play-Off Final 1999: Player & Staff Memories Of Graham Taylor

Time Capsules: Graham Taylor’s Miracle (1999)

Wright & Smart Narrate 1999 Play-Off Final

Watford Observer In pictures: Graham Taylor and Watford FC’s 1999 play-off final success

20th May 1999- New Division One Playoff Semi Final Second Leg, Birmingham City 1 Watford 0 (After Extra Time, Aggregate score 1-1, Watford win 7-6 on penalties)

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4358

BBC Sport Watford are a Wembley win away from a return to the top flight they left 11 years ago after a dramatic spot-kick win at St Andrew’s.

BSAD image Last night is incomprehensible, even with the aid of a notebook. Just absolutely gargantuan. My brain is currently refusing to process all the information for fear of overload, but my heart knows the score. Which is probably why I nearly started crying when we appeared on the news this morning – one of those moments when realisation hits, and you can do nothing but crumple. This may not be the most coherent report I’ve ever written.

Birmingham Mail: Blues suffer agony of Hornet’s sting

Guardian, 21 May 1999
Daily Telegraph, 21 May 1999
Birmingham Evening Mail, 21 May 1999
Evening Standard, 21 May 1999
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Football_League_play-offs

16th May 1999- New Division One Playoff Semi-Final First Leg, Watford 1 Birmingham City 0

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4357

BSAD image Real life is something to stumble haphazardly through, the bits of my brain that are supposed to be occupying themselves with useful stuff daydreaming of Wem-ber-lee instead. Real life is Saturday and Saturday is a daze, having queued in Occupation Road for tickets to the away leg from half past ten on Friday night and got no nearer to sleep than ten minutes with my eyes closed. Real life is what awaits in the summer, which might start as soon as Thursday (and that’s a frightening thought). Real life is not Watford, so it’s nothing that I’d be interested in.

Independent WEMBLEY IS beckoning Watford – but Graham Taylor is refusing to look. The Watford manager was reluctant to acknowledge yesterday that victory in the first leg of the First Division play-off semi-final had improved his team’s chances of reaching the twin towers for the first time since the 1984 FA Cup final.

Daily Mirror, 17 May 1999
Daily Telegraph, 17 May 1999
Daily Record, 17 May 1999
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Birmingham Post, 17 May 1999

9th May 1999- New Division One, Watford 1 Grimsby Town 0

To ensure we made the playoffs we needed to beat Grimsby.

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4356

BSAD imageBSAD report: Blindly indulged every superstition available. Lucky shave, lucky boxer shorts, lucky shirt (unwashed during April and May – one man’s disgusting laziness is another’s inspirational magic), lucky view over Watford on the train, lucky programme seller. Qualified virtually every sentence with the phrase “If we make the playoffs…”, for fear of tempting fate. Some of these things are clearly stupid, but this was not the time for taking chances. Everyone was in superstition overdrive, Watford had its fingers crossed.

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1st May 1999- New Division One, Barnsley 2 Watford 2

9th May 1999- New Division One, Watford 1 Grimsby Town 0
http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4355

Gutting, but only for a while. Sunday will be different. On Sunday, we’ll be able to make all the noise we want in our own stadium, no sitting there and quietly praying. On Sunday, it’s about the supporters as much as the players, and we’ll see them through.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=1999-05-01
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-division-1/01-may-1999/