OFF hand I can't really recall anything about this game, other than Howard Wilkinson, the Notts County manager, favoured shiny grey suits.

It was March and there was this ludicrous possibility looming: Watford could make Europe.

It was ludicrous because the main concern at the outset of the campaign had been whether the newly-won place in the top flight could be sustained.

Now there was a possibility of the Hornets finishing in the top three.

When all the talking stops, this team, with the addition of Ross Jenkins, Steve Terry and Jan Lohman, was the best-ever Watford team, simply because they finished runners-up: the highest position ever achieved by a Watford side.

I have indulged in selecting an all-time team in the past and have encouraged others to come up with their views. Yet, while you can argue that Coton was better than Sherwood etc, our teams never played. This team did and finished second: so, in reality, the arguments stop here.

From The Watford Observer, Friday, March 18, 1983

WATFORD: Sherwood; Rice, Sims, Bolton, Rostron, Taylor, Jackett, Callaghan, Blissett, Barnes, Jobson. Sub: Lohman for Jackett after 72 mins.

NOTTS COUNTY: Leonard; Goodwin, Worthington, Benjamin, Kilcline, Richards, Chiedozie, Fashanu, McCulloch, Christie, Clarke. Sub: McParland for Goodwin after 45 mins.

SATURDAY'S slap-stick entertainment came right out of a script for Ealing Comedies, but some of the side effects were not so funny. Luther Blissett scored a hat-trick and was criticised for missing one; referee Roger Milford took more notice of dissent than cynical fouls and County boss Howard Wilkinson gave a confusing press conference.

And, as a result of the eight-goal farce at Vicarage Road, Watford move still closer to Europe, and Blissett, who originally set a target of 20 goals this season, has upped it to 30.

But if he reaches that amazing total, he will doubtless be pilloried further as the Press continue to deal more with the goals he may spurn than the times he has scored.

His second hat-trick of the season <ETH> excluding his trio for England <ETH> has made him the top English striker in Division one, a remarkable achievement for a player who is still in his first season in the upper bracket and has had just three seasons as a League striker as opposed to midfield or as a winger.

But while the corny headlines talk of "Miss it" and "Blitz it", and those wasted opportunities, they overlook one important fact. Even accepting that Blissett did miss as many chances as he scored, what other striker continues to waste opportunities but still lauds it over their rivals? After all, Blissett's rivals are playing the same opponents, so either they are not making things happen, or are not good enough or...are playing the wrong style of football!

There do not appear to be many teams in the League that can boast the division's second highest goal tally, the division's second highest goalscorer and still , if we believe all we read, squander an amazing number of chances. The only conclusion to come to is that Watford have something, Blissett has something and plainly the style of play has something else.

Graham Taylor's statistics differ from ours, in that we count shots blocked but the Watford boss comments: "All these people who reckon that Luther Blissett missed a host of chances on Saturday should sit with me and watch the 90-minute video and point them out. I never saw a host of misses by Luther on Saturday. I think some people come to the game looking for them and expect to see him miss chances."

The second most talked about event which occurred on Saturday, was John Chiedozie's dismissal. The coloured County winger called the coloured linesman a black "whatsit", after the latter had plainly erred in giving Watford a corner.

Chiedozie's anger was understandable but his comments "out of order", as Wilkinson put it. But did they warrant a dismissal? And had the linesman been white and called an uncoloured "whatsit", would Chiedozie have been sent off?

Referee Milford decided that Chiedozie's comments warranted an early bath while Nigel Worthington, who spent much of the second half, kicking and hacking Nigel Callaghan, escaped without a booking, suggesting that Mr Milford has his priorities very wrong. Dissent is rightly punishable, but not more so than abuse of the rules.

"It was not the sort of incident which should obscure the game," said Howard Wilkinson, talking of his player's early bath. It was a fair comment as was his claim that teams are more likely to make mistakes against Watford because "they put pressure on you and work very, very, very hard and that's to their credit."

But Wilkinson's main comments were over his disappointment at conceding "five goals to set-pieces", a fact that was not supported by the events of the match. But he continued to harp on the fact; faulting his goalkeeper for three of the goals and giving the impression that but for these errors County would have won.

The fact that Watford also had numerous chances created in open play and that Sherwood only had one save to make apart from picking the ball out of the net, would suggest that County were fortunate to escape at 5-3. Had Watford, like County, dispatched three out of every four chances then the Hornets would have reached double figures. And then again, were all County's goals the result of clear-cut chances?

Either Wilkinson was attempting to obscure the facts or he really believed that the difference between the two sides was a matter of marking tight when facing free-kicks and corners. One hopes he was doing the former, because the future of one England team is in his hands.

The after-effects were perhaps as confusing as the afternoon. "A sloppy day, a sloppy atmosphere, a sloppy game and some good and some sloppy goals. The only redeeming feature is that on a day we concede three goals, it is good to score five," was Taylor's after-match analysis.

