The Centenary Year

Welcome to Oh My Word, a podcast about Watford in the 1990s. We're Matthew and Michael, two Watford fans who started supporting Watford at the turn of this decade, just as they became crap. The '90s was a decade that changed English football forever, and we'll be taking each season in turn as we look at memorable moments on the Vicarage Road pitch, key players, and changes taking place behind the scenes, as well as trying to place it all in the wider context of what was happening in football at the time. So in this episode, we're looking at the '91-'92 season, and that rather upbeat intro music was the music that previewed the introduction of the 1991-92 video review certainly a lot more upbeat than what we encountered last time, the 1991 season, which was not the greatest start to the decade and the outlook and everything that we covered there was all quite bleak and all quite grim. I'm hoping that this one is going to get us going a bit more. I'll be a bit more positive. So I'll hand over to Matt to tell us what was going on in this, at the start of this season.

Matt?

Yeah, so the '91-'92 season was actually the last season of the Football League as we'd known it. There was the announcement of the breakaway Premier League. During the 1980s, there'd been a rise in the number of top clubs that had been run as sort of highly commercial business ventures. This idea of the local businessmen running their local club as chairman was increasingly a lower league thing, and lots of big clubs wanted a new structure and a new arrangement that gave them more power, more say, more income, and particularly more money from TV companies, you know, for the coverage of their matches. So most of the plotting was done by what was the Big Five then at the time. So Man United, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal, and actually Everton as well. Premier League was formally confirmed in the February of this season.

ITV had been a big front runner in terms of trying to win the broadcast rights, but kind of as we discussed last time, Sky put in a big huge offer, you know, much bigger than what had come before, much more than was even talked about in negotiations. And it was a big turning point in English football that would never be quite the same, and was kind of a concentration of power and wealth in the hands of these elite clubs. It was kind of this sort of microcosm of Western politics at the time, you know, like politics, media, and technology in the '90s. You kind of saw this double down of neoliberal policies that had been in the '70s and the '80s. And for the '90s, the most part, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, as it would be with football clubs as well. We weren't an elite club, but it was our centenary year. It turns out that Countess celebrating 100 years of Watford history isn't quite as straightforward as it might sound.

Indeed, nowadays we talk about 1881 being the landmark year of the foundation of the club. 1891 was when they became the football section of the West Hertfordshire Club and Ground, and they moved to play at Cassio Road, and that was what was celebrated in this season. So kind of recognising that milestone meant that we could proudly display a laurel wreath around a badge on our kit. Much was made of the of the centenary, but I kind of feel it was a bit more of a bit more due to the marketing department of the club. There was a centenary match against Arsenal, there was lots of sponsorship opportunities throughout the season, there was a big gala dinner at the end of the season. Elton John and Graham Taylor were there. But speaking of the badge, we had a new kit made by Bukta.

No one's ever heard of them since. A yellow shirt with red and black stripes on the arms and on the torso and red shorts. That kind of previous season's rather more understated kit, as you described it last time, could have kind of slotted into any part of the late '80s really, but this was much more of a '90s design. The away kit was a little bit more controversial, I think. It kind of had white and light blue and dark blue, a kind of checkerboard approach, an old-fashioned granddad collar. When we spoke about it, you called it unique. I think a lot of people hate it, but I have to say I really like it.

I still think it looks really good today. I think I like it.

I don't know what the designers were at, where they were trying to get to with the away kit. It is, there's a lot going on. It's a lot— it's a lot of blue, but different shades of blue in different textures through. And there was— there were a few textured shirts around at that time, weren't there? I think like Liverpool's, that grey away kit that was sort of— had a sort of like textured look to it, grey Candy one. Do you remember that one? I do, yeah.

But this was this— I— yeah, I mean, I don't hate it. I remember it. Did you have either of those kits?

I had the away kit. I think I might have had the away as well. Yeah. Yeah, no, I love the Awake. I loved it then and I love it now.

Okay. And the sponsor was RCI.

RCI, yeah, timeshare.

Timeshare, that was it. Was there something to do with Jack Petchey, the owner? Almost certainly so. Almost certainly so, yeah. Right, yeah, a company that again no one else had ever heard of and probably haven't heard of since, but managed to get their name on the shirt for a couple of seasons.

Exactly. Speaking of the kit, on the pitch, it's Steve Perryman's first full season in charge after last year's great escape. In theory, he has his chance to shape the team in his image. He didn't really rate any of Colin Lee's signings, perhaps with the exception of my favourite, Keith Dublin. They didn't really get much of a look in after his appointment, even in the previous season. There were some big outgoings, lots of players' contracts expired, and this was before the days of the Bosman ruling where you could just leave. Glenn Roeder went to Leyton Orient, and both Paul Wilkinson and Willie Falconer left really, really late in the summer to join Middlesbrough.

