O N E S S T T THE LINE-UPS T E WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD ROYAL BLUE & WHITE WHITE/BLACK G Jonathan North G Bailey Vose www.wealdstone-fc.com Jake Sheppard Mark Onyemah STONES Ramarni Medford-Smith Jordan Wynter Connor Stevens Ronnie Vint Jerome Okimo (c) Tom Bonner Godfrey Poku Ben Greenhalgh Jeffrey Monakana Lee Noble Simon Mensah James Philpot Dave Pratt Elliot Bradbrook Daniel Green Ryan Hayes Bradley Hudson-Odoi Daniel Johnson Ogo Obi Kudus Oyenuga Alexander Samizadeh Dan Darbyshire Matthew Lench Phil Roberts Eion McKeown Andre Coker Pawel Kowalkowski Charlie Sheringham Christian Smith Alfie Cue Christopher Regis Callum Driver Bradley Bubb Taylor Fisher James Clark Henri Fulton Rhys Tyler Liam Gillies G Callum Thomas Tom Murphy G Ryan Nicholls REFEREE Wayne Cartmel ASSISTANTS Ian Stewart and Jordan Cushen MATCH SPONSOR Sudhir Rawal NS E
BALL DONORS Terry Hissey and Ray Corner N N S S NEXT HOME GAMES v BRENTFORD ‘B’ Middx Main club sponsor: Senior Cup quarter-final Tues January 8, 7.45pm O N v HUNGERFORD TOWN Vanarama National League South Saturday January 19, KO 3pm E T O League sponsors N S TSON S NTE E WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD 05.01.2019 BY TIM PARKS Welcome to 2019... a new year and new hope after breaking the plastic jinx! ood afternoon and August. In possibly today we extend our best display of the usual warm the season, two Gwelcome to everyone con- goals from Brad nected with Dartford FC. Bubb and a super- Well, what a start to lative strike from 2018! The New Year Jeff Monakana dawned bright over wrapped up a 3-0 Slough Town’s impressive win that made the Arbour Park ground on rest of the National Tuesday and the Stones League sit up and suddenly rediscovered take notice. their mojo following that Our club needs abject end to 2018. Three points were as leadership at the moment in every depart- @wealdstonefootballclub impressive as they were unexpected (not ment, and it was great to see positivity by me, obviously) and a rich reward for a from the management team on Tuesday. system that allowed us to protect the back Onwards and upwards! four and spring forward into attack with Interestingly, the win at Arbour Park was natural width on both wings. our first on a plastic surface in a league As matchwinner Connor Stevens told game. We’ve lost at Maidstone and our media team on the final whistle: Sutton, and been walloped at Oxford City “When we’re at the races we can beat any a couple of times but Tuesday was the team in this league and everyone was on first time the Stones looked really comfort- AND ON FACEBOOK AND ON FACEBOOK
their game today. Now we’ve just got to able on it. Slough’s surface is 4G however keep this form going”. - far, far better than Oxford - and you can Slough have a very direct approach, see why many clubs want to embrace the attempting to turn the opposition’s defence new pitch technology. Don’t tell Fingers! with long balls but Connor and skipper Many thanks to today’s match sponsor - Jerome Okimo were outstanding as they our very own ‘Elmslie Ender’ Sudhir stood up to the aerial bombardment - Rawal - and ball donors Terry Hissey and helped by the tenacity and composure of Ray Corner. Sud writes: My sons, Akhil @wealdstonefc Jake Sheppard and Remarni Medford- and Nikhil, and I are sponsoring a match Smith. And behind them, of course, Northy for the very first time at the Vale and are was supremely agile and confident, one hoping for a turn in footballing fortunes in tip-over from a second-half freekick send- 2019. One of my guests today is David ing Slough to their knees in frustration. Smith, a resident of Northampton, who is We might have had a couple of goals a Nottingham Forest fan. We had hoped more (keeper Jack Turner’s save from his to do a sporting weekend with the game own defender Lee Togwell right on half today and then Chelsea v Forest tomor- time looking suspiciously close to the row until the TV companies decided that goalline) before Dave Pratt was inches the current holders were not worthy of from converting Simon Mensah’s clever being televised! My other guest is the cross.... but in the end that mighty leap nicest man at Wealdstone, David Leigh. and header from Connor (pictured above) On Tuesday night we face the talented was enough to start the New Year’s party! Brentford ‘B’ team at The Vale in the Scoring first was a crucial factor - it Middlesex Senior Cup quarter-final always helps to have something to bite (7.45pm). The Bees ‘reserves’ beat QPR on, a lead to defend and hopefully now Under-23s 3-1 last week. Reduced prices we’ll see more of the Wealdstone that for this game: £8 adults, £5 concessions won so convincingly at Dartford last and £3 for under-18s. See you back here! THE STONESFOLLOW ON TWIETTER OUR TWITTER FEED: @wealdstone_FC WFC WEBSITE: www.wealdstone-fc.com Club Caterer Content Videographer Web Site Manager Geoff Smith&DanFinill Club Photographers Chris Humphries Asst. KitManager Kit Manager Club Historian PA Announcer Press Officer Treasurer Life Vice-President CLUB PERSONNEL Company Secretary Asst. (07790 038095) Club Secretary SECRETARIES President Fruin, Peter Worby Associate Directors Jon Pettifer, David Hawkins Nick Symmons, MarkRandall, Directors Vice Chairman Chairman PERSONNEL in areport to thePolice, potential prosecution andabanfrom theClubof upto three years. around theGround willresult inthose responsible beingasked to leave theground and,inlinewithfootball authority guidance, may result 5) Wealdstone Football theFA’s Clubsupports campaign onpyrotechnics (e.g. flares andsmoke bombs). Any misuse of suchitems inand 4) Vehicles parked ontheGrosvenor Vale site are attheowners’ risk. 3) The consumption of alcoholic drinks ispermitted INSIDEthesocial clubbar, garden andboardroom areas. 