Taylor's career as manager at Watford commenced with a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of York City and the following season Bury came back from the dead to force a draw and snatch a point in a 3-3 draw. Orient, Leicester and Chelsea all scored three and won against the Hornets in their first season in Division Two and Chelsea scored three again and won at Vicarage Road the following season. Newcastle hit three and won last season, so County's defeat after scoring three goals, broke the trend.

"It's almost as if everyone wanted the game out of the way so we could concentrate on the big one against Spurs. We felt we could beat County but also realised that it was a game which could prove tricky. Even when County took the lead, the fans seemed to feel we would still win," said Taylor.

A reduced crowd, sunshine and enigmatic opponents led to a tame atmosphere. As if still shattered from the emotional win over Villa, fans seemed almost resigned to sub-standard entertainment and there was something haphazard about County's attitude. It was almost an end-of-the-season approach.

And after a minute and 50 seconds, the Hornets were a goal down. Trevor Christie drove the ball into the net after a Clarke corner had been headed back from the far post by McCulloch, with the Watford defence caught napping as if expecting the ball to go out of play.

The first half was not to be an inspiring event although for a spell it threatened to be an exhilarating afternoon. Blissett, with a fine run down the left, opened what for him was a particularly positive afternoon. His cross found Callaghan who had two successive attempts blocked at the far post.

Such was Watford's determination to go forward that by the time Blissett equalised one felt it was almost overdue. Sims picked up a ninth-minute clearance and moved towards the goal line, beating the defender and crossing low. Blissett was in plenty of space at the far post to pick his spot.

And the striker should have hit the target again when Barnes worked down the left and crossed a few minutes later but Blissett headed wide from six yards out.

Jobson produced another good run down the left and crossed low for County to scramble clear and at the other end, Sherwood made a smart save to thwart Christie.

With just over half an hour gone, Callaghan had a good shot deflected for a corner and from this Leonard took the wrong approach, beaten to Barnes' flag kick by the climbing Blissett. The County goalkeeper moved late and by the time he made contact with the striker, the ball was already heading for the net.

The referee was well positioned to spot any infringement, but had no hesitation in awarding a goal and County did not protest.

Goal number three came shortly before half-time. By that stage Callaghan had seen two crosses headed wide of the target by Barnes and Blissett, but Barnes was to pounce on a bad back pass by Goodwin and beat the goalkeeper with a raking shot.

After the break Blissett fired straight at the goalkeeper when reasonably placed and Sims had a header cleared off the line as Watford continued to press forward. In the 52nd minute County struck with Worthington latching on to a clearance and volleying a low shot inside the post from over 25 yards. Sherwood got a hand to the ball but could not arrest it.

Watford regained the two-goal advantage three minutes later. Barnes was cynically fouled yet the County man was not booked other than conceding the free-kick. Happily Watford scored from this so some justice was done. Bolton, still yet to score this season, sent a ferocious free-kick thudding against the post from 30 yards out with the goalkeeper plainly adrift. The ball rebounded and there was Blissett to round off the hat-trick.

And it looked as if that hatful of Watford goals was on the way when Callaghan scored to make it 5-2, with the game not an hour old. He sent a wicked free-kick curling towards the far corner where Leonard was unable to effectively halt its 25-yard progress into the net.

Shortly after this, Blissett muffed a situation his positive run and dribble had created. He sped through on to a pass from Lohman, timing his run to beat the County offside trap. Rounding the goalkeeper, Blissett had taken the ball too wide but he turned and mishit a pass to Lohman which County cleared with ease.

Two minutes later County pulled a goal back. They broke quickly through the middle and when Fashanu was given the ball as he ran free on the right, he hit a first time shot which hit Sherwood on the shoulder and bounced into the net.

"Nine times out of ten Steve Sherwood saves those," said Taylor. "This was the odd occasion."

It was also the odd occasion for Fashanu because every first touch he made, was a poor one apart from that one goal. His performance left one puzzled as to how anyone could pay £100,000 for his services let alone ten times that amount.

Blissett was thwarted by the speedy Leonard in his bid to collect another errant back pass, but there were no more real dramas in front of goal. The only remaining event of note was Chiedozie's dissent and his dismissal to make it a hat-trick of sending offs for County in three visits to Vicarage Road.

Reflecting on Saturday's game with Notts County and Howard Wilkinson's much-repeated complaint that Watford scored all their goals from set pieces, Taylor said: "Statistics prove that a lot of goals, in fact most goals, are scored from restarts.

"Two of their goals at Meadow Lane were scored from restarts when they beat us earlier in the season. I noticed that County had ten men back on Saturday when Luther Blissett headed home the corner.

"We tell our players not to bring everyone back. You can have too many in the box and frankly, when Luther headed home the corner, the other nine County defenders were a waste of time being there.

"We too went to sleep on a corner. I think the players may have thought the ball was going out of play beyond the far post. As for their second goal, and as for their third goal. . . well, 99 times out of 100, Steve Sherwood would save that. It was the odd one in 100 when the ball goes in off his shoulder. But we did allow people to go through us down the middle for that one."

January 21, 2002 16:30