So the whole period was kind of really disrupted. And because of this, there's not really that much in the way of new signings when season starts. Luther Blissett's return was a headline, but otherwise Perryman kind of, kind of focused more on bringing through some of the younger players. Darren Bazeley had a big bit of a breakthrough campaign. There are a couple of important signings during the season, and we'll come to those as we get later on. But elsewhere in the division, the big spenders are really Blackburn— Blackburn and Derby, they had the biggest spending power. Blackburn in particular, as we've mentioned before, kind of went from this middling provincial club to a relative powerhouse.

Jack Walker's millions, Kenny Dalglish joining throughout the sea— during the season. There's a lot of pressure on them to go up, and the season really didn't go exactly as they probably expected it would. They ended up being successful, but it was a bit of an odd journey. Casting a sort of wider view, the early '90s saw this sort of continued slow dissolution of the Soviet Empire and Yugoslavia, and also the reunification of Germany. From a football point of view, that sort of meant some new international teams that we hadn't necessarily heard of before, and really increased the size of the European confederation. And going back to what we sort of kicked off with that friendly match I mentioned just now, it was a centenary game against Arsenal.

Do you have any particular memories of that match?

I did go to that game, but I don't really, I don't have any particular memories of it. It was interesting watching it back, because they actually put it on the video review of the season. It's very rare that they have a preseason friendly on the video review that you would buy at the end of the season. I think they only did that because it was a centenary match and Arsenal were the league champions. So actually quite a, you know, a big draw for Watford to get the league champs to come and play them in a, in a preseason friendly game to celebrate the 100 years of Watford Football Club. In Watford style, of course, they lost that game, 3-1. Arsenal were not in particularly charitable mood.

New signing Trevor Putney scored for Watford, new signing in midfield. And the only other things I remember, Kevin Campbell gets on the scoresheet, I believe, and a very young Ray Parlour, the Romford Pelé, getting on the scoresheet as well before he was more widely known for drinking endless pints of Cobra on Twitter. But that was the curtain raiser, I suppose. And obviously, you know, that was just a bit of fun. There was no great insights emerge about what was to come from that preseason friendly. But the season started proper 10 days later at home to Wolves. Wolves, always one of the big teams in the Second Division during the '90s, always brought a big, a big crowd to Vicarage Road.

You could tell from the Rookery stand, which was obviously the Rookery terrace at that time, the away terrace at Vicarage Road. Wolves would take that over sometimes. They used to split it in half and just give the away team half of that terrace depending on, you know, the size of their travelling support. Wolves would generally bring enough fans to take it over because of the support that they had at the time. And with Steve Bull up front, an England striker partnered by Andy Mutch at the time, they ran out 2-0 winners comfortably. And that wasn't the best start for Watford. They did get off the mark shortly afterwards in the League Cup, playing the first of what felt like about 100 fixtures against Southend this season.

Southend were newly promoted and they were, they were a useful side, Southend. They'd come up through the divisions although Southend's never been a big club. They had some useful players. They had Brett Angell playing up front for them who was a very highly rated striker at the time and scored a lot of goals for Southend. But Watford managed to get a 2-0 win in the cup with Luther Blissett scoring his first goal back at Watford. And Blissett, I don't know, Matt, if you had memories of Blissett. I had none because I just don't— I'd not experienced the '80s as a fan.

So although for me Blissett was just. He was a legend because I knew he was a legend, but I hadn't actually experienced him playing in a Watford shirt. So him being back and actually and leading the line and scoring goals was great, even though it was the, you know, the twilight of his career and he'd been at Bournemouth. Getting him back, giving like the club those— in the centenary year, clearly giving people a bit of a buzz. Did you have much— did you have much memory of Blissett at that stage, or was that new ground for you as well?

So yeah, kind of, Blissett was more sort of folklore to me, you know. I knew him, it was only a few years before really that he'd been such a success and obviously he'd gone on elsewhere. But the last couple of years he played for Bournemouth, they played in the division below after they were relegated and scored a lot of goals. But for him to come and sign for Watford in the division above and go on to, you know, what turned out to be a really good season for him, his final season for Watford, I think was great and kind of really put a cap in his, in the end of his Watford career and his football career in total. And yeah, it was kind of really good to have him back.

Yeah, and it was because it was, you know, obviously as you pointed out at the start, having lost Paul Wilkinson. There was quite a big hole in the, in the striking roster. They didn't have anyone else who really knew was, you know, was a reliable goalscorer. And even though Blissett, as you say, had been playing at a lower level for the past couple of seasons, he did make an immediate impact. Scored again after that cup game away at Newcastle. There was quite a decent crowd at St. James' Park, but Newcastle were also regulars in the second tier at this time as well. Certainly not, no strangers to that, to that level.

And then in that game, he makes his 458th appearance, Blissett, becoming the record appearance maker, which is a phenomenon given that he sort of left the club for quite a long time. It's a phenomenal amount of games that he that he racked up for Watford. As that sort of early months progress Blissett gets a few more. They lost at home to Cambridge, and Cambridge at the time were one of the teams that had really rocketed up the league. John Beck in charge, very direct, newly promoted. Steve Claridge scores their second. They also had Dion Dublin in the team, and they were like, you know, I suppose a bit like how people saw Wimbledon at the time, and Cambridge came after that, and they just had their way of playing.

