It’s a year to the day since Watford FC celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the club’s first ever game at Vicarage Road Stadium, with a 2-1 win over Middlesbrough - thanks to a dramatic Vakoun Bayo winner - marking the VR100 Matchday in style.
The festivities that night included plenty of reflections on highlights and standout moments from throughout the 100 years, including the maiden match at The Vic a century earlier, which saw Watford play out a 0-0 draw against Millwall on August 30, 1922.
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Vicarage Road Stadium was built by Benskins Brewery, who had purchased the former gravel pit for Watford FC from the local council just after the First World War. The club, having played at Cassio Road since the early 1890s, moved in at the start of the 1922/23 campaign, with Millwall becoming the first visitors after the club had beaten Queens Park Rangers 2-1 on the road four days earlier. The ground was officially opened by Col. Charles Healey, of Benskins Brewery.
Though Watford were led by Harry Kent, and the likes of Skilly Williams, Fred Pagnam and Eddie Mummery all featured for Watford on the pitch in front of 8,618 supporters, the game itself somewhat failed to live up to the hype as neither side was able to break the deadlock.
The day’s official programme, priced at two pence, did provide some key information about the new Vicarage Road home, including that the area of the ground was “about six-and-a-half acres and the total accommodation 33,000.”
Back then The Vic consisted of two small covered stands and several terraces. One of these stands, the Union Stand, had been brought from Cassio Road. About a decade later, the Union Stand got replaced by a new stand, the Shrodells Stand, before further redevelopments in later decades.
A note in the programme’s foreword also thanked Benskins for their investment, and pointed towards a positive future for the club and its supporters. It read: “The magnificent enclosure, which is being opened today, is entirely due to the way in which Messrs. Benskins have so generously come forward and ensured the Watford Football Club a ground and accommodation beyond reproach. It is now up to the Watford football public to see that the confidence of Messrs. Benskins has not been misplaced, and stick to the club through all weathers.”
After being held by the Lions, Watford were made to wait for a first home win at Vicarage Road until September 30, 1922, when a goal from John Wilkinson and a Pagnam hat-trick sealed a 4-0 triumph over Exeter City. The club would go on to record a 10th-place finish in the Third Division South that season, making plenty of Vicarage Road memories along the way.
