In light of the Vicarage Road centenary celebrations earlier this season, writers from The Watford Treasury magazine look back at players who performed great feats on home soil.
First featured in last season’s matchday programme, Olly Wicken writes about the arrival of a prodigious talent on the Watford scene, who went on to play a major part in the Hornets’ 1980s golden age.
Many men have helped make The Vic, but John Barnes can be singled out as one of the key figures that made it a venue for top-flight football. His arrival on the scene, early in the 1981/82 campaign, helped transform the team into one that stormed into the First Division for the first time in the club’s history.
It was clear from the beginning that, at the age of 17, he was the best player the club had ever had. Take a look on YouTube at the footage of Watford’s 3-0 win at home to Norwich in October 1981. It was only his fourth start at The Vic, but he was central to our total domination of the Canaries. There are five moments in the footage that joyfully sum up what Barnes brought to the team; and what he would bring for another five seasons at the highest level.
First, a ball is chipped forwards to him, above his head. He doesn’t flick it on, or head it to a team-mate, he heads it down to himself so he can take his defender on. We hadn’t seen anything like this before.
Then, for a corner at the Vicarage Road End, he’s waiting at the far post with his hand on the upright. When the ball arrives from a well-drilled flick-on, he turns it into the net. We’d see that several times again in the coming years, although he’d often be the one successfully flicking the ball on.
Later, he receives the ball, stops, and shows it to the Norwich full-back. As the tackle comes in, he pulls the ball away with the sole of his foot, before jinking sideways and taking a shot. In an interview afterwards, Graham Taylor revealed that they asked Barnesy for a “sole of the foot movement” in every game.
Then, he takes a free-kick, just outside the box at the Rookery End. He curls the ball round the wall, it hits the bar and Luther Blissett scores the rebound. Barnes’ left foot regularly made defensive walls redundant.
Finally, he takes the ball past a man, then another man. He turns, he takes on the same two men a second time, and skips between them. He runs off and attacks Norwich’s defence. He draws four opponents towards him and lays the ball off for a team-mate to shoot. It’s a great example of how Barnesy’s individual skill benefited the whole team.
His impact was sensational. The win against Norwich was Watford’s seventh in eight games after he’d made his full debut. By May, we had been promoted with two games to spare.
Of course, these moments against Norwich weren’t his most famous during his Watford career. Away from The Vic, in 1984, he scored a legendary solo goal for England at the Maracanã stadium in Brazil. He scored for us in two FA Cup quarter-finals - at Birmingham City (1984) and Arsenal (1987), he created the only goal in the 1984 semi-final against Plymouth at Villa Park, and he played at Wembley in our first ever FA Cup final.
And, at The Vic, over six seasons, he scored 49 goals at the Rookery and Vicarage Road ends. Some were absolutely sublime. Meanwhile, when he wasn’t scoring, he was providing assists for a team that averaged more than two goals per home game when he played. Our win percentage with Barnes on the pitch at Vicarage Road was 58 per cent.
But those are just the bits you can measure. What you can’t quantify is how he played football, and what a joy he was to watch. He had a fluidity which, combined with his artistry and athleticism, was unique. It was on display in the Norwich game in 1981, and also in his final season in 1986/87.
At home to league champions Liverpool, he assisted Watford’s first (with one of those flicked-on headers from a corner), and then scored a brilliant individual goal. Again, take a look on YouTube. On the halfway line, he receives the ball and nutmegs a defender, before running swiftly and smoothly towards goal. He reaches the edge of the box, jinks to his left, and drives the ball into the far corner. Just superb. The result was a 2-0 home win, and Liverpool going on to buy Barnes.
He went on to win the league title twice, lift the FA Cup twice, and be crowned Footballer of the Year twice - all with Liverpool. But, while he was ours, for six wonderful seasons at Vicarage Road, John Barnes played with a talent we’ll never forget.