They were very difficult to stop. They had some useful players as well and they all knew what they were doing. And it's a bit like Watford throughout the years, we always seem to really struggle against these teams. It's kind of like when we always used to get beaten by Stoke and Burnley and teams like that, where those sides where everyone seemed to know what they were doing and were just really getting in your face. And Cambridge are very much that side. So already Watford are off to a not a great start. They did get a decent win away at Barnsley.

Blissett scored his 4th goal in 6 games. So a very decent start to his season with Watford. They followed that up with defeat at home to Boro, and that one, like, looking at the video the goals back. Wilkinson— Paul Wilkinson and Willie Falconer returned to Vicarage Road having both signed for Middlesbrough. They both score and they're both like running off celebrating, arms in the air. And you just think like, you bastards, like you've literally been playing for us last season and helping us to pull off this great escape. The muted celebrations that— well, there were none.

Like, I mean, maybe— I don't know if muted celebrations existed then. Maybe they just didn't. And you if you scored, you celebrated, and none of this sort of like, oh no big deal, guys, it's just a goal against my own team, I'm not going to celebrate, I'm not going to put my arms in the air. Perhaps that's better, perhaps. Footballers should just be able to celebrate. But it really jars seeing it because you're like, whoa, that is Paul Wilkinson, who was, you know, the best striker in the entire country for two seasons at Watford. And how can he do this to us?

But he did. Boro were going for promotion, they were early favourites, and we were 20th in the league after five games. After everything that happened last season, we're immediately slumping back to where we've been. They did, they did follow that up with a win away at Brighton and then a defeat away at Blackburn, who, as you'd already mentioned, were one of the, you know, promotion contenders for the season given the money that Jack Walker was putting in. So September rolled onwards towards the end of September. It wasn't the best start, it was not what people had been hoping for given what had happened the previous season and the fact that they had a chance to settle down and sort themselves out.

It was, you know, we'd been, we'd been hoping for a bit more consistency and more of a sense of team, I think, from Watford. And clearly they were still very erratic as that season kicked off. But then, you know, going into the rest of the autumn, Matt, you can tell us what followed.

Yeah, so it's at this point that Andy Hessenthaler signs from Redbridge Forest non-league, and he quickly kind of makes a step up into our first team. There's rumours that he actually took a pay cut to go pro. He kind of moved from being a builder and a part-time player. To becoming a full-time player. He's one of my favourite players from this period, and he's kind of, I think, easily one of Watford's best performers for the next few years. He's like a proper tireless midfielder, real box-to-box midfielder, never stops running. He scores on his debut against Charlton, which is also our first home win of the season.

And we then play Everton a couple of times in the League Cup. They were one of those elite clubs that we talked about at the beginning. We had a narrow loss at Goodison that kind of gave us some hope of a giant killing, but they also beat us at the Vic, so we go out. It wouldn't be until next season that we'd see a really famous giant killing at the Vic, so something to look forward to there. For the first time, we see our beautiful checkerboard away kit when we go to Swindon. It's not really a lucky omen though, so we lose 3-1. We play Swindon, play Southend, beg pardon, couple more times, taking us to 4 games already against them before the end of October.

One of them is a loss in the Zenith Data Systems Cup, and we have our lowest attendance for more than 50 years, just a, 1,700 fans, I was not one of them. The other one is a home loss in the league. That match is interesting because Luther Blissett scores this sort of fairly acrobatic hook shot, only for the ref to blow just as the ball goes over the line, gives us a penalty, and luckily Gary Porter puts that away. Immediately after that, Keith Dublin scores an own goal and we lose the match. In between those Southend games, we play Grimsby. Hessenthaler scores and continues impressing again. We've played 10 games and we're still 16th, so a rise on, a rise on the 20th from before, but still lower mid-table, not really where we want to be.

We've gone into last season with a degree of optimism, but this season's not panning out in the way that we want it to at all. We play Plymouth in a match where Bazeley scores and Gibbs gets sent off, but then there are two defeats. Second one is up at Sunderland, we get two goals disallowed, but it's really not turning out into the season that we wanted it to do after after the great escape of the previous season, it's not really, not really becoming what we wanted at all, is it?

No, not at all. I think it was it was, it was the hope had very quickly dissipated. I think that this was going to be a chance for Watford to really impress this season, and we're back to trying to sort themselves out, trying to get themselves organised again. Get a sense of like the team that they want to play as. I think Hessenthaler, like, I completely agree, he was one of the best players that Watford signed in this decade. Like, the fact that they got it from non-league so he cost virtually bugger all. Like, his ability to go box to box, like, I think he must— I feel like he had some sort of abnormally large lungs or something because he just seemed to be able to run relentlessly.

And I read that he was always like at the front of the, you know, cross-country runs when they used to— that was part of the training regime.

That doesn't surprise— doesn't surprise me at all.

