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Thank you Graham Taylor.

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Kevin Hogg

Kevin Hogg

President
The " Watford Years" were an incredible serious of matches in the later 1970's that created an excitement and intensity of rivalry not matched since. Yet prior to Mr Taylor taking over at Vicarage Road, I am fairly certain they were just another "local...ish" club we crossed swords with across the years.
We had the two monumental promotion clashes in 77/78 which took on enough prominence for the away fixture to feature on Match Of The Day - despite being a basement tier game.
The following season - in addition to the league clashes - we had two memorable cup ties. Both clubs massively aware the reward was a home game with the Champions of Europe and the best club side in the world. Indeed an anniversary thread appeared on SZ this very week discussing the Liverpool match.
There was such a rivalry between the two sets of fans. That is probably enough detail on the day Mr Taylor passed away.

I believe that none of the incredible excitement, that created life-long memories. would have happened without Graham Taylor becoming manager of Watford and teaming up with Elton John.
If I am honest - Taylor, Elton and Watford FC gave Southend United the additional inspiration and desire to battle for the 4th Division title in 78 and the following year earn the biggest home match in our history. They brought the very best out of our club (and of course - the worst ; )).
Thanks for the memories Graham Taylor.
 
Indeed fantastic days for me as a 13/14 year old.

Many people remember him for his England documentary but does anyone remember the one he made in the 70's around the time we were great rivals. It was one of the first fly on the wall about a manager.
 
Wasn't GT the one who broke Johnny Mckinven leg?,even being a young kid at the time I still remember the incident all these years later very clearly
 
Chairman Trigg said:
Wasn't GT the one who broke Johnny Mckinven leg?,even being a young kid at the time I still remember the incident all these years later very clearly
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Yep. When he was playing as a full back for Lincoln City. I believe that added fuel to the rivalries we had with Watford in the 70's and Lincoln in the 80's.................. Thanks for the memories. Appy days !
 
Pak Power said:
Ross Jenkins springs to mind from back then, He was about 6'7" and a real handful
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About 20 years ago he was running a hotel/sports ground in Spain. I played in a football tournament he had organised and there were about 30 of us from the same club all staying in his hotel.

He was miserable from the start, so I never got to ask him about those great Watford days. By the end of the weekend he had fallen out with everyone. I'm convinced it was because he never got to play Liverpool in the FA cup.
 
Wimbledon, Oxford, Northampton, Wigan and Luton have all regularly pitted their wits against Southend, then gone on to enviable success before sinking back down again.

Watford also were with us at the basement level, but unlike the others, have by and large built on their success with staying power and become known as a credible family club – the Crocodile Rock man is the differentiating factor and the foundations he laid down with Graham Taylor were pivotal.

RIP Mr Taylor
 
After Ross Jenkins came the next tall striker George Reilly. He scored the winner for Watford in the FA cup semi-final v Plymouth in 1984 with a header of course

George was a right handful and claims to have had over 100 stiches in his career. The story goes that he was working back at his original trade as a brickie some 20 years later when he was attacked and had part of his ear bitten off. The attacker whispered in his other ear......Plymouth.
 
londonblue said:
Wasn't GT also Lincoln's manager when they came 2nd to us in our 4th division championship season?
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No, he was at Lincoln before Watford. He won the Div 4 tittle in about 1976 with Lincoln before taking over at Watford back in div 4 in 1977. He won the title again at the first attempt, quite comfortably and we come up with them. They only lost a few games that season and one of them was at RH.

The following season they finished 2nd in Div 3 and again we had some great games including the famous cup replay win, when we knew the winners would be playing Liverpool. They ended up in the top flight football so had gone from 4th to 1st in just 5 years.

Shows how much the game has change financially as he turned down much bigger clubs in his 10 years at Watford. I believe he even turned down a club in Div 1 to take over Watford in Div 4 in the first place. In those days clubs looked for a rising young British manager in the lower leagues rather than say appoint an American.
 
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