Watford can ease 16 years of hurt

13 April 2012

Some of Watford's players are not old enough to remember the club's 1984 FA Cup Final defeat by Everton.

But the events are still etched in the minds of manager Graham Taylor and first-team coach Kenny Jackett, and memories of that fateful day will be stirred when the two sides meet at Vicarage Road in the third round tomorrow.

Everton took the lead through Graeme Sharp and Andy Gray added a controversial second when he appeared to head the ball out of the hands of goalkeeper Steve Sherwood.

Jackett, who was in the Watford midfield that day, said: "Steve did think it was a foul for Gray's goal and it has been discussed many times at the Watford end over the years.

"Everton might still have won 1-0, but you never know. It was a fantastic achievement for us just to get to the final but all that is history now."

Taylor also refuses to dwell on what might have been.

He said: "We owe Everton but some of my players, like Gifton Noel-Williams and Tommy Smith, were only four at the time so I don't think I'm going to be able to say that to them. I don't think about the final any more. Too many things happen in football to look back all the time."

Watford suffered a terrible dip in form towards the end of last year when they went eight games without a win.

But back-to-back victories against Barnsley and Wimbledon have put Watford's promotion bid back on track and given them renewed hope that they can surprise Everton.

Jackett said: "I watched Everton lose at Derby on New Year's Day. They have a lot of injuries and they are trying to scrap their way out of trouble.

"Francis Jeffers and Kevin Campbell are probably their best strikeforce and they are both out, which is good for us.

"They beat us at Vicarage Road last season but we think we have improved since then.

"We have a stronger, more settled side now and that bodes well for a very good tie.

"The good thing for us is that we have bounced back and put our problems behind us. We've got a break from the League so we can really concentrate on the Cup.

"Playing a Premiership side at home is a great tie for us and it would be a brilliant performance if we could pull something off."

Watford will have to do without the experience of on-loan Carlton Palmer as Coventry do not want him Cup-tied.

So Paolo Vernazza, recently signed from Arsenal, or Micah Hyde will take Palmer's role in midfield.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in