No, I doubt very much that they do cross-country runs now but they were still a thing back then. And he would be, he would be out in front. He was like someone who I— he's spoken— I've read a few interviews of Hessenthaler, and he was very much— talks about how hungry he was to succeed when he came into, to league football because he came in late. And I think there was, there was a few, weren't there, in the '90s? I mean, Ian Wright most famously, but players we'll come on to some more later in the '90s actually that came through at Watford. But the kind of players who had not made it professionally immediately, had a decent non-league career and then managed to get their professional contract, and the hunger that they had to then prove themselves. I think you see that in, you see that in Hessenthaler's career following that.

He was, he was every game, like I never saw him have a bad game for Watford. He was He was like, obviously he had some games better than others, but from the start of his career, his commitment in a Watford shirt was incredible. And the goals that he scores in that spell that you say, like, they're real sort of start and finish the move, aren't they? Where, you know, win the ball, lay it off to someone, and then just charge forwards 50 yards to get into the box and arrive on the end of it.

And yeah, I think it was the it was the Peter Shreeves's connection, wasn't it, with Perryman? I think he'd I'm not sure which, which club, but Shreeves somehow knew of Hessenthaler, possibly through England, because I think Hessenthaler played England C, the kind of non-league version of the England team. And that's probably what got him recommended to Perryman, but a fantastic signing. Didn't like transform the team, but was a great signing for this season and several seasons to come.

Sadly, the Zenith Data Systems Cup, I don't think had many more outings after this season.

No, this is the last one because it was fully part of the Football League, and with the Football League disappearing, there's no— Zenith Data Systems Cup anymore. But the younger sibling lives on, you know, the what I still think of as the Auto Windscreens Shield, the Associate Members Club Cup rather. So, you know, that's still there. But this idea of the full—.

I don't think we ever did anything in that either. No, I don't think we did, no.

But yeah, Zenith Data Systems Cup was a full members cup. And yeah, once the Premier League was enforced, then yeah, goodbye to that.

Goodbye to that. So yes, so then into November and the next run of games, and they're just still continuously erratic. They got a good win at home to Oxford early November, Gary Porter and Bazeley again. Bazeley starting to make a bit of a name for himself this season, and particularly as a sub coming off the bench and netting. Very much a winger at this stage of his career, and, you know, getting in and getting in on the goals. He pops up a few times as we'll see. Blissett then, when goes on at home to Portsmouth, they get a 2-1 win.

Blissett scores in a draw away at Bristol Rovers, and that's his first goal in 18 games. So he's had a hell of a drought considering his opening burst of form. But it does— he does then kick on after that, scores a brace at home to Portsmouth, and that breaks the 50-year-old goal-scoring record. Beating Tommy Barnett's record that stood. Bizarre error with James— David James rolling it out to Keith Dublin, leading to the goal for Portsmouth, a consolation goal. And that was, that was a sight. I think, not to be mean to Keith Dublin or David James for that matter, but that sort of self-inflicted calamity goal was just something that you kind of associated with Watford in the '90s.

And maybe you just associate with Watford generally, but cruising at 2-0, heading towards a nice comfortable victory. And as a fan, you're like, yes, this is— I can actually start to relax. And then they literally just almost throw the ball into their own net under no pressure and create a chance for Portsmouth out of nothing, out of, out of sheer sort of ineptitude. But thankfully it didn't cost Watford the points that time. They then lose a couple of games away at Port Vale, away at Derby— Derby, you know, one of the biggest spenders in the division, as you said. So, you know, not an easy place to go to, the old Baseball Ground. At home to Barnsley they got a draw.

And a memorable thing there was Lee Nogan, who scored on his debut having joined from Oxford. But they'd got only 2 wins from the last 9 games, so. So things weren't looking great the form was really poor. And then out of absolutely nowhere on Boxing Day, they go to Millwall away at the Den. Never an easy place to go. Millwall were a decent side in the division. No one goes there and has an easy game.

Watford win 4-0. Gary Porter, Steve Butler scores a brace— when does that happen? And Jason Drysdale scored. The brace for Steve Butler, particularly worth a mention here. The first one was a very clever finish, sort of lifting over the keeper who's rushing out to him. And then the second one, a really, really well-timed glancing header, which is completely undone in his interview describing the goal where he says he just jumped and closed his eyes, which I think. Don't, don't, don't give away the trade secrets, Steve.

Like, at least let people be— have that— have the belief that there's more to it than that. But that was the biggest win of the season. Fortunately, Lee Nogan was injured in that game his second game since signing. But a massive win and confidence boost. And they then go away to Cambridge, who we mentioned earlier, you know, this really difficult side to play against. And at home, I think Cambridge were was supposed to be even more of a stern test. And, you know, there's all sorts of stuff about John Beck making the pitch narrower so teams didn't have the width to play, and really, really trying every trick in the book to try and make it as hard as possible.

But they got a 1-0 win. Steve Butler again, we're back up to 16th. So having sort of been down to the relegation places, we're suddenly back up to 16th again going into the new year.

