Today I'm going back exactly 40 years to 1982 and a remarkable game played at Vicarage Road, Watford between "the Hornets" (Watford) and Sunderland. 16,744 people were in attendance to witness Watford 8 Sunderland 0 and this, along with another couple of 8-timers, remains the most goals scored I have ever seen by a side playing at home. It was certainly great value for money since my ticket cost just £3 to sit in the main (West) stand! Watford's 8-0 victory remains their joint biggest ever winning margin in the Football League. At the time, Watford suffered a fair amount of criticism for their direct playing style but I can assure you that there was no shortage of entertainment on offer on this particular Saturday!
Chairman Elton John had taken control of the club in 1976 and he appointed Graham Taylor with the club slumbering in the Fourth Division. Elton declared that he wanted to take Watford to the First Division and oh how we chuckled. Taylor got Watford promoted in his first season in charge and the club progressed through the leagues until they achieved the Rocket Man's goal of promotion from the Second Division at the end of 1981/82. The featured game was just Watford's seventh of their very first season in Division 1 and, after six games played, Watford were to be found perched proudly in 3rd place with 12 points already in the bag and sitting just behind Manchester United and Liverpool.
Today's programme cover star is Watford's Ross Jenkins, seen here outjumping Everton's defence on the opening day of the season. Jenkins joined Watford from Crystal Palace in 1972 and amassed 339 Football League appearances for the Hornets scoring 118 goals. Jenkins really blossomed under Taylor's management but 1982/83 was to be his final playing season in England. Perhaps uniquely, Jenkins appeared for Watford in 1975/76 when they slumped to the bottom of the Football League (92nd place) and also, for a week in early season in 1982/83, he appeared when Watford went to the very summit of the First Division. I wonder how many players could say that? The programme also contains a photograph of a rather youthful looking Watford reserve team coach John Ward who would go on to become a manager himself in due course.
The video of the match which accompanies my blog is very grainy and the cameraman didn't do a great job but at least there is some footage available. Actually that cameraman seemed to have a thing about Watford's new-fangled electronic scoreboard which looks particularly basic to modern eyes but was state-of-the-art at the time. Nigel Callaghan scored the opening goal with a header and made it 2-0 a few minutes later in similar style. Luther Blissett then controlled a long ball before finishing for his first of the afternoon before Ross Jenkins notched Watford's fourth goal to make it 4-0 at the interval. I find that 4-0 at half time almost never becomes 8-0 at full time because work rate and determination reduces once a side builds up a large unassailable lead but, on this occasion, there was no let up from Watford. After the break Blissett scored his second with a header before turning provider for another Jenkins goal. With seven minutes remaining, Blissett scored again with his head for his first ever career hattrick and he added another in the 88th minute to round off the scoring. Watford were good but four-goal Luther Blissett was magnificent that afternoon.
Watford went on to surprise the football cognoscenti by lingering at the top of the table for the whole of the rest of the season and they finished second only to champions Liverpool. I wonder how many newly promoted sides would aspire to that these days? Sunderland, under manager Alan Durban, for all their defensive woes in the featured match, went on to finish 16th (of 22) and stayed up by three points and Durban kept his job as a result. The three relegated sides that year were Manchester City, Swansea City and Brighton & Hove Albion. .
CRB Match No. 193
Comments
Post a Comment