3rd October 1999- Premier League, Watford 1 Leeds United 2 Leave a Reply BSAD report: Sandwiched between Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United, it’s easy to see Leeds as something of a respite. It has as much to do with not seeing their shirts on every high street and their absence from the intolerable hype of the Champions League as anything. Above all, they’re still recognisable as a football club (fans that sing, quaint stuff like that) rather than the entertainments arm of some giant multinational – although the imminent share purchase by Sky will soon put paid to that. You get three points if you beat them, but you don’t get to parade around the office on Monday morning. Body language, it was all in the body language. As I watched the Golden Boys warming-up, I could sense something just wasn’t quite right; they seemed sluggish and tired, the usual passion and vigor was missing. It was almost as if there was some kind of player-fan synergy going on. Some of their lethargy rubbed off onto us and some of ours onto them. http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4371 Share this:TwitterFacebook
18th September 1999-Premier League, Watford 1 Chelsea 0 Leave a Reply Smart work sees off Chelsea BSAD report:Surely one of the most famous results in the club’s history, staggering even by Graham Taylor’s standards. 100 Greatest Watford Wins- No.35: The Premiership and its hype and self-importance could be irritating at times but this was one of those rare days when all the pundits had to sit in their armchairs and accept that sometimes might doesn’t mean right. http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4368 Share this:TwitterFacebook
14th September 1999- League Cup Second Round First Leg, Watford 2 Wigan Athletic 0 Leave a Reply 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. http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4367 18th September 1999-Premier League, Watford 1 Chelsea 0 Share this:TwitterFacebook
21st August 1999- Premier League, Watford 1 Bradford City 0 Leave a Reply http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4363 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. Share this:TwitterFacebook
20th March 1999- New Division One, Watford 0 Bury 0 Leave a Reply If you want an indication of the loyalty of the Watford fans, it is that nine thousand people did actually choose to spend their money on this, a football match that had absolutely nothing to recommend it. That’s the club’s core support right there – after all, roughly the same number turned up to see us against Crewe and Stockport, back when we were a good bet for some breezy Saturday afternoon entertainment. https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=1999-03-20 https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=1999-03-20 Share this:TwitterFacebook
12th December 1998- Division One, Watford 4 Stockport County 2 Leave a Reply More games from 12th December at https://oldwatford.com/tag/dec12 Share this:TwitterFacebook