Memories of Wednesdays (From Watford Observer)

Memories of Wednesdays

12:14am Saturday 24th October 2009

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A good result tonight, perhaps Watford should play all their games on a Friday night ?

Whenever we play Sheffield Wednesday I think back to January 1998 and the day I took my oldest lad to his first FA Cup game.

At the time Watford were spending their second season in the old second ( well third really ) division and Sheffield Wednesday were part of the Premier elite.

A big crowd was anticipated and for whatever reason the hierarchy at Watford had decided that the best way to manage the situation was to open the gates early, then close them for an hour, then re-open them an hour before kick off

This would encourage the fans to arrive early and join in the pre match barbecue in the heated marquees erected for the occasion with perhaps a mug or 2 of mulled wine to sharpen the pre match anticipation.

For some strange reason our tickets didn`t include entry to the heated marquees but did include a soaking on the walk from the town centre followed by a 2 hour wait in seats just below the polar ice cap.

Pre match entertainment was provided by the famous Sheffield Wednesday band and several of their larger supporters who scoffed at we southern softies idea of Arctic weather by going topless

I really don`t remember too much about the game except it ended 1 – 1 and when they scored several large tattooed topless gentlemen ran onto the pitch before being forcibly removed

Happy days.

ps we lost the replay 5-3 on penalties