Old Watford wouldn’t be much of a website if it wasn’t for the following resources.
Programmes
A huge part of this website is the programmes from the games. Obviously I don’t hold the copyright to any of these and will, of course, remove any if the rights holder so wishes me to do so. I am very grateful to all the clubs featured that, since I started the website in 2016, no-one has ever asked this.
Websites
Blind Stupid and Desperate www.bsad.org
During the mid to late 90’s BSAD became as important as reading the Watford Observer to many Hornets. A match wasn’t complete as an experience until you’d read the thoughts of Ian Grant, Matt Rowson and the others who contributed to the site. It’s humour, humility and acute observations make it so much better and different from traditional football reports. It is, in short, brilliant.
www.bhappy.wordpress.com
The sequel to BSAD which first of all was clearly meant to be a much quicker way for Messers Grant and Rowson to comment on Watford games. It started out with the wonderful one word match reports and five-a-day away days and then developed into five concise ‘thunks’. These days individual thunks are often a couple of paragraphs in length and the original five thunks have become seven or eight. Just as good as its predecessor and still as vital a part of the match experience.
franelynn.wordpress.com
Fran is a familiar face to many Watford fans. She attends every game and writes a report after each one often telling of her experiences on the way to and from games. It doesn’t take long before you feel like you know her.
www.hornetsnestwfc.com
Andy Lewer’s great blog which started in 2013 and finally ended in 2019 after which he started running the ‘Stairway to Seventh‘ podcast. Like Fran’s blog after a couple of posts you get to know a lot about Andy. Especially good are the various adventures he goes on before Watford away games.
fromtherookeryend.com
The FTRE team started podcasting in 2010 and are still going strong. Â They are now as vital a part of the post match analysis as the Watford Observer and BHappy.
Statto.com
A wonderful website that sadly seems to have bitten the dust. This is where a lot of the old league tables came from.
theresultsarchive.com
Another results and league tables site that seems to have disappeared.
11v11.com
A decent resource for ‘on this day’ league tables.
www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd
A site from the Racing Post which is great for ‘on this day’ results although strangely these are never listed in alphabetical order.
www.watfordfcarchive.com
The archive contains all the information from the wonderful Trefor Jones books ‘The Watford Football Club Illustrated Who’s Who’ and ‘Watford season by season’ and was then updated each season until 2017. Trefor sadly passed away in 2019.
http://watford.fcdb.info/
Russ Barker’s invaluable website that has all the information from Trefor Jones’ archive along with new stats from Jon Sinclair. Many thanks to Russ for allowing me to screenshot matches.
www.watfordfc.com
The Watford FC official site. Its been through many different guises since starting in 1997. The image above is how it looked in 2004.
http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/watfordfc/watfordfcnews/
A vital resource for all Hornets for many years. The only change is that nowadays probably more of us view it online than in print. The names of Ollie Phillips and Terry Challis will be as well known to those of a certain age as GT & Luther.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport
The BBC site is probably the best at keeping old match reports online.
www.skysports.com
Not quite as good as the BBC for archiving but still contains lots of reports.
www.theguardian.com/football
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/
These two are probably the best newspaper sites for old reports although the Telegraph does now seem to be putting more and more of its content behind a paywall.
Almost all the footage of matches featured on the site comes from You Tube. Thanks to everyone who has put games on featuring Watford, but in particular to ‘Watford Videos’ who has uploaded all the Season Reviews.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHaixtBiF7xfvwMHUdY5xXw
Books
Trefor Jones book detailing every player to have played for Watford from 1881-1996
Published by Ian Allan Printing (1996)
Trefor Jones record of every Watford match played from 1881-1998
Published by Ian Allen Printing (1998)
Matt Rowson’s book of facts about Watford FC for every day of the year
Published by Pitch Publishing Ltd (2009)
The complete record of Watford’s 1982/83 season when they finished as runners-up in Division One by Geoff Sweet and Graham Burton
Published by Bugle Books (1983)
Lionel Birnie’s book in which Watford never lose.
Published by Peloton Publishing (2011)