25 - 1977-78-79 Teams

The 1977-78-79 Teams

“The lives of heroes have enriched history and history has embellished the exploits of heroes” – La Bruy Ereas

Few in the catchment area doubted Watford deserved to be playing at a higher level than Division 4 but the slump, following Ken Furphy’s departure, from Division 2 to the lower reaches of the League, including a brief occupancy of 92nd place, had rendered the 1970’s a decade of growing depression at Vicarage Road.

Yet it was Graham Taylor who changed all that and enabled the decade to finish as brightly as it had commenced. Almost immediately he made two pivotal signings in the summer of 1977.

The first was Sam Ellis, a rugged centre half, but, more particularly, a good leader, who provided the dressing-room link between manager and players. An adept penalty-taker, he was to play a decreasing role in the two successive promotions, but Taylor remained adamant that Ellis laid the foundation for the immediate success.

lan Bolton was to establish himself as Taylor’s best-ever recruit, playing a part in Watford’s run from Fourth Division to runners-up in the old First Division. A £12,000 signing by the Fourth Division club, he failed to impress in midfield but soon tied down one of the central defensive positions.

A player with an ability to hit an arrowing, 40-yard pass with great accuracy, he was Watford’s Mr Long Ball, but, unlike the critics would have us believe, lan, or Webby as he was known to his colleagues, knew exactly where he was hitting those raking passes and precisely who would be on the end of them.

A back injury in 1978 forced Taylor to go out and buy Steve Sims, but Bolton bounced back to become an integral part of the second promotion team and later a key member of the side that made it to the top flight and then upset the purists’ apple-cart. Voted Player of the Season, he was one of the more illustrious contributors of what remains an extremely memorable era.

Dennis Booth was another new recruit to the Fourth Division cause. A players’ player, his contributions were not quite as apparent as those of the others who kept the midfield ticking over, but he was very much appreciated by his colleagues as the unflamboyant engine room of the side.

Subsequently a much-travelled man in the coaching world, he was a busy midfielder for Watford, captaining the side to the second promotion as Ellis took a back seat.

Off the field, he was a fine mimic with an excellent, morale-boosting sense of humour. As with Ellis and Bolton (albeit briefly when on loan), Booth played for Taylor at Lincoln and was another to help make the manager’s transition to Vicarage Road as smooth as it was effective.

Brian Pollard was the other new face on the Watford block, when he signed early in the season, after scoring against the Hornets, for York City. He was the most expensive, new recruit that campaign, at £30,000, but although the fast and direct winger was not as effective, or as consistent, as the other newcomers, he provided the much-needed width on the right flank over the two seasons, before being sold to Mansfield at a 100 per cent profit, after they had gained a second promotion.

There were, however, a number of useful and influential players already at the club when Taylor arrived. Luther Blissett and Ross Jenkins have been featured separately, and, along with Bolton and Steve Sherwood, made up the quartet of players who helped to take the club all the way from Division 4 to Europe.

Sherwood was to become a regular four years into the Taylor Revolution, although he made 16 League appearances in each of the first two successful seasons.

A quiet, charming and unassuming personality, he became a good, sound keeper capable of making massive clearances. He was to feature strongly in the promotion season to the First Division and onwards, until some rough justice from the referee, in the FA Cup Final, prompted a loss of confidence.

However, he was a key squad player during the halcyon days even though, initially, he had to play second fiddle to Andy Rankin.

A former Everton keeper, Rankin had joined Watford when they were struggling in the Second Division, had been with them on the way down to the Fourth and was to play a large part in helping them return to the top half of the League.

At the outset, however, he shocked Taylor by asking for a transfer, although the subsequent success prompted him to re-evaluate his situation. Twice voted Player of the Season earlier in the decade, he became the reliable last line of defence, also demonstrating a particular knack for saving penalties.

He would have featured more often in the promotion side had he not slipped and broken his collar bone when attempting to bring the coal in at his north Watford home. One of few successes when things were going wrong earlier in the decade, he helped to put things right at the end and will be remembered, by all those who saw it, for a remarkable save at Old Trafford to deny Gordon McQueen and Manchester United an equaliser in a League Cup tie.

Another key player was Bobby Downes, who had suffered relegation with Watford to the Fourth Division and starred in a purple patch of wing-play in their promotion campaign.

Originally billed as a left back or left winger, Downes settled in a position wide on the left flank, providing the crosses for the strapping Jenkins and the rising Blissett. He adapted so well, he was later to join Taylor’s management teams with Aston Villa, Wolves and then Watford.

One of the unexpected stars of the Division 4 championship season was Alan Garner. It was unexpected because he was transfer-listed from the outset yet finished the campaign winning the Player of the Season Award.

Another to overcome the Vicarage Road handicap of having previously played for Luton, he was already something of a favourite by the time Taylor arrived. The transfer-listing of Garner, along with the purchase of Ellis and Bolton, caused a pre-season flurry of concern on the terraces but the elegant central defender finished the campaign as an ever-present.

Useful in the air, he scored a few goals in the campaign when he came up for set pieces and his reading of play developed behind Ellis and then Bolton. He was a regular the following season but along with Downes, Pollard, Joslyn, Booth, Rankin and Ellis, he failed to hold his place in the Second Division and was moved on when the team was broken up in readiness for the next push.

Tony Geidmintis was almost certainly the only player of Lithuanian extraction to play for Watford. He commenced the season in the team and made 22 appearances before he was sold on to his former manager, Mike Keen, at Northampton in the February before promotion was secured.

Trevor How, a former apprentice, filled in at right back but was to remain essentially a fringe player during the rise to the threshold of the First Division, which was ironic because, having broken into the first team before he completed his apprenticeship, he looked set for a bigger role.

