8-0 MEMORIES - PART 2
HERE are some more of your memories and recollections from a famous win at Vicarage Road which happened 25 years ago this week.
It happened on 25 September 1982 to be precise and Sunderland were the unlucky visitors to Hertforshire.
Here's what else you had to say to www.watfordfc.com about the day. Thank you to everyone who sent their memories in.
Bob Wittenbach
Yes I remember the game very well, being a season-ticket holder at the time. Sunderland actually started the game very well and created a couple of decent opportunities of their own before the Golden Boys got into their goal-scoring stride.
In particular I remember that one of the best players on the opposing team was (I think it was Chris?) Turner in the Sunderland goal. But for him the score would easily have been into double figures. I also recall Watford being denied what seemed to me like a clear cut penalty in the last minute or so, probably because the referee didn't want to pile on more misery for Sunderland.
That victory, by the way, coming just two weeks after Watford led the top flight for the only time in their history (so far!), still stands as Sunderland's record defeat.
Working in Vietnam, I have not been able to get to Vicarage Road for a couple of seasons now, but football is given excellent coverage here in Vietnam and I have been promoting Watford at every opportunity.
Good luck to Aidy and the team for the rest of this season. Top after six matches - let's hope we're still top after 46 matches!
Tim Caldicott
My abiding memory of this game (apart from 'total football') is the group of Sunderland fans taking defeat on the chin and doing the conga around the High street station platform, all the time singing 'Always look on the bright side of life!' Having travelled to Roker Park to watch the 5-0 defeat at the end of the 79/80 season, I knew exactly how they felt!
Mark Page
I remember going to this match after getting serious ear ache from a Macam about how great Soonderlund are, and how you hear the Roker roar from anywhere in the city, I was 16 at the time and believed him. I can still hear the laughing when I saw him that evening, the chant was 'We want nine if I recall'.
Nick Corble
Celebrating my birthday with my brother in Somerset and gutted to miss the match. Literally couldn't believe it when the score came through on the TV, the one home match I missed that season and it was 8-0! Had to settle for umpteen pints of scrumpy and a pre-release pirate video of ET my brother had got off someone in the pub - and it showed.
The memory made all the more sour as later I married a Sunderland lass and she and my oldest son are Black Cats fans, splitting the household with me and Ed, fellow season ticket holder.
Martin Lester
Yes, we were at the Sunderland Game, standing on the Vicarage Road end, our first visit since promotion to Division 1, and we couldn't believe our eyes! Poor Montgomery in the Sunderland goal equally couldn't believe his eyes.
As I'm starting my 60th year as a supporter, that season was without doubt the best of the lot, although this year is trying to run it a close second.
But in 1947 with greyhound track and no floodlights and a freezing winter causing many postponements, much has change that both my late father and myself would never have dreamed as possible then.
It was 'Up the Blues' a wooden rattle and 6d. (2 & 1/2 pence) entrance; we loved our Saturday afternoon, first team one week, reserves the next.
Today it's a seat in the' Rookery', then in 1947 just a small wooden stand. At half time, in any match, supporters swapping ends and referee's just as bad as they are today. Some things never change!
Malcolm Cowan
I remember the Sunderland fans trying to leave at half-time when the score was 4-0, but not being allowed to. I also remember a better reflection of the game would have been about 13-3. We hit the woodwork three times I think, and Sunderland had quite few chances. We did look as if we would score every time we attacked. I still have the video - no commentary.
John Lawson (now living in Dallas, Texas)
My then girlfriend was proving what a great fiancée she could be by coming along to her first Watford match. We stood in the Vicarage Road end, my regular spot, and the goals just started flooding in. As my disbelief in what I was seeing grew my girlfriend said hopefully: 'Is it always like this when you play?'
At least it encouraged her back - we were engaged a month later and married in 1984 - after she had stood alongside me at the FA Cup Final at Wembley. We then remained regular supporters, taking our two children along to games home and away from our home in Cambridgeshire from shortly after they were born.
Daniel Seabrook
The Watford v Sunderland game was my third visit to Vicarage Road and when you take in to context my first two games you will understand why I am a Watford fan.
My first game was against Blackburn Rovers in November 1981 - I was one of the mascots, the second game was on my seventh birthday against a certain team from Bedfordshire. I can still see Wilf Rostron's cracker in front of the old score board at the Vicky Road end.
Then 25th September 1982 came along. Wow what an introduction to the world of Watford Football Club. After this game there was no way I was going to support anyone else.
My memories from the game itself was that Chris Turner in the Sunderland goal seemed to of played a blinder but we still scored eight past him. I remember he made a fantastic save from a bullet point blank Blissett header from a Cally cross, I think that was before we had scored.
I remember it saying after Luther's third went in 'Well done Luther your hat-trick at last' and the little men jumping up and down. Fantastic I miss that score board but that's my age showing for you I guess. We scored the eight in the 88th minute and player number eight scored it. Ally McCoist played up front for them, I thought he was rubbish but then he was probably quite young then!
It is the most amazing Watford game I have ever seen and I count that in with the Bolton victory at Wembley, the Leeds victory at Cardiff and the Luton 4-0. It was the complete Taylor Watford performance, I remember thinking what my sisters must be thinking as they saw the score coming through on the vidiprinter on Grandstand.
You don't get scores like this anymore, not with a side just promoted to the top flight for the first time. It was the start of an amazing season one that lives long in the memories of all of us that were privileged to be a part of it.
We have this game on video (which will be watched again at weekend now). All Watford fans should be able to see this game! No commentary, just the crowd noise and the camera man going to the scoreboard for the scorers.
James Bratton
My family and I were living in South Africa at the time. When we saw the score in the paper we couldn't believe it. We had to phone my Grandparents (who still lived in Watford) to make sure it wasn't a miss-print.
Michael Schwartz
I was at the game and remember not only the eight goals but also the comment over the tannoy at the end that Luther still hadn't got his hat-trick because he had scored four!
Steve Delaney
I remember the game well as my wife sacrificed her seat in order that I could take my best friend, Neil, an ardent Sunderland supporter. To this day he is adamant that if Gary Rowell had taken an early the chance, the game would have been different!
The only goal I can clearly remember was Ian Bolton breaking up a Sunderland attack, drilling a 40 yard pass to Nigel Callaghan who took it a few strides down the wing before crossing for Luther to rise and power in a header - probably less than 30 seconds from our box to the back of their net - just the sort of direct football Graham Taylor got criticism for!
We both remember the Sunderland manager making his rather sheepish team go over to applaud the Sunderland supporters at the end of the game.
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