27th May 2013- Championship Playoff Final, Crystal Palace 1 Watford 0 (After Extra Time)
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Tag Archives: Playoffs
It’s really not the old Wembley, is it? True, the old Wembley smelt of sour tramp when you got up close and it felt as though it might just fall down if everyone jumped at once…but not even the stale piss of a dozen generations could hide the essential romance of the place, the sense of that-happened-over-there history. This…well, it has the moneyed sheen and efficiency of an airport departure lounge. Any idiosyncrasies have been firmly ironed out by committee, any dark corners where you might be able to scratch your name for those who follow have been illuminated by an artful downlight. All trace of this game will have been wiped clean by the time you read this.11th May 2008- Championship Playoff Semi-Final First Leg, Watford 0 Hull City 2
I haven’t done the research but I think we must have set a record of being the only club to ever achieve our lowest league attendance of the season in the first leg of a playoff game. We had attracted over 15,000 to every other league game in 07/08 but our terrible form of just one win in 14 games which saw us scrape into the playoffs meant only 14,713 turned up. In comparison 18,535 attended the first leg against Birmingham in 1999, the third highest home crowd of the 98/99 season.
To make matters worse for Adrian Boothroyd’s men, skipper John Eustace was given a straight red card after a second-half scuffle.
Yes, okay, so we lost. And we can’t defend. And, well, Dean Windass. But that was rather fun wasn’t it? 
21st May 2006- Championship Playoff Final, Leeds United 0 Watford 3
BSAD reports:
“From New York to Cardiff”
“Winning is believing”
“Disconnected”
“Trouble!”
“From Blooms Bar, Tel Aviv”
“View from afar”
“Childhood memories”
“Bermuda black-out”
“Bloody hell”
“We always win three-nil”
“Good omen, bad omen”
“The red car”
“Three-nil on an L-shaped pitch”
“On seeing a miracle in Brussels”
“An early taste of champagne and glory”
“Magic carpet”
“The Horn treatment”
“Safe again”
“Hahnemann was there”
“Hat korso es két palinka”
“Confessions of a recent convert”
“What it’s really all about”
“Oh baby!”
“Hell freezing over”
“Parallel universes”
“The long road to Cardiff”
“Fireworks”
“Very superstitious”
“Waving the flag”
“Dear Diary”
“Hornets on top down under”
Watford booked their place in the Premiership with a convincing victory over Leeds in a frantic play-off final.
Kevin Blackwell could never have imagined the implications of his coach Adrian Boothroyd joining Watford last year. After little more than 14 months in charge the man whose appointment was greeted by supporters at Vicarage Road with concern, bewilderment and general unease yesterday etched his name in the club’s history and confirmed his status as one of the brightest young managers in English football when he secured promotion to the Premiership at the expense of his former mentor.
9th May 2006- Championship Playoff Semi-Final Second Leg, Watford 0 Crystal Palace 0 (Watford win 3-0 on aggregate)
Watford will meet Leeds in the Championship play-off final after cruising past a lacklustre Palace.
Adrian Boothroyd faces the threat of being banned from the touchline for the play-off final against Leeds United, comfortably the biggest game of his brief managerial career, after being sent to the stands last night following a mass brawl in front of his dugout. The Watford manager sparked mayhem midway through the second half when he flicked the ball away from Fitz Hall with a hand as the Crystal Palace defender sought to take a quick throw-in.
BSAD reports: There is an air of something approaching hysteria inside Vicarage Road.
Immense. Amazing. Rock solid. Tense. Iron-willed. Undefeated. Just some of the words we used, once we’d calmed down, to describe the fight on the touchline which was triggered by maybe a little too much management of the game and, in particular, the ball. But if we focus on that, we’ll be overlooking a job done with just as many of the qualities as we brought to the 60th-minute melee.
6th May 2006- Championship Playoff Semi-Final First Leg, Crystal Palace 0 Watford 3
Watford scored three second-half goals to take a commanding lead into the second leg of their play-off tie.
BSAD reports: It had to be Selhurst. Of all the places, it had to be Selhurst. Scene of so many humiliations, disappointments, and dreary fizzles over so many years. The place where Curcic and his ludicrous goatee cheated us out of a deserved win. Where Glenn Roeder’s tenure came to such a decisive end. Where our short trip to the Premiership found its nadir, hammered by a team that was eventually relegated with us. Where Wayne Brown once had a shot that not only went out for a throw, but a throw level with where he’d struck the ball.
31st May 1999- New Division One Playoff Final, Bolton Wanderers 0 Watford 2
Many 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
Goals from Nick Wright and Allan Smart sent Watford soaring into the Premiership after back-to-back promotions.
Minute by minute report
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
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)
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.
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:Â Blues suffer agony of Hornet’s sting
24th May 1989- Division Two Playoff Semi-Final Second Leg, Watford 1 Blackburn Rovers 1 (Aggregate score 1-1, After Extra Time, Blackburn win on the away goals rule)
We were the first club to go out of the playoffs without losing a game. The away goals rule in the playoffs was eventually scrapped for the 1999-2000 season.
