Rocket Men bring back Taylor years
FAR from the madding crowd cavorting around the pond, a lone Watford supporter on the park bench cracked open a can and raised a toast to promotion.
His choice of seat for an almost religious gesture was calculated and deliberate – because it was dedicated by former chairman Sir Elton John to the memory of Hornets godfather Graham Taylor.
The simple shrine to a great manager is located in Cassiobury Park, where Taylor used to take his players on cross-country runs and hide up in the trees to bark at any slackers.
It is 39 years since Taylor and the Rocket Man took Watford into orbit for the first time and established Watford as the original family club where hooligans were not welcome.
Now they are back, courtesy of a penalty from Ismaila Sarr and after an astonishing surge under genial Spaniard Xisco Munoz, and all the sneering ‘experts’ who deride the Golden Boys’ high turnover of head coaches have fallen silent.Watford are the club who keep getting it right. On the pitch 22 clean sheets in 44 games provided the bedrock for promotion.
Xisco’s cheerful demeanour, sustained by his record of 54 points from 24 games since taking over in December, will be tested in the Premier League.
And Watford’s squad will need urgent replenishment, especially in the attacking third, where talisman Troy Deeney will be 33 in June. But scratch beneath the surface of the team’s limitations and the beating heart of a club built on Taylor and Sir Elton’s values is still standing.
Watford’s favourite son Luther Blissett, whose charitable exploits during the pandemic have been heroic, was given the freedom of the town last month.
And Watford’s conversion of executive boxes into sleeping pods for exhausted NHS staff fighting a deadly plague last year was inspired.The Hornets’ community trust continues to excel, delivering 500 cream teas to the isolated and vulnerable on Valentine’s Day. And the morning after the party before, fans volunteered to clean up the debris around the pond.
WATFORD (4-3-3): Bachmann 8; Femenia 6 (Cathcart, 31, 6), TroostEkong 6, Sierralta 6, Masina 7; Cleverley 6 (Sanchez, 84), Hughes 6, Gosling 6 (Chalobah, 60, 7); Sarr 8, Pedro 5 (Gray, 60, 6), Sema 6. Goal: Sarr 11 pen. MILLWALL (3-5-2): Bialkowski 6; Romeo 6, Evans 7, Cooper 7; McNamara 7 (Muller, 78), Kieftenbeld 6, Mitchell 6 (Williams, 71), Bennett 5 (Burey, 81), Malone 7 (Mahoney, 77); J Wallace 7, Bradshaw 6 (Zohore, 70, 5).