Enjoy the game – Watford Football Club

Every fairytale has to come to an end sometime. After the shortlived Dave Bassett era, Watford turned to the continuity candidate, Steve Harrison, who had been part of Graham Taylor's coaching staff throughout their most successful seasons. But Harrison – by his own admission – was not cut out for management and although the team made a good stab at making an immediate return to the Firs...

'It was a monumental error but I didn’t see it and neither did Elton' – Dave Bassett Summer 1987 Meet the new boss, very different to the old boss. Elton John wasted little time lining up a successor to Graham Taylor. He called round to see Dave Bassett, who had been part of a similar fairytale journey through the divisions at Wimbledon. Bassett also had a reputation as a long ball manager, althou...

'No one got Elton and I together and asked if this was what we wanted' – Graham Taylor Just after the season had ended, with the disappointment of the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Tottenham still fresh in everyone's minds, the unthinkable happens. Graham Taylor announced he had the chance to go to Aston Villa. He half-expected Elton, or one of the directors, to implore him to stay. But no one...

'Never in a million years did we think we’d need him' Watford's build-up to the 1987 FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur was plagued by misfortune. First Tony Coton got injured. Then his goalkeeping understudy Steve Sherwood got hurt too. With the transfer deadline having passed and many of the nation's goalkeepers cup-tied, Watford had to turn in the most unlikely direction. That's how Ga...

'I hated playing on the wing. I absolutely hated it' – David Bardsley Graham Taylor's gradual evolution produced arguably the finest team of his ten year reign in 1986-87. Tony Coton was the best uncapped goalkeeper in the country. John McClelland led the defence with an understated sense of calm. Kevin Richardson added silk in midfield. John Barnes had developed into an international-class w...

'Right foot or left, Cally could drive it in, float it in or curl it. Brilliant' A portrait of an icon, one of the most mercurial homegrown talents in the club’s history. Nigel Callaghan was often not appreciated as much as his teammate on the other wing, John Barnes. But Callaghan's ability to cross a ball made him one of the most effective wide players in the game. But Callaghan and Graham Taylo...

'You’re turning me into a Watford player now' – Brian Talbot As Graham Taylor continues to refresh the team, not every player fits the mould. Watford move into the transfer market again to add Brian Talbot, an experienced midfielder who'd spent the best years of his career at Ipswich Town and Arsenal. Talbot was chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association and widely respected in the...

English football was in the doldrums in the 1980s. Hooliganism was thought of as 'the English disease'. English fans caused trouble at home and abroad, culminating in the tragic violence that marred the 1985 European Cup final. England's grounds were run-down and blighted by fences designed to keep hooligans in. But Watford were determined to buck the trend and set a very different example. As hum...

'I just wish he’d signed McClelland before he bought Tony.' Watford had survived two seasons in the First Division but Graham Taylor knew the club was not yet an established top-flight club. In the summer of 1984, he turned his attention to strengthening the team and signed two players who would become key parts of the team. Having finished runners-up at the first attempt, followed by an appearanc...

'I wish we’d been told it was just a normal game of football,' Neil Price The FA Cup final on May 19, 1984 put Watford on the biggest stage in world football, in front of a global audience of hundreds of millions. Just six years earlier they'd been facing the likes of Southport and Darlington in the Fourth Division. Finishing runners-up to Liverpool had been one thing but to reach Wembley marked t...

'Once we’d beaten Luton, I felt it might be our year' Before the draw for the FA Cup third round was made, Graham Taylor told Elton John to keep FA Cup final day free. Elton was about to set off on a huge European tour but he took Taylor's advice on board and asked his management company to keep Saturday, May 19 1984 free. Then the third round draw gave Watford a very difficult trip to local rival...

'When it kicks off, it’s always the big guy who gets it' – George Reilly As Graham Taylor sought to revamp his team, he stuck to his tried and tested methods. One of his biggest challenges was replacing the Blissett-Jenkins strikeforce that had been so successful. So he went back to what he knew and replicated the combination of a big target man and a quick striker. In came George Reilly from...

