Watford correspondent tributes from Tony Coton, John Ward and others

John Ward, Tony Coton, Mike Vince and Michael Calvin are among those who have spoken with great warmth and affection of the Watford Observer’s long-serving former Assistant Editor and Sports Editor after he passed away at the age of 81.

Here is how they – and others – will remember Oli:

In an age where the demands of journalism are changing almost daily, there are some qualities that should always prevail.

Hard work, diligence, accuracy and an ability to build trusted and long-lasting relationships. Oli Phillips embodied all these qualities and much, much more during more than four decades covering Watford.

• Your memories of a Watford Observer legend
• 'A light has gone out in the press box at Vicarage Road'
• The gifted journalist who became a Watford legend

If Oli wrote something, you could take every syllable as gospel. If he was sometimes confrontational in his opinions, it was only because he cared for the club and its fans.

He was happy to pass on his wisdom, not through any vanity but simply because he believed if journalists picked up great habits early, it would stand them in excellent stead throughout their careers.

People question whether reporters from a past era could cope with this digital age in which we find ourselves. Oli would have thrived in any era because journalists who break great stories on a regular basis and are trusted by contacts and colleagues alike are golden.

And Oli glittered like few others.

Paul McCarthy - Executive Secretary, Football Writers' Association

First of all Oli was a gentleman in all of his dealings with players and management. His support for the club was very strong from the outset.

Graham Taylor had a very high regard for Oli which was no mean feat as GT’s father was a football reporter for a Lincolnshire newspaper.

Oli enjoyed being close to the players and was always honest in his reports and interviews.

John Ward - former Watford player and assistant manager It took me a while to work out why Oli wasn't particularly enamoured when I was employed by the club in 1984. In effect, he had been the club's de facto press officer, liaising with the national press.

Now the club had brought that in-house. But we quickly formed a really strong working relationship and I was never in any doubt about the importance of the Watford Observer to the club - as a supporting voice and rightly, a critical one at times.

I felt for Oli as he had a difficult line to tread - staying friendly with the club, but also reserving the right to pull no punches when he felt the club had got it wrong.

It was a line he trod with expert precision and in my time as press officer, we always treated Oli and the Observer as the first port of call on club news, new signings etc. He was a first-rate journalist who could easily have worked in the national media, but preferred to really get under the skin of his immediate locale - and not just the football club.

We also shared very similar musical tastes and I like to think became firm friends over the years. Of course, his other great legacy were the books about the club's history and I am so pleased that an interest in this history continues to this day.

RIP Oli and here's looking forward to your history of heaven.

Ed Coan - press and publications officer Watford FC 1984-1996 and other later roles

My first recollection of Oli Phillips was in the press conference after my debut for Watford in 1984 in which I let in five goals v Everton.

When you have let in five on your debut the last place you want to be is a post-match press conference. The first thing he asked me was did I know how bad our back four was, I said of course that's why Graham Taylor bought me to the club, to steady the goals conceded column.

He smiled at me and said ‘well that didn't go according to plan did it!’ I was like any other player on a Friday morning, I couldn't wait to pick up the Observer to see what had been written. If I had played well I was wondering what superlatives he had used to describe my performance and if I'd had a stinker how critical had he been in his assessment of my performance.

I can honestly say that he was right 99.9 per cent and was very fair in his columns. Over my six years at Watford I can only remember having one dispute with him over an article he had written on the poor performance of a young player, who I stuck up for.

Oli, to his credit, rang me at home and explained why he had written it. We chatted for an hour then we agreed to forget it. A few weeks later Graham told me that Oli had told him that he thought I was a strong minded so and so, and that he shouldn't worry about his players as his goalie will look after them, which I took as a huge compliment.

When I had my heart attack and then later a heart bypass, Oli was one of the first people to contact me to see how I was bearing up.

I said ‘Oli I'm having trouble sleeping, if I could only read one of your articles I'd be out like a light!’ He burst out laughing and said ‘I'm glad your sense of humour hasn’t changed.’ In journalistic terms Oli is a legend. I always thought he would be off to Fleet Street to one of the big papers but he stayed loyal to The Watford Observer.

I often saw him around Sarratt and would stop off and have a quick half with him, but has soon as he lit that pipe up I was off. He knew that too, so when he had enough of me he would light up!

RIP Oli

Tony Coton receives an award from Oli and Ian Bolton. (Image: Watford Observer)

Tony Coton – former Watford goalkeeper

Everyone who knew Oli trusted him as an authoritative voice on the fortunes of Watford FC. Friday's weekly edition of the Watford Observer was always eagerly-awaited - especially by me as his rival on the Evening Post-Echo between 1978 and 1983.

Liaising with Graham Taylor could be a matter of personal joy - and it could also be a complete pain in the backside as Oli discovered in 1979, when Watford signed Martin Patching.

Oli was invited by the highly-talkative Taylor to join him on a trip to Derby, where he was checking out the young Wolves midfielder. Naturally, Oli rubbed his hands at the thought of bagging an exclusive or two from the Hornets' boss.

