Robert Exley
Six months on after Arsenal’s back to back defeats over Easter 1986, at Highbury Watford met an Arsenal side with a very different outlook after George Graham had replaced Don Howe. One week on from an impressive 1-0 win away at Everton, the Gunners made it two on the bounce with a 3-1 win over the Hornets with goals from Perry Groves, a Martin Hayes penalty and Niall Quinn. Controversy ensued from this game however after goalkeeper Tony Coton had been sent off. The very same referee was appointed to officiate when the two sides met in the FA Cup Quarter Final at Highbury. Ten days earlier Arsenal sealed their first trip to Wembley in seven years and were hoping to head there on a dual carriageway which also included the FA Cup, though didn’t go into this game in the best of form losing back to back League fixtures away at Chelsea and at home to Liverpool.
Watford however the week prior beat the eventual champions Everton 2-1 at Vicarage Road live on Match of the Day the previous Sunday. Arsenal took the lead when Ian Allinson pounced on a defensive mix-up. However Luther Blissett equalised before half time, followed by John Barnes putting Watford ahead in the second half. Controversy followed again, while Arsenal were chasing an equaliser as Niall Quinn was deemed to have been fouled in the box. The Watford defence cleared, while the linesman had flagged for a penalty. Watford however played to the whistle while Arsenal froze and broke away with Luther Blissett wrapping up the tie with his second to give Watford a 3-1 win.
The real drama however followed the final whistle as missiles were pelted at the officials as they left the field. Graham Taylor sensing further trouble ordered to refrain from celebrating and quickly exit the field of play, this however wasn’t enough to appease Steve Williams who squared up to the Watford manager on leaving the field of play causing a fracas on the way into the tunnel. A week later, Arsenal were to visit Vicarage Road in the League and made it back to back defeats for the Gunners who suffered a further 0-2 loss, which would be Watford’s fifth win on the trot in all competitions. In the run up to the Semi Final however, Watford would lose three games on the bounce.
What would be worse for Watford however was goalkeeping crisis which unfurled just ahead of the semi as first choice keeper Tony Coton broke his finger, followed by reserve goalie Steve Sherwood – who appeared for the Hornets in the FA Cup Final three years prior – dislocating his finger too. The transfer deadline had passed, which meant that Watford were unable to make a signing either on loan or permanent, meaning that the only players they could sign had to be unattached. As a result, Watford Chief executive Eddie Plumley called upon his own son, thirty one year old Gary Plumley, who played 182 times for Newport County in the late 1970s, as well as Cardiff City in the mid to late eighties, but more recently had been playing for Ebbw Vale in Welsh amateur football while running a Wine Bar.
Sadly, Plumley was out of his depth in the FA Cup Semi Final, as Spurs hammered Watford 1-4. Plumley went back to obscurity but received a cheque for his day’s work which he claimed went towards buying a new fridge. Watford would finish ninth in the table after a 1-0 win over a Spurs side preparing for the 1987 FA Cup Final the following week. This however would be the last game of Graham Taylor’s decade in charge. John Barnes also exited for Anfield. Watford in turn replaced Taylor with another boss who had taken his side up the Divisions, Wimbledon’s Dave Bassett. Watford’s Kevin Richardson decided that Wimbledon Mk II wasn’t for him and in turn headed to Highbury.
In this interview for Grandstand Elton John discusses Graham Taylor, Bassett and a libel dispute with The Sun who ran an unfounded front page story that he had engaged in activities with under aged male prostitutes, of which he successfully sued the newspaper. The Bassett era however never turned out well for Watford. Minus Graham Taylor, Elton John was now beginning to look elsewhere and on the eve of a fixture with Oxford United announced a deal had been reached with Robert Maxwell for Elton to sell his shares to the media tycoon. Maxwell at the time was also the Chairman of Derby County, as well as having a controlling interest in Oxford United who were chaired by Maxwell’s son Kevin and a 19% interest in Reading FC, whom Maxwell proposed to merge with Oxford United under the name ‘Thames Valley Royals’ which ultimately failed as well as unsuccessful attempts at buy Man United in 1984 and Spurs in 1991.