Yeah, so we're up to 16th. Cambridge are really riding high. I think the likes of Max Rushden and famous Cambridge fans like that will kind of fondly remember those days. But we go into 1992 and there's a fairly uneventful nil-nil home to Tranmere, but what it does feature is Richard Johnson's debut. He's a second-year trainee, and so he's agreed his professional terms. He will come to sign him in the summer. Funnily enough, when he does come on, it's, it's on the wing, and given how he kind of really nails down that central midfield role later in the '90s, it's interesting to see him play on the wing and then in the next season at left-back during this early part of his career.

We lose 3-2 in the FA Cup against Swindon. Blissett scores our goals. One of which was a really good strike from the corner of the box. We play out this 2-2 draw against Newcastle, who'd been struggling all season. Ossie Ardiles in charge. In this game, we scored 2 goals in the first few minutes, ultimately get pegged back to draw. But I've quite strong memories of being at the game and just being amazed that a team can score 2 goals in like the first 3 minutes.

I mean, it's just absolutely unheard of, something I'd never seen before. Actually, something I'd rarely seen since. The rest of January, February is actually quite nondescript. We only win one match in those two months. We do play Southend for the fifth time, and thankfully the final time that season. We lose away at Derby. It's the end of February.

And we're 18th. Lee Nogan scores in that game, but we're kind of not really making any progress whatsoever.

Yeah, back to, back to 18th after, you know, reaching the giddy heights of 16th. We've dropped back to 18th, still not really going anywhere, still treading water, but still with plenty of matches left to play for in the end of the season. I think there was still a lot of points up for grabs as March kicks off. And then we played Ipswich at home, which was always going to be a tricky game, and we lost that one 1-0. The interesting thing to note from there was Steve Perryman talks about David James coming off the transfer list and wanting to stay until the end of the season. James had already started to attract a lot of attention. We mentioned him on the last episode about, you know, how incredible his introduction to first-team football had been at Watford as a rookie goalkeeper, promoted from the youth team to the first team and then nailing down that spot, making it his own.

And Perryman talks like really like effusively about his. How like impressive he is, like, you know, mature he is as a, as a, you know, a young man, but also like how his physical, just his physicality, I guess, like he's the fact that he is so sort of strong, athletic, quite unlike goalkeepers of that era, which I think was, you know, telling that you don't, you don't see when you're looking at the other keepers. The keepers are still very much like just sort of quite a bit lumpen, aren't they?

Particularly, yeah, they could, they could be outjumped by your forwards, but David James could be really quite a lot. Yeah, it does happen a lot. We do see that a lot. Yeah, but yeah, people didn't outjump 6-foot-4 David James, did they?

No, he was, he was, he was statuesque, like, in terms of his appearance, not in terms of his movement. He was, he was, he was, yeah, just a really, really imposing figure and did look— he really did stand out, I suppose. It's like you just didn't see goalkeepers built like that. At that time of— in football. Obviously now goalkeepers look as athletic as any other position generally, but at the time he was, he was quite an unusual sight to see between the sticks. Had started to attract the attention of big clubs, so obviously a welcome bit of news for Watford that he was not looking to move and was going to stay until the end of the season, which was much needed because Watford still had their problems. They got a draw away at Oxford.

It was really tight. We're 18th at that stage but only 4 points better off than bottom-placed Brighton. So. Really just out of the relegation places by the skin of our teeth with the season rolling on. I mean, that— this is when it was really like make or break for Watford. Were they gonna get sucked into another relegation dogfight or try to pull themselves away from it? Thankfully, this time the decent run of results started in time for them to actually have a much better end to the season than what had come previously in terms of league positions.

So they got a win at home to Sunderland thanks to Gary Porter penalty, a tight game, 1-0, but that really helped them to kick on. But then having, having lost at home to Ipswich, who as we know one of the better teams in the, in the division that season, Watford went away to win at Portman Road 2-1 with a brace from Jason Drysdale, who is becoming another of the players this season who, a young player come through the academy and was, you know, starting to make a name for himself as a, as a, as a goal-scoring fullback. So and also, you know, pushing forward into sort of wide midfield areas as well. But a player who had started to have quite a, quite a reliable impact particularly in the second half of the season. Leicester— they got a win away at Leicester the following week. So two really impressive away victories, one at Ipswich and one at Leicester with Butler and Nogan getting on the score sheet. Beat Bristol Rovers at home, leapfrogging Rovers and hitting the heady heights of 13th.

Jason Drysdale had taken over penalty duties for that game from the very reliable Gary Porter. And although they lost the following game at home to Brighton with again, sort of a bit self-inflicted with errors from Holdsworth and David James for the goal, it was, it was a, it was a much-needed boost of form in March that took them away from that immediate peril of relegation and meant that they could actually start to look towards the final stages of the season without too much, like, genuine concern that they were going to get sucked into it this time and actually start to look sort of to where they could realistically finish in the table and hopefully putting in a decent last run.