The trouble was, Taylor had hardly stopped for breath as he talked himself up the motorway before suggesting they park up a couple of miles from the Baseball Ground and jog the rest of the way.

You guessed it... Oli was so soon out of breath he couldn't get a question in! Still, Oli got his Patching exclusive - and many more - over his glorious and extensive career with the Watford Observer. RIP Oli.

Geoff Sweet - Evening Post-Echo Watford correspondent 1978-83

I’m not sure why but Oli saw something in me and, like a select few of other journalists, he took me under his wing and asked if I wanted to join him in the press box at Vicarage Road to undertake the post-match interviews.

As a Watford fan of ten years by that stage (I was only 22), I leapt at the chance and I think I learned more from him and learned more about journalism in the two following years than at any other time. Trying to get a quote from a taciturn player who doesn’t want to leave the bar, let alone talk to the skinny hippy kid by the bar door, took a great deal of guile. But we had to get stories. Oli had given us this opportunity and we had to repay him with decent enough copy to run the following week.

My fondest memory, though, is the mix tapes. It was the nineties after all. I had started on the WO writing a music column as he had done on the Post. We were both fanatical about music - particularly mid to late-Sixties rock. He used to say I was born in the wrong time.

He would make me mix tapes featuring his beloved Dylan and, for some reason, a lot of Mary Chapin Carpenter. I in return spent years trying to convince him of the worth of The Smiths. I failed.

Even now, if I hear some new troubadour playing some sort of country-tinged MOR rock, I think of Oli.

On the phone in the press box. (Image: The Phillips family)

Jeremy Austin - former Watford Observer journalist

“Mediocre.”

Oli read my report and rolled the word around his tongue with a relish usually reserved for pints of real ale in the pubs around Sarratt. Pausing for effect, he then threw a heavyweight edition of the Oxford English Dictionary across the sports desk.

“Look it up.”

I was 16, a Holywell lad fresh from abandoning my A levels at Watford Grammar. My schoolboy error had been to describe a long-forgotten Sunday League team as “mediocre.” I meant, mistakenly, they were dire, rotten. After all, double digit defeats tended not to lie.

The adjective’s dictionary definition – “of only average quality; not very good” – was instantly imprinted on my brain. Oli, my first sports editor, my most influential tutor, was delivering an important lesson with typical crispness and candour.

“Make sure you know the meaning of a word before you use it.”

His quizzically raised eyebrow was more effective than the traditional monstering, delivered in the darker recesses of Fleet Street. I’ve covered more than 2,000 matches in a career that has taken me to 80 odd countries and seen some appalling teams. None have been marked by the ‘m’ word.

Oli wrote passionately, evocatively, and intelligently about Watford for 58 years until his retirement. I was unaware he suffered from persistent anxiety until I read his final column. He seemed so urbane and unruffled.

He was an authoritative reporter who cared about his community and amplified its voice. I’m hesitant to stress how easily he could have excelled on a national and international stage, because it seems faintly patronising to do so.

He made my Mum cry by giving me my first byline, as Mick Calvin, on a lawn bowls report. He introduced me to the ritual of fried tomatoes on toast in the canteen in the old Observer offices in Rickmansworth Road but could never convince me of Bob Dylan’s genius.

Eventually, he opened the door to Narnia, the ancient wooden press box at the back of the main stand at Vicarage Road. I found I enjoyed the exquisite torture of an ad-libbed report on the final whistle and valued his example, in cultivating a network of contacts.

I lived by his professional standards. Never break a confidence. Work truthfully and transparently. Never, ever, miss a deadline.

Our industry has changed irrevocably since those days, but some qualities are timeless. Oli understood we were in a flesh and blood business. He connected with his audience and was respected by those he wrote about. He was a people person.

He produced other celebrated sports journalists, like the late Alan Lee, a brilliant cricket and horse racing correspondent, and Malcolm Vallerius, who rose to become sports editor of two national newspapers.

I’ll miss him immensely. Go well, old son. And thank you.

Michael Calvin - award-winning sportswriter and best-selling author of 14 books

It’s amazing to think it was some 40 years ago I first met Oli, as I started doing commentaries for Hospital Radio. And a few years later, of course, he and I were the fortunate two local media who travelled round Europe with the UEFA Cup squad.

We often travelled together to away matches and I know now, as I began to realise then, that Oli was one of a kind: a mentor, a wise sage who gave so generously of his time, a gifted journalist and a man who cared. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.

They say ‘loyalty’ is a dirty word in football. ‘They’ must never have met Oli, loyal to his fingertips to his beloved family, to his work, to his friends, to his football club and to the town that for so many decades was his adopted home (yes I know Sarratt isn’t officially part of Watford).

He saw it all. Wembley, promotions, relegations, those unforgettable Bailey’s end of season nights, Northwich Victoria . . . I could go on.

But I feel lucky to have read his words which told a thousand stories, a legacy of a man the whole of Watford can rightly acclaim was ‘one of us’.

Mike Vince - broadcaster, presenter and the voice of Watford ClubCall for many years