Category Archives: Graham Taylor

14th September 1999- League Cup Second Round First Leg, Watford 2 Wigan Athletic 0

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BSAD image BSAD report: For all the occasional moments of utter glory, documented elsewhere, this was what the last ten years of lower division football were usually like. Abysmal football in front of less than seven thousand fidgety fans in the sweeping rain. Dreadful League Cup and Auto Windscreen ties with the likes of Southend and Torquay in an empty stadium foolishly built for bigger things. Roger Willis, Derek Payne, Geoff bloody Pitcher. Awful.

It was an awful night, let’s get to the point. It was drizzling, it was empty, it was ten pounds to get in. (And twenty to get out, we reckoned at half time.) Could tell from the off no-one wanted to be out there on the pitch, and that feeling spread to the stands within minutes. So what if we hadn’t scored since the Premiership title race was still in the balance? We attempted passes of the sodden, slippery ball with the aplomb of those old farts who kick it back to you in the park to look good in front of their ladies and it winds up sliced into someone’s picnic miles from where you’re standing. Except that there were Wigan players in the way tonight, to make us look even stupider. Thank goodness they fell over nearly as frequently as we did, but they had better ideas while they were upright, which gave the lie to blaming it all on the rain. And they knew that if you’re splitting two legs over a week (ah, that’s where the crappy pun was going…) you have to make the away one count. So we gave them as much help as we could, and for 45 minutes we were unspeakable. I don’t remember when we last booed the boys off the pitch at half-time. But for future reference, it was tonight.

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4367

18th September 1999-Premier League, Watford 1 Chelsea 0

24th August 1999- Premier League, Watford 0 Aston Villa 1

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4364

Defender Mark Delaney scored his first goal for Aston Villa as the Midlands side saw off Graham Taylor’s Watford to move alongside Manchester United at the top of the Premiership.

BSAD report: Watching Watford last night was like sticking your head in a jet engine and blasting all your worries away. It felt bloody fantastic. Yeah, we lost. I know. We were also, I’d argue, as magnificent as we’ve been at any point in the last couple of years.

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Taken from the programme on 14th September 1999- League Cup Second Round First Leg, Watford 2 Wigan Athletic 0

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Taken from the programme on 16th September 2006- Premier League, Watford 0 Aston Villa 0

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21st August 1999- Premier League, Watford 1 Bradford City 0

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4363

BSAD image BSAD report: Familiar ground, then.

In reality, the whole “WE ARE PREMIER LEAGUE!” celebration extended no further than awkward greetings between two people who used to be at the same school but never really had anything in common. Initial pleasantries followed by edgy silences, not a memorable occasion.

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7th August 1999- Premier League, Watford 2 Wimbledon 3

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4360

Watford were given tough introduction to the Premiership by Egil Olsen’s Wimbledon.

BBC-News-_-FA-Carling-Premiership-_-Watford-let-Dons-take-advantage Download

AS THE sun set on last season’s opening afternoon Graham Taylor, the Watford manager, stood on the touch line at Fratton Park, wearing shorts and a smile, after his freshly-promoted team had beaten Portsmouth with the help of an outrageous own goal. Newly promoted once more, Taylor was left content after his enthusiastic side contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of a draw with a similarly comical self-inflicted blow.

BSAD image BSAD report: At Vicarage Road, excitement crackles in the air like static. For a spine-shivering moment loitering in Occupation Road, I can vividly recall the mood before our First Division debut against Everton all those years ago. This feels the same, and it’s impossible to believe that we’re anything other than invincible. I hadn’t been aware of waiting for the Premiership kickoff – life seems full to overflowing right now, summer seemed too short – but suddenly impatience overwhelms everything.

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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

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.

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

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 image BSAD 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.

The Guardian, 10 May 1999

Daily Mirror, 10 May 1999

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