So yeah, been a really good end to March, you know, 4 wins on the spin before that loss to Brighton. And as it turns out, April was a good month as well, the end of the season, a couple of wins. The first one against Middlesbrough, Wilkinson scores for them actually again, the second time this season. At this time he's cut his hair off and cut his tash off, and I'm not quite sure if I quite like that or not. We beat Blackburn 2-1, Bazeley scores twice. I kind of remember going to that game. Blackburn by this point had appointed Dalglish.

They'd made several signings across the season, as you're able to do at the time, but their form was still really, really inconsistent. They were still in the playoffs though, so it was a good win for us, you know, home to Blackburn, beating a team in the playoffs, still pretty good. We're still down in lower mid-table. The win puts us 12th. We play Charlton away. And around this time Charlton are essentially homeless. The Valley had been shut down, and in this season they were playing, they were playing their home games at Upton Park. It wasn't too long before the Valley was modernised, perhaps another year or so again.

By this time we've only lost 1 in 9 games. That ends up being 1 in 13 games as we close out the season. There's a couple of nil-nils, then a win at Grimsby. And then a really, really strange final game of the season against Bristol City at home. Even just the bare facts of the game are quite interesting. We win 5-2, we have 5 different scorers, not all of which are normal scorers. One of them is Nigel Gibbs, who scores from 25 yards out.

Blissett comes on and scores. That's his 503rd and final appearance for us, and his 168th and final goal for us. Both those are club records. Andy Cole's on loan from Arsenal to Bristol City. This is before his elevation to being a proper Premier League striker. He scores twice. Bristol City have 3 players sent off in, I want to say 3 minutes, but probably about 10 minutes.

Very short space of time. Another match that, a bit like the Newcastle match earlier on the season, I sat there thinking, why is football not like this every week? I would go all the time if it was. It was a really, really exciting and interesting end to the season. Probably worth mentioning Luther there because he's come on, come off the bench to play and score. I kind of, going into the season, going into rewatching the season, I kind of, I think perhaps undervalued his effect on it. He had spells of scoring and spells of not scoring, but ultimately he did score those 12 goals.

And this is after playing in the division below. It was a particularly difficult season for a lot of the team. He kind of— he was the only really— the only one that really kind of carried any of the goal-scoring mettle, but he was our top scorer. Yeah, it was a really strong and fitting end to his Watford career and the end of his career generally, really. I mean, he drifted down the leagues after this. He will always be a Watford legend. He was a legend coming into this season and really only reinforced that. And I think for people like you and I, we didn't get to see him in his absolute prime in, you know, probably in the early to mid-'80s.

And we did get to see him this season. We did get to see him scoring goals and he scored some actually really good goals. Looking back on the season, he was, he was really very effective. We didn't have a Paul Wilkinson that was going to score 20 goals a season, didn't have a Paul Furlong who will come next season that scored a similar number, but Blissett really, you know, kind of filled that, filled that gap and did a really great job. Yeah, I think it was a really fitting end to his Watford career.

Yeah, I completely agree. I think like he actually, like, looking back, I remembered him scoring a decent amount of goals, but the actual quality of some of his goals this season is. Is pretty high. Like, he scored some really good goals, and you forget— like, you don't score, you know, the 100 and nearly 150 goals that he scored for Watford. Scoring that amount of goals, any sort of striker who hits those numbers, they've got to have something about them, haven't they? It's like, I think, I think players of that era sort of get maligned a bit as being particularly sort of the '80s where, you know, football was very direct, and particularly for Watford. Watford were known for being a very direct team and not everyone was our biggest fans, it's fair to say. And it maybe makes you think, how good were some of these players?

But he was a very good striker. Like, I mean, really good. And he used his— you see, even though he's of more senior years and probably not as quick as he might have been, he uses his— still uses his body really well, uses his strength really well. And it's got— he's just got very good technique.

Yeah, I think he's really, really athletic, like yeah, scissor kicks and yeah, scissor kicks. When I watch when I watch some of the highlights that were. They were either from national television or opposition commentary. They talk about his England credentials. Okay, so we were in the second tier, but like, he was still— he was jumping and throwing his legs around and scoring some really incredible goals.

No, I agree. And I think like that, for Watford, like, to have him for the centenary, like, as a, you know, a celebratory season, it was great to have someone like that back at the club. Who represented the highs of Watford and, you know, did the greatest achievements that the club had achieved. And to have him back, and for it not to be— you could have someone back, couldn't you? And it could be a bit of a sort of like, you know, they could almost be a bit of an albatross around the neck if they're really sort of a bit of a busted flush by that stage. But he so wasn't that. And I think having that was great.