Such was Robert Maxwell’s appetite for acquiring Football clubs that Tommy Docherty remarked that Maxwell was also interested in buying Brighton and Hove Albion as he was under the impression it was more than one club. One week on, Arsenal visited Vicarage Road for that season’s away fixture. The Gunners were atop of the old First Division, though a week earlier lost their first game after a seventeen match unbeaten run in all competitions. Watford in contrast were languishing around the relegation zone, which made it all the more surprising that they claimed all three points in a 0-2 defeat for Arsenal.
With regard to Maxwell’s takeover attempt the Football League acted to prevent the deal going ahead by ruling that one person could not have a controlling interest in more than one club (though under a ‘grandparent’ ruling could retain his interest in Oxford, Derby and Reading). After Maxwell disappeared from view Soho pornographer Paul Raymond arrived on the horizon, who as Thames News reporter Graham Miller describes was known at the time as ‘Mr. Sex’ (obviously that was one of the Roger Hargreaves ‘Mr. Men’ series of books that wasn’t commissioned!). The deal with Raymond never went ahead due to the objection of Elton John, who ironically claimed that: ‘Paul Raymond is not a fit and proper person to buy Watford, but Robert Maxwell is’.
One clear fragrant conflict of interest with Maxwell’s multiple involvement with Football clubs came with the sale of Oxford United’s Dean Saunders to Maxwell’s other club Derby County and the ensuing argument between Oxford’s then boss Mark Lawrenson effectively ended the brief managerial career of the latter, forever consigned to MOTD punditry ever since. A few years later, Maxwell died after falling off of his yacht, just prior to the exposure of his embezzlement of the pension funds of those who worked for the Mirror Group Newspapers.
Back to the 1987/88 season, Watford’s win over Arsenal would be Dave Bassett’s last as he was sacked in January as Watford lay rock bottom of the old First Division. Steve Harrison took over, but Watford’s misery continued with John Barnes returning to Vicarage Road with Liverpool and scoring against his old club to inflict a 1-4 drubbing on his old side. Watford did however put together a Cup run of sorts, meeting Wimbledon in the Quarter Final of the FA Cup in March. The Hornets went a goal up at half time, with Wimbledon down to ten men after Brian Gayle had been sent off for hitting out at an opponent. The Dons however pulled it round to inflict a 1-2 defeat on Watford to eliminate them from the FA Cup.
Watford visited Arsenal in mid-April that season languishing at the bottom of the table. The fixture took place on a Friday evening so as to not clash with the Football League Centenary Tournament taking place at Wembley (which both Arsenal and Watford declined to enter). A crowd of just 19,541 turned out for the game, as seen by the empty seats around Highbury. The few who attended saw Watford inflict a shock 0-1 defeat on the Gunners with a goal from Rick Holden. The result finally pulled Watford off of the bottom of the table, though they were six points clear of safety with just three games left to play. The win at Highbury however would be Watford’s last of the season, with their fate sealed after a 1-1 draw with Derby at Vicarage Road had consigned them to the drop after five seasons in the top tier.
There would be no quick return to the top tier for Watford, who for the next eight seasons in the second tier would spend all but two in the bottom half of the table before dropping to the third tier after finishing second from bottom in 1995/96. Meanwhile their former manager would rise up to English football’s top job to manage the England National side in 1990 on Bobby Robson’s resignation. Taylor’s reign however was generally considered a disaster for English football, the period encapsulated by Channel 4’s ‘Fly on the Wall’ Documentary ‘An Impossible Job’ (and did he not like that?).
After the axe fell on Taylor in the England role after failing to Qualify for the 1994 World Cup Finals (the only time we’ve failed to qualify for the last nine tournaments) and after a brief unsuccessful spell at Wolves, he returned to Watford again in 1996 as Director of Football, though on Elton John repurchasing the club a year later, was reappointed manager after a decade’s absence. Incredibly, the Elton John/Graham Taylor axis repeated the trick again by winning the third tier championship in 1997/98 after beating Fulham at Craven Cottage. The following season they made it two promotions on the bounce after beating Birmingham on penalties in the play-off Semi Final, then beating Bolton 2-0 in the play-off final to secure Premiership football for Watford just ahead of the millennium.
