Those interested in football will know that last weekend [February 14 and 15] was F.A.Cup weekend and while this year Watford may no longer be in the competition, back in February 1970, there was much celebrating as the Hornets beat Liverpool 1-0 to go through to the semi-final.
Sadly, the team was to go no further, meeting eventual winners Chelsea in the semi-final. But there was much rejoicing at the Liverpool win (a cracking diving header by Barry Endean, as many a Watford fan will tell you).
Anyway, the Watford Observer of February 27, 1970, published a poem from a reader about the occasion. Now the vast majority of poems sent into local newspapers aren’t half as good as their authors think they are. This one, however, I thought was rather excellent and well worth repeating all these years later. The whole letter reads:
“After having returned from a most enjoyable weekend in Watford, particularly so because ‘my’ team gained a place in the semi-final of the F.A.Cup, I thought other fans might be interested in the following verse:
Here lie the hopes of Liverpool
Who on their way to Wembley
Did pause to play a game here
Before a great assembly.
They played the mighty Watford
The F.A. Cup sensation
The team without a single “star”
But what a constellation.
The Liverpool lads fought very hard
As well we knew they would
But like the rest who’ve tried, they
Found the Watford boys too good
So shed a tear for Merseyside
Who to Wembley thought they’d “pad it”
For Watford were the better side
And Liverpool have had it!
— Barbara Murray, Colne, Lancashire
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