It's great for younger fans like us at the time who hadn't experienced the '80s in all their, you know, their glory, to have someone who had sort of genuine legend status scoring goals. And you could see that, you know, I was aware of what he meant to the crowd because, you know, they would get very excited by him and being, you know, it wasn't wasn't exactly an electric atmosphere at Watford at the time, but he would actually get the crowd going a bit and get people chanting his name. And that final game was— I was at that game as well, that game against Bristol City. And it was, it was— talk about like a fitting end to, you know, a celebratory season. A 5-2 win with red cards going out every few seconds, like you say. And a Nile— Nigel Gibbs piledriver from distance, pretty much in the last minute as well. Yeah, it just— and the other thing I remember about that, as we sort of look at, you know, the end of the season and what that meant Coming out of the game and walking back to the car parks, people started celebrating and cheering.

Because of— they'd heard on the radio that Luton had been relegated. So Luton had still been in the top flight and Luton had come down, which meant that Watford v Luton the following season— so because at this stage obviously Watford and Luton's histories were very closely tracking each other through the divisions and the rivalry was quite intense. They were— they'd come down, they'd gone down on the last day of the season, so they were coming down to join us, and Leeds had won the last Division 1 title. So the last sort of Football League Division 1 champions were Leeds United. We'll be seeing them next season. For Watford, I think it was— looking at this season, it really was a bizarre season because. You, as we've just been going through those, the season, and going through the results, and it felt like every time we were looking at it, we were saying, and then they've lost 4 games, and then they're down, you know, and then all of a sudden, the 10th, just because of a little run at the end of the season, and ended up being, you know, finishing the top half of the table somehow.

I don't quite know how they ended up as high as 10th, because they didn't feel like— it didn't feel like a season where you finished 10th. Based on the results. It felt like they should be more like sort of 17th, 18th. But I guess it's the middling mediocrity, the nature of that division is such that if you can get on a run, you get on a run at the right time, you can, you can climb up to a fairly, you know, respectable league table finish. You're not— you're still miles off worrying the playoffs or the automatic spots, but with a 24-team division, you know, a decent run of form at the right time will put you in a decent league position, I guess. And that's, that's what happens at Watford. So which was, which was needed.

They needed a season out of the relegation dogfight. I thought it was interesting, that Steve Perryman talked about playing 4-3-3 basically at the start of the season, which was obviously like incredibly modern at that stage. He talked about his, you know, the fluidity of his front three in the early stages of the season, and then he lost his nerve a bit because they had a bit of a wobble, and he moved away from that, and then he brought it back in. I think when Lee Nogan joins, he starts to bring that system back, and they actually do start to get better results over the last couple of months to the season. Performances and results improve and they start, they start to look like a better team again. And I think, you know, Perryman as a really sort of experienced player, and he wasn't as experienced as a coach, and maybe he's quite honest in when you listen to his interviews and particularly like reflections on the season, he's very honest about things that didn't go as well as he'd want them to. And maybe sort of the fact, the fact that he's quite, he's quite open about that he had this system, it thought that was good, and then he moved away from it and regretted that.

It's very open, I suppose, the manager thinking like, well, why didn't I stick with that a bit more? But again, you know, you generally just saw 4-4-2 in that division at the time. It was quite rare, or variations of it was quite rare to see a front 3 that Watford employed.

I think some of that probably comes down to the fact that you didn't have a natural partnership this season. There was no Wilkinson and Penrice. There was no well, there would be lots of lots of duos coming up in the '90s for whatever, but he had a number of players that didn't really— it's not like now. Now we have lots of multi-functioning forwards. We didn't really then. We had. I mean, Blissett would play through the middle.

I guess Nogan would play through the middle. I guess Butler could play through the middle. But then there was younger wide players. And also the wide players that were the signings of Colin Lee as well, like Gavin and Kennedy, they didn't really get a look in during the season. But I think he struggled to find a 2 with anyone alongside Blissett that was really a natural companion. And I think when he stumbled back across that 3 and realised that they could move between themselves, I mean, basically scored quite a lot of goals. He was wearing the number 9 shirt for quite a lot of time.

And I know that the squad numbers probably at this point has stopped me This is, this was before proper squad numbers, but team shirt numbers have probably lost some of the meaning they had before. But basically he was scoring a lot of goals in the number 9 shirt. Yeah, I think the 3 suited Watford at the time. There were wingers, there were kind of inside forwards, and there were a couple of strikers as well. And I think he could pick 3 that could hurt other teams in our division. And I think that proved in, you know, in the March, in April, in May.

Yeah, definitely. And I think it was overall, it was, you know, it was, there was progress for Watford that season, but. But probably not as much and as, you know, as significant as the fans or Perryman had wanted at the start of the season. And absolutely, Perryman cuts a bit of a— he's a bit of a sourpuss, isn't he? When you like— he generally seems a bit like— I don't remember him ever like— the crowd never really like loved him, did they, Steve Perryman? Even though, you know, he got them out of trouble and got them to mid-table, but there was always a bit like— he was always a bit grumpy. He always felt like he was in the shadow, I think, of, you know, of Graham Taylor and what he'd achieved.

And I also, I also think that he thought that he probably deserved more, and yeah, and he wasn't getting it, you know. He was he was someone that had come from a very long playing career, had started his coaching career, and Watford was probably viewed as his step to the big time, and didn't really happen like that at all, did it?

