Ha.. didnt notice that. That pic is, i believe, from Shoot magazine and god knows where they got that capacity from cause as you know it's never been that high.
If you spot one and it doesn't fit pick it up for me and I'll give you the money, I'm already a fat b*****d and if it's still baggy I'll drink beer until it fits.
Sorry, Stevo, but Shoot was entirely correct. All the football yearbooks in the early to mid-70s quoted the capacity as 36,500, although it was something of a nominal figure which was never actually attained. I think the big cup ties of 1969 and 1970 against Man Utd and Liverpool had attendances of around 34,000. At the end of the 70s, with hooliganism in full swing and crowd segregation beginning, the police started to get involved in restricting crowd numbers for safety reasons. At Vicarage Road this coincided with seats being installed on the terrace that was in front of the old Shrodelles stand and our ground capacity was pegged at a maximum 28,000. This just left room for the possibility of breaking the home league attendance record of 27,000+ v QPR in the 60s but I don’t think it was ever done. All ticket matches were very rare back then, except for big cup ties and two of those v Arsenal and Brighton had an official figure of exactly 28,000. (I notice that the famous replay in ‘86 v Liverpool had an attendance of over 28,000 but I can’t remember if that game was all ticket.)
I don't remember the 36,500 figure myself.. only recall seeing 34,000. As ive thrown away all my old Rothmans i cant check it though Shoot were still wrong though. The pic is from the away friendly at Sochaux in May 79.. but the article is later (appearances up to Dec 79) So 79/80 season and i believe our capacity had been lowered to the 28,000 mark by then, as you know. The Liverpool game was all ticket for them at least.. see this link https://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2016/03/liverpool-on-the-march-with-kennys-army-watford-away/ and i dare say was for us as well. Seems odd it creeped just over the 28K mark. The QPR game remains our largest ever home league crowd.
I don't like it. Not enough yellow. Could've had yellow with a black diagonal if they wanted yellow and black. Peru style.
Fake news from Shoot. I thought (altho my memory ain’t what it used to be) the capacity was quoted as 35,000 at the time and being disappointed when only 34,099 pitched up for that Man U replay. Also it quotes us as being founded in 1891. Don’t tell the 1881 we’ll have to change all our flags etc.
I thought 34,000.. but as Willi suggested capacities were arbitrary back then so could have been any of those figures. PS As you'll no doubt know the club celebrated it's centenary in 1991. Never did understand why?
With the centenary - when researching the history of the club for being 100 years old in 1991, what was thought to be the first annual meeting of the club, said it was the tenth, so we missed the date - and it was called the offfcial centenary as opposed to the real one.
The 1991 centenary was down to the doubt at the time surrounding which of the preliminary clubs which became WFC constituted the true lineage of the present day club. The one they decided on was itself formed in 1891. Since then opinion has changed so it’s 1881 now. A typical Watford c*ck up you might think, but not as much of a fiasco as the design of the centenary shirt we had to endure that season, as modelled by Mr Willis himself in my icon photo.
The away shirt was equally tasteful in a TV test card kind of a way. I own both of course.... But only bring them out for special occasions
Whatever you do don't look at the list of prem sides that have been relegated and count those who have worn stripes or hoops
When I first saw the new kit, I was shocked and appalled. But then I'm always shocked and appalled when our new kit is released. The two best ones of recent times for me were the Star Trek one of a few years ago and the horizontal 'fade to nothing' stripes of a couple of seasons back. Others at home say they like it though. Cif says it would look really good if it weren't for that stupid advertising across it. She also notes that not having the stripes on the back makes it easier to read the name/number. I have to agree with that. I could grow to like it I suppose. Hope the away kit is also a stripy variation. Red and black stripes?
I like how it has a front, back and sleeves. Other than that, I couldn’t care less. All kits are essentially **** versions of Nigeria’s kit.