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, Nick Catley writes about a very recent favourite who scored a memorable goal against Leicester City 10 years ago.
Genuinely, I almost didn’t write about this goal. Strange as it sounds, it doesn’t obviously sum up Troy’s contribution to Watford. Although he had personality and charisma by the bucketload, and a high off-field profile driven by his willingness to speak his mind, his best on-pitch moments didn’t tend to be spectacular. With the occasional exception (such as a long-range effort at Hull a few weeks previously), his goals were coolly-placed drives, solid headers, one-on-ones where the ball was never finishing anywhere except the back of the net and, of course, those emphatic, nerveless penalties. He also played the classic centre-forward’s role perfectly, holding the ball up well and dominating aerially (I remember focusing on his heading duels one afternoon, waiting to see when he would lose his first. I’m still waiting now.) His leadership was crucial, too ‒ he knew just the right combination of encouragement and reproach to keep the team focused, but more than that he somehow inspired just by being there, the very definition of a talismanic presence.
In short, he was the kind of player who looked good when he played, but even better when he didn’t. During his absences, whether for injury or because a new manager had decided we could do without him, we tended to look like sheep in need of a border collie. Indeed, I’d planned to write about the goals he scored in consecutive games in early 2018 to give us 1-0 wins against Everton and West Bromwich Albion to banish any lingering relegation fears, during a season where he’d been in and out of the team. Doing what was needed for us to be successful, time after time ‒ unspectacular things that were harder than they looked, as evidenced by the fact others didn’t do them ‒ summed up his huge contribution to our successes of the last decade.
However. We’re talking about the 100th anniversary of this place. How could I ignore the most remarkable goal it’s ever seen ‒ in some ways, its greatest-ever moment? So, having acknowledged that it may not have been the Troy-est of strikes, let’s ease ourselves into the nostalgic warm bath of those 20 seconds.
I’d be absolutely amazed if it isn’t the most-watched football clip ever from outside top divisions or internationals ‒ and it must be pretty high up overall. I’m a teacher, and as soon as my students find out I’m a Watford fan (I make sure this happens fairly quickly, if I’m honest) this is the moment they mention. Telling them that I was there brings a certain hushed awe, and all teachers ‒ hell, all parents ‒ will know that you take this kind of thing where you can get it.
However, for all the worldwide attention, one thing never seems to get mentioned. It may be a remarkable goal, but it’s also an absolutely fantastic one. Manuel Almunia’s double save, and Marco Cassetti’s clearance, were brilliant, if the stuff of desperation. The rest, though, is utterly inspired.
How many times have we all rewatched this goal on lazy, stressful or just plain disappointing days? How many more have we gone through it in our heads? When we do, one thing we have to wait for the replay to see is Ikechi Anya’s absolutely perfect control, bringing the ball down and starting a run towards the right wing in one movement, because during the live broadcast the director chose to focus, understandably, on the keeper who’d just saved a last-minute penalty, not realising the real drama had only just begun. Anya then beats a player, and puts Fernando Forestieri in to drop a supremely accurate cross on Jonathan Hogg’s head at the far post. Hogg could easily go for goal, but decides instead to cushion a header back to the onrushing Deeney.
Let’s pause the action at this moment. From the almost certain end of our play-off chances 20 seconds earlier, Troy is now faced with an excellent chance to take us to Wembley. However, it isn’t as simple as it looks. The ball is bouncing, and Kasper Schmeichel in the Leicester goal is getting across quickly. Amid the pandemonium, it would be incredibly easy to snatch at the ball and slice it, or lean back just the merest fraction and put it over the bar. But instead, as so often, Troy took charge of the situation, showing nerve ‒ you might even say cojones ‒ and excellent technique, hitting the ball perfectly and converting a chance that most strikers should have scored, in normal circumstances, but which an awful lot wouldn’t have done in the ridiculous intensity of that particular moment.
And in that sense, of course, this goal actually sums up Troy’s contribution to Watford FC perfectly…