No. But he also gets a bit— he grumbles a bit about the crowds and that the crowds aren't big enough, and, you know, and that they're quiet, and that he wanted a bit more of an atmosphere. And yeah, I, you know, I kind of— I get it, I get where he's coming from. But also, it doesn't win people over when your manager's just. Seems to be a bit depressed and having a moan. It's not really like— it's not particularly inspiring. So although they finished, you know, they finished the season well and there was, there was progress and they did start to look more like a decent side at times, it wasn't looking like a match made in heaven at this point with Perryman and Watford.

I think it's fair to say, yeah, as a As far as the, you know, what else was going on, I mean, in terms of player movement, Perryman had already hinted that there was lots of interest in David James. And at the end of the season, I remember him actually sort of. He did a bit of a lap of honour at that Bristol City game and threw his gloves into the crowd, which everyone sort of took as a sign of that's the last we'll see of him. And he signs for Liverpool at the end of the season for £1.25 million, which was a big fee for a top-flight side, particularly a side like Liverpool, to pay for a second division goalkeeper, especially at 20. Yeah, so that was, that was a big signing. Obviously a huge amount of money for Watford, but also, you know, a big, a big move for David James at the time. So I think everyone wished him very well, was very proud that their goalkeeper had got such a big move and gone to such a big club.

Obviously there was already a connection with Liverpool coming in for Watford players, having signed John Barnes in the '80s, which had obviously gone very well for them. So they thought they'd try their luck again. In terms of other things happening in the football world, Gary Lineker had just scored 35 goals in all competitions in his last season in England before joining Grampus Eight in Japan. Ian Wright was the top league scorer for Arsenal after joining from Palace. Both Bryan Robson and Gary Lineker retired from international football, with Shearer becoming England's next sort of star centre forward in '92, scoring on his England debut. Of course Lineker's last appearances took place in Euro '92, which took place in the summer at the end of that season. So this tournament took place in Sweden.

It was a much smaller tournament than what we have now. It was, it was, it was two groups. It was two groups.

Yeah, two groups.

Yeah. So. Really, really tough. England did not cover themselves in glory. They went out in the group stage without winning a match. 2 nil-nils and then a loss to Sweden with Tomas Brolin tormenting the England team. That was when the unfortunate Turnip nickname was created for Graham Taylor by the tabloid press.

So obviously not going down very well in Watford, that one, given how fond we are of Graham. But he was not having the best time of it with England. Then, and kind of reminiscent of their failure in Euro '88, I think. Despite a strong World Cup in Italia '90 in between. But I think the thing that everyone remembers about that tournament, obviously it's not England, it's, it's Denmark. Denmark only— yeah, they were only there because of the collapse of Yugoslavia. And Yugoslavia, therefore who would have been there were unable to compete.

Therefore Denmark got a sort of a buy into the tournament as the last minute replacements, and then, and then went on to win the thing and went all the way and beat Germany in the final, and Germany never lost finals. So that was, that was incredible. That was something that I think had like so many people have. Incredible memories of watching that because it was just— it was Germany. Germany, for like, for our generation, I think, was like, you just, you just assumed they would always win because they just always seemed to win. And for Denmark to come out of nowhere, it was, it was a great end to the season to see it, you know, have a, have a story like that from an international tournament. International tournaments don't throw those up too often, do they?

So that was, that was something special to remember '91-'92 by in terms of the summer that followed. Any other sort of closing remarks from you, Matt, on this season?

So I think it's another season that was, that was really difficult. We struggled at times, never really got pulled quite into it. We did flirt with relegation, and obviously in the end we finished 10th, which is, which is well above. So it looks like a kind of happy mid-table mid-table season, but it wasn't really like that for a lot of it. I get, you know, I guess going into the next season, the hope is again that we catapult ourselves in with a, with a degree of optimism. As I said last time, you know, with some positivity that things will turn out better. Yeah, so, but all in all, a mix, a mixed season for what the fans— mixed season of results.

Some great performances, the return of a legend, some bringing through some young players. And some disappointment as well. So how is that different really from most other 1990s seasons? Thanks a lot, obviously, for listening to this one. We're back for the '92-'93 season. In that season, there's one or two good signings, there are some very questionable ones, but we also see some emergence of small young players. So a bit more along the lines of the Richard Johnsons and the Darren Bazeleys, you know, see some more of those come through.

Thank you from me, thank you from Michael, and you can now follow us on Twitter @OhMyWordPod. And so you can follow us and you can see when new episodes come out. And you can see photos of knitted, knitted toys of football players, various other bits and pieces. But anything else from you, Michael?

No, I think that's everything. So looking forward to that next season because one of my favourite players of the '90s joins us for the 1992-93 season. So looking forward to revisiting that one.

I think I might know who that is, and I'm looking forward to—.

You know who that is? Yeah.

Okay. Right, thank you very much and goodbye.

Oh my word! No wonder the smiles are there.