Watford first Premiership fixture in 1999/2000 ended in a 2-3 loss to Wimbledon, with Graham Taylor reunited with Dons boss Egil Olsen who as Norway manager for most of the nineties eliminated Taylor’s England side from the 1994 World Cup in the Qualifying stage. Watford’s first win in the Premiership came with a 1-0 victory at Anfield a week later. The Hornets also managed a 1-0 win over Chelsea at Vicarage Road one month later, a week ahead of their first Premiership trip to Highbury where Arsenal took all three points with a 1-0 win secured by an Nwankwo Kanu goal four minutes from time.
That defeat at Highbury started a three month run without a win for Watford, with the Hornets slipping to second from bottom. Watford’s next victory came just after Christmas with a 3-2 win over Southampton at Vicarage Road. They’d only managed one further win by the time of Arsenal’s visit to Vicarage Road on Easter Sunday of 2000. It was around this period when Thierry Henry was beginning to establish himself in the Premiership as a central striker, scoring in his fifth successive game (after Henry’s first goal you can actually spot the recognisable figure of Gooner columnist Highbury Spy @0.13). Ray Parlour doubled Arsenal’s lead before an utterly superb Thierry Henry goal put Arsenal three up before half time.
In the second half Watford surprisingly pulled two goals back – the second a complete howler by David Seaman who hadn’t been in particularly great form toward the end of that season (the Hornets fans ironically serenaded him that afternoon with ‘Martyn for England’ in reference to Leeds United’s in form keeper. Seaman responded to them by yawning, followed by that famous grin of his). Arsenal however hung on for a 3-2 win at Vicarage Road to do the Double over Watford – the first time in which the Gunners managed to beat the Hornets home and away in the same season, though Watford by this point had actually achieved this feat over the Gunners on three separate occasions! Watford only managed one further win this season – a 1-0 win over Coventry at Vicarage Road on the final day.
The Hornets finished rock bottom and twelve points adrift of safety in 1999/2000, returning back to the Football League. Graham Taylor remained at Watford until 2001, before leaving to join Aston Villa as manager as he had done so fourteen years prior. Arsenal’s next meeting with the Hornets came in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2002, with a 4-2 win for the Gunners with goals from Thierry Henry, Freddie Ljungberg, Nwankwo Kanu and Dennis Bergkamp. Watford would not return again to the Premiership until beating Leeds United 3-0 in the Play-off Final at Wembley in 2005/06 under Aidy Boothroyd’s management.
In 2006/07 Watford fared no better than they did seven years earlier, visiting Arsenal’s new ground in mid-October 2006 (the fixture in which Arsene Wenger commemorated a decade in charge at Arsenal). In the event the Gunners comfortably ran out 3-0 winners with an own goal from Jordan Stewart and goals for Thierry Henry and Emmanuel Adebayor. It took Watford until November to finally win in the Premiership, with a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough with a goal from future Aston Villa and Man United star Ashley Young. Arsenal’s visit to Vicarage Road came on Boxing Day of 2006, in which Arsenal ran out 2-1 winners with goals from Gilberto Silva and Robin Van Persie.
Watford finished 2006/07 rock bottom of the Premiership again and fourteen points adrift from safety. Watford remained in the Football League until the introduction of the Pozzo family in June 2012 who appointed fellow countryman Gianfranco Zola on arrival. Rather like Robert Maxwell, the Pozzo family have an interest in multiple clubs albeit in different countries with Udinese in Italy and Granada in Spain (and of course, no suggestion whatsoever of any of the financial misdemeanours of the aforementioned). Watford enjoyed play off drama in 2012/13 in the semi-final against present day Premiership Champions Elect Leicester City. The Hornets faced elimination with a last minute penalty, which was kept out by a double save from former Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia before Watford grabbed the winner at the other end just seconds later.
Watford however were denied in the play-off final that season with veteran former Hornet Kevin Phillips scoring the only goal in a 0-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at Wembley, their passage back to the Premiership however was secured last season finishing as second tier runners up, sealing promotion with a 2-0 win away at Brighton. Despite the fact that promotion was sealed by Slavisa Jokanovic as boss, in the summer the Serbian left Vicarage Road over wage demands and the Hornets have since appointed former Atletico Madrid boss Quique Flores. Arsenal’s visit to Vicarage Road this season came in mid-October with a comfortable 3-0 win for the Gunners sealed with goals from Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey.
