As this was my second 'home' game of the season I was eagerly looking forward to our probable defeat. What doesn't help is having a work office full of ignorant United fans to put up with, what made it even worse still was that my boss was going to the game in his corporate seat. So I was expecting some daft comments from him on Thursday morning. I made the short trip to the game with my friend Clare (who supports United), I managed to get her to sit with me and the travelling horns so she could experience some ‘real’ atmosphere for a change, and on that score we weren’t disappointed! All in all I thought that for 60 minutes Watford gave a real spirited performance, of course class told in the end and Rooney’s goal was quality. I did think the ref had an absolute stinker of a game though, but hey it’s Old Trafford so what’s new? Anyway the main point of this article was to say that the away support was fantastic for the whole game. The most amusing thing for me was the presence of a certain Sir Tommy Mooney, the United fans must have been confused when their chants of “Rooney, Rooney” were met with even louder chants of “Mooney, Mooney”! Ah I certainly was walking in a Mooney wonderland. Of course a night like this isn’t complete without the “we’re the left side etc etc” chant and I think this confused the prawn sandwich brigade even more! The result here is irrelevant, not many people go to United and get a point let alone a win. The real winners were the travelling ‘orns who put up a fantastic performance in out singing 70,000+ so called fans – who left 10 – 15 minutes early in most cases!! It was summed up listening to 606 on the way home, where numerous people including a few United fans rang in praising our support. I think that’s the beauty of following Watford, no matter what happens we’re always behind the team and that’s the kind of spirit a lot of other so called ‘big’ clubs could learn from. As for my boss on Thursday, well he didn't understand why we were singing being 4-0 down, I bet he's never been to an away game at Plymouth on a cold and wet Tuesday night!
Summed it up perfectly there in that last paragraph. These so called 'big' clubs don't know what its all about. We'll be there week in week out singing for the lads regardless of the oppostion or results. Makes me proud to be an orn.
Just have to pull you up on that one Stu! I'm guessing you weren't at the Stockport home cup tie? Cos our fans were crap that day while the Stockport fans were pretty damn good. It's all about where you set your sights. For us Weds was a big game, for United fans it was more of an annoyance. Still, good to see we outsung them.
More like it's the beauty of going away. A concentration of committed fans always produces a fantastic atmosphere. United was up there with the best of them though. When we were quiet the ground was quiet. You wouldn't believe 70,000 people could be so quiet.
I see your point UEA the underdogs fans are always up for it. But to be fair I think that happens at most clubs, the home support is always the quietest. Unsuprisingly I'm very biased towards our fans!! Actually even though United fans at home are generally poor, their away fans are always usually very vocal indeed.
Crowded and surrounded by man utd fans as we ambled away from the ground, a couple of watford supporters were commenting- in earshot- that they couldn't believe our 2,000 outsung their 73,000... to which a manc turned round and said... "yeah, but we are used to playing Real Madrid!... it's a bit difficult getting 'up' for the Watford"... the watford supporter quipped back very quickly "best f*ck off and join a super league then!"... to which the manc put his head down and shut up!.. Funny as you like!!
Many good songs towards the end: "Fork off back to London" "Do You Come From Manchester" "On Your Own" "Loyal supporter" Etc etc - those who were at OT will understand. Left side started loudest and right side finished loudest. And I'm walking in a Watford wonderland. Why didn't we bring Sir Tommy Mooney back?
Absolutley spot on! More or less word for word what I said to my mate on our way back to the car! It's like our cup final going to Old Trafford whereas it was Stockport's cup final at our place! Utd fans would look at seeing Watford on a wednesday and think 'oh great, how inspiring'! I agree though Stu, our support was sensational...Mooney being there was just brilliant! Who put the ball in the scousers net? Mooney Mooney Who put the ball in the scousers net? Tommy f**king Mooney
i say united was better than city away not sure about newcastle but we sang not stop in the second half frist half we did not sing that much but second we just took the **** out of united
The great away support of the Watford fans was noted by a few of my robotic Man Utd follower acquaintances. Great show Hornets! Manchester nothing. I love this club.
Having a beer in Berko's very posh Hotel after the game several Man U fans came up to me and said our away support was the by far the best they had seen in a while.
"Watford - we're gonna win 5-4, we're gonna win 5-4, we're gonna win 5-4!" at top volume, 4-0 down deep into stoppage time was simply the best since "Watford, it's just like watching Brazil !" against Southampton in the cup. I was sitting with a Mancunian mate and he thought we were the very best he'd seen at OT. Apart from Lou Macari selling quite the worst 'fish' and chips in the world (and the result) it was a top evening.
Actually in a footnote to my story and touching on what some have already mentioned, my friend Clare who sat with me (even though she's a United supporter ) commented that she couldn't believe how good our support was. She also was certainly very confused when we started singing towards the Moonster, I then had to explain to her the significance of Sir Tommy and what he ment to the Hornet's fans. She also said to me that being amongst the Watford fans almost made her wish she hadn't supported United and that she followed a smaller club. Before you think it though, she's no glory hunter as her support for United comes from the fact that she has played for their womens team in the past. Still hopefully after about 8 years of taking her to Watford games she's now got a soft spot for us!
