Tag Archives: Oliver Phillips

2 Feb 2023- Watford Observer’s Oliver Phillips passes away

Oli was the chief writer about Watford FC for the Watford Observer for many many years. In the days before the internet fans would buy the paper in their thousands on a Friday to get all the latest news from Vicarage Road and read Oli’s ‘Just a Thought’ column. In 1991 he wrote the Official Club Centenary book. To those of us of a certain age he was as well known and linked with the club as Luther Blissett or Graham Taylor.

Official site tribute

Former sports editor Oli Phillips dies aged 81

The gifted journalist who became a Watford legend

‘A light has gone out in the press box at Vicarage Road’

Readers and ex-colleagues remember legendary Watford FC correspondent

Just one week before he died the club announced that they would be naming the Media Suite after Oli.

Official site: Media Suite: Club Honours Oliver Phillips

22nd December 2012- Championship, Watford 2 Nottingham Forest 0

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Watford moved into the Championship play-off places thanks to Matej Vydra’s double against Nottingham Forest at Vicarage Road.

The double took his tally for the season to 10, with the goals coming either side of Daniel Ayala being sent off for the visitors before the break.

It wasn’t necessarily going to end up this way.  Virtually the first opening of the game saw Danny Collins afforded a free header from a set piece, he should have done far more than glance it wide.  Joel Ekstrand was asleep as a ball from the right reached Sharp at the far post, he shanked clumsily past the post.  Simon Cox snuck in behind a static defence at another set piece… everyone froze in confusion, including Cox who screwed a header back across the face of goal.  Hoban and Ekstrand both looked uncomfortable and slightly precarious to the point that we briefly glanced at the bench (and remembered that Neuton was hardly an option to bring on to tighten things up again and rapidly returned our attention to the pitch).  That’s not to say that Forest were ever on top of us – for the 90 minutes we were never less than holding our own – but we rode our luck early on, mobile front men Cox and Sharp both looking like causing us problems whenever they received the ball to feet.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2012-12-22
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/22-december-2012/

9th April 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Leeds United 2

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Aidy Boothroyd’s first programme notes.

BSAD image BSAD report: I was there, obviously. But less so, much less so. That’s not to suggest that I didn’t fully appreciate that this was a vital match for Watford Football Club, nor that I didn’t applaud a courageous, occasionally inspired, and much less deeply flawed team performance that rose to the occasion and deserved to take more from it than mere encouragement. I saw it all, with nose pressed up against the glass, conscious of everything and yet not part of it. When we scored, I heard myself saying “Yes!” and felt myself rising to my feet; the instincts that would’ve done those things in a reactive blur don’t seem to be working properly. I saw it all, and felt only echoes, remote tremors.

Why? I don’t know. This is new to me, all new. What I do know is that, like so many amazing things that happen in football stadia, the total support demanded by Graham Simpson requires the suspension of disbelief. It needs the conjuring up of an “us” from so much that has so little in common; an “us” that encompasses the stands, the dressing room and the directors’ box to become a football club rather than just a PLC with employees and customers. But you can’t put all of that on hold for three weeks – three weeks of exercising absolute power and authority, of claiming leadership, of seizing complete responsibility – then expect to resume where you left off. “Us” is for fifty-two weeks of the year, or not at all. And you can’t generate genuine belief in a long-term plan for survival and eventual prosperity, then demand the same belief in a new approach when you suddenly change your mind.

English League ChampionshipTable »
Brighton and Hove A1-1Leicester City
Cardiff City0-2Wigan Athletic
Derby County3-1Stoke City
Gillingham1-0Burnley
Millwall4-3Crewe Alexandra
Nottingham Forest0-3Plymouth Argyle
Rotherham United1-2Preston North End
Sheffield United3-2Queens Park Rangers
Sunderland1-2Reading
Watford1-2Leeds United
West Ham United3-0Coventry City
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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4658

9th January 1999- New Division One, Watford 0 Portsmouth 0

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BSAD imageIf the season’s only previous goalless draw against Barnsley had more merits than the scoreline suggested, then this was your authentic “move along, there’s nothing to see here” stalemate. The least entertaining spectacle of the campaign so far by, ooh, that much and a flashback to what life in the First Division frequently used to be like for the Hornets prior to Graham Taylor’s return.

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