'I looked out there on the pitch. They were just kids.' In autumn 1982, Watford embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. First stop was West Germany and a UEFA Cup first round date with Kaiserslautern. The squad was entering a transitional period. Luther Blissett, Ross Jenkins and Gerry Armstrong had all moved on. Some of the players who'd helped the club to the First Division were coming to the e...

'We’ve asked Milan for a million pounds, so that should be the end of that' In the summer of 1983, Watford prepared to say farewell to their favourite son, as Luther Blissett headed to Milan. Blissett had been with the team since the Fourth Division days and had just topped the First Division goalscoring charts ahead of Liverpool's Ian Rush as the Hornets finished runners-up in the league. An offe...

'I told the players we would not be changing our style. We were going to attack.' Watford had reached Division One well ahead of the schedule initially laid out by Graham Taylor and Elton John in 1977. The question was, were they ready to take on the best clubs in the country? The 1982-83 season came hot on the heels of the World Cup where the Hornets striker Gerry Armstrong had made headlines aro...

'I learned he was not the dictator the players thought he was' – John Ward We meet Graham Taylor’s backroom team, who embraced the gaffer’s inimitable style, and created The Watford Way. Both John Ward and Steve Harrison had been signed by Taylor as players. Tom Walley had hung up his boots when Taylor arrived in 1977 and had built a youth development system to rival the best clubs in the cou...

‘I hope the people who weren’t there the night we made it felt a part of it’ The Hornets make history, reaching the top flight for the first time. The 1981-82 season had gone almost perfectly. They were in the promotion hunt throughout the campaign, despite the fact local rivals Luton Town were ahead of them. There was the customary wobble in spring time but victory over Wrexham at Vicarage Road g...

'His performance against Chelsea showed he was the last piece of the jigsaw.' In late summer 1981, Watford found the final piece of the jigsaw – John Barnes. The discovery of a 17-year-old spotted playing parks football in London is an almost mythical story with several different versions of how he came to sign for the Hornets. What is not disputed is that Barnes had an immediate effect and q...

‘He wanted to play with two wingers and attack. I thought, I love this guy.’ Graham Taylor goes shopping again, spending a significant amount of Elton John's investment on a player from each of the North London giants and a much less heralded arrival from Oxford United. Two men from Northern Ireland were key to Watford's plans to push for promotion. Pat Rice had been Bertie Mee's captain at Arsena...

The Southampton players just wanted to get out of there The Hornets complete a stunning League Cup comeback in September 1980, hitting seven past Southampton at Vicarage Road having trailed 4-0 from the first leg of the tie. It was the first result that really made people in English football sit up and take notice of what was going on at Watford. Graham Taylor would not have said publicly beforeha...

'My biggest regret is using his phrase in interviews' – Graham Taylor What’s the difference between a long ball and a long pass? It's a question that came to characterise the media's coverage of Graham Taylor's Watford team. In 1979, as Taylor was reflecting on the compromises he'd made on arriving in the Second Division, a statistician called Charles Reep wrote to him with a detailed breakdown of...

'If you didn’t want a clip round the ear, don’t cross Tom Walley' Meet Sergeant Major Tom Walley, the man who built Watford’s youth system and turned boys into men. When Graham Taylor arrived at Watford there was no youth system to speak of. Their were barely enough young players to put out a side. Taylor knew that if Watford were to compete in the top divisions they needed to identify and develop...

I knew I had to change something or it was the end of the dream - Graham Taylor Watford made it to the Second Division just two years into Elton and Graham's ten-year plan, but life was not easy rubbing shoulders with the likes of Chelsea, Sunderland and West Ham United. Taylor was determined to give the players who had steered the club to successive promotions a chance at the highest level but af...

Graham Taylor appoints a veteran, Double-winning manager as his assistant in the clearest sign yet that Watford were going places. With an emphasis on fast, attacking football and a desire to outscore the opposition home and away, Taylor's methods have an immediate effect as they win the Fourth Division title and then pass straight through the Third Division to reach the second tier for the first...

'You’re going to work harder than you’ve ever worked before' – Graham Taylor In the summer of 1977, after two consecutive seasons stuck in the Fourth Division, Watford had a new manager. Graham Taylor had led Lincoln City out of the bottom division with a record-breaking points total and he swept into Vicarage Road determined to change the culture and drive up standards. His first job was to...