Others shared a nominal number of appearances, such as Bobby Svarc, who sustained a career-ending injury in his first game on loan; trialist Doug Allder, who was substituted during his one outing; former apprentices Kevin McCarthy, Peter Coffill and Jimmy Walsh; new signing Albert McClenaghan, who caught the eye by throwing himself forward and leaving the ball behind when taking a throw-in, and Dennis Bond, who started the season in the team, sustained a cartilage injury, recovered and returned for what was his Watford swan-song.

Roger Joslyn was a hard-working, tough-tackling midfield man whom Taylor inherited and was to set great store by. He played a significant part in both promotions, particularly when Watford faded as they approached the finishing line in 1979. An honest and industrious player, he racked up over 200 appearances for Watford and he thrived on the work-ethos under Taylor. The Hornets boss, overhearing Roger relate how he scored a promotion-clinching goal earlier in his career, noted that the wing half admitted he had nightmares for weeks after, picturing himself missing the target.

This retrospective self-doubt worried the manager but, when the going started to get tough in the Division 3 campaign, Joslyn hauled the rest through the belief-barrier to take them to Division 2, which proved a step too far for the player himself.

Another who did not last the full course of the early Taylor years was Alan Mayes, who preferred to be a striker whereas his manager thought he had the skill and pace to become a particularly effective winger. A gifted player, Mayes was a regular in the Division 4 championship side and finished the second-highest goalscorer. He was sidelined for much of the following season before being sold to Swindon, where he caused a few hearts to flutter at Vicarage Road as he helped the Wiltshire club come through with a strong challenge for promotion.

Striker Keith Mercer impressed Taylor by his bravery and his preparedness to “go in horizontal” in pursuit of a goal. Unfortunately, he was the victim of a late tackle as he scored in a home game and he was never quite the same player after this.

The knee injury he sustained ruled him out of the remainder of the campaign and, although he was to return to action the following season, he played second fiddle to the Jenkins-Blissett partnership. Another home-grown product, and the youngest player to appear for Watford, he was to become Player of the Season and remains a Watford devotee.

He deserved better fortune than the fates dished out to him and eventually he had to hang up his boots as a result of the knee problems.

The last of the inherited players was Keith Pritchett, who had a cultured, accurate left foot, was an able penalty-taker and held down the left-back spot for the Division 4 campaign but gradually lost out to the more defensively aggressive Steve Harrison over subsequent campaigns.

The transformation in Watford was almost immediate under Taylor in 1977-78. They lost just two of their first 11 games and that was sufficient for them to take over the leadership after winning at rivals Brentford in October.

From then onwards, they never looked back and while, in the days of two points for a win, their superiority in the league table as they finished with an 11-point lead, was not always reflected on the pitch, they had the mental toughness to grind out results.

They wrapped up the title, losing just five matches in the process, with six games to play.

1978-79

“The players of today are making memories and when, in years to come, the fans tell you of their memories and you are part of them, it is so very nice” – Tommy Barnett.

By contrast, the 1978-79 campaign was far more glamorous, exciting and contained some far superior

football, until their progress to the League Cup semi-final caused a certain amount of disruption to the team pattern.

Taylor added to his staff during the season, but such was the cup run, he was forced to play two “teams”, one for the ties and one, which included the cup-tied new recruits, in the Division 3 campaign. This, along with the disappointment of losing the semi-final with Wembley so close, caused them to stagger towards the finish.

They ended the season with a flourish, winning at Sheffield Wednesday and then thrashing Hull City at Vicarage Road to return the club to the old Second Division. For the main part, it was a superb campaign, enlivened by the scoring of hatfuls of goals by Jenkins and Blissett, the most deadly partnership since the days of Holton and Uphill.

The first newcomer to join the Division 4 champions in 1978 was John Stirk, who was to have the singular experience of being an ever-present throughout the league and cup campaigns, celebrating with the rest of his team-mates after the victory over Hull, but, was not to make another league contribution to Watford’s cause.

The tendency of the former Ipswich full back to turn inside and risk being dispossessed had his manager tearing his hair out and eventually Taylor decided enough was enough.

At left back, Steve Harrison, one of the funniest, if not the funniest player ever to join Watford, found it something of a struggle to make an impact in the Division 3 side. He was to win that battle but, a couple of seasons later, he was replaced by the converted winger Wilf Rostron and finished with a free transfer.

He was to return as coach, leave with Graham Taylor for Aston Villa and came back eight months later as manager. A tough tackler, he once described himself as a “muck and nettles” player.

Ray Train became Watford’s record signing when he joined for a £50,000 fee. A midfielder, he did not fit in so well when Watford found their feet in the Second Division and switched to a more attacking mode, but he remained a steady player in the successful Division 3 side and was later to score in the most memorable of Watford’s victories, the 7-1 success at the expense of Southampton.

Undoubtedly the most impressive purchase during their rise up the divisions was Steve Sims, an imposing centre half with a tendency towards thoughtful distribution. He too took time to adjust, saddled with the £175,000 record price tag, but he proved to be a sound investment. The Division 3 campaign was not his best as he tried to come to terms with the football after dropping down from Leicester.

However, this long-throw specialist, with the habit of wiping his hands on a ball-boy’s shirt before launching the ball into the penalty area, became a key member of the team in the latter half of the rise to top-flight prominence.

Probably the best centre half Watford have ever had, a knee problem limited his ultimate potential but he was to return to Vicarage Road and take over the role again, and, when discarded by Dave Bassett, he made an impact with Taylor at Aston Villa.

These then were the players who, in 1979, helped Watford regain the status they had lost in 1972, and remain, along with other teams reviewed, well and fondly remembered.