2) Nospectator ballgames. • Usingobscene orbadlanguagelikely to cause offence to others •Hitting thesideorbackpanels of theBulla stand • Throwing any onto article thefield of play •Climbingfloodlight pylons, fences, stands or any structure orbuilding • Carrying items whichmay beconsidered adangerto others, includingcans, bottles, orglasses containing alcoholic beverages • Being drunk,orundertheinfluence of alcohol ordrugs•Usingviolence of any nature • Entering thefield of play before, duringorafter agamewithoutpriorauthorisation • Entering theground through any means other thanthrough theturnstiles orentrances 1) The clubreserves therightto ejectfrom theground any person whoisconsidered to have committed any of thefollowing acts: People are onlyallowed to entry The Vale onmatch days subjectto thefollowing rules andregulations: GROUND REGULATIONS Club Secretary
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•COMPANY NO. 3953962 WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD 05.01.2019
A warm welcome to Adam Flanagan, Jamie Coyle their management teams, players and officials of Dartford Football Clubs. appy New Year to everyone and welcome back to the Vale for what we hope is a fantastic 2019! HThese notes are being written on New Year’s Eve and as most get ready to cel- ebrate the night away and see the new year in we only have one thought and that is get- ting a win for this football club. The club has gone through a lot of change over the last 18 months. A new board, new management ing to recover shortly and expect him back team and a new squad. We are all in agree- in action over the next week or so. Stefan ment that to move forward this was needed Brown is close to fitness and has participated and has been welcomed. in training so will be provide additional strik- In fits and starts we have seen signs of ing cover. Sam Cox and James Clark are out what this club can be, so don’t forget those of loan for the foreseeable future and Rhys moments as we are still Wealdstone Football Mitchell has returned to the squad now after Club. We have some very good individual time at Wingate. players in the squad who can take us to On to the game: Dartford are in the play-off where we want to be, the board has some mix having recovered well after a difficult professional highly successful business men start. They are a physical well organised side and you have a talented management team and will come here to compete and make it who are working very hard day and night to very difficult for us. As ever thanks for your find the right formula. support, back the boys to the very end, enjoy Most of all the club is yours the challenge and look forward! and we do have some great fans We only have Bobby and the management who only want the best for the team football club. We are in a diffi- STOP PRESS: After the win at cult moment and at these times one thought Slough on New Year’s Day, Assis- you must dig deep and look at tant Manager Jamie Leacock said: your yourselves as individuals ‘We’ve been in a difficult moment
at this party www.wealdstone-fc.com and ask what can you do to be but the boys came out today and better. On the pitch, we want looked really good in the shape we leadership and it is our job to time & that’s gave them, showing the quality we make this happen, off the pitch always knew they had and are we need leadership to galvanise to get a win capable of. It was a credit to every- and bring everyone together one and we needed that. and again most of all we need “The holding midfielders were excellent, fans that back the club no matter what, Simon Mensah coming in and making a dif- through the good times and the bad. ference- he has those two sides to his game, We are all in this together. There will be no getting his foot in defensively and also being major overhaul of the squad with the current good on the ball and he was very creative constraints we have in place and for now we today. will setup a system and trust these boys to “Greenie, Jeff and Bradley were great in deliver what we know they can. possession and Pratty back to his best, while On the injury front, Bradley Bubb and Fred- the back line was solid with Connor and die Grant remain long term absentees with Jerome impassable. Bradley having a scan this week to learn the “Connor is getting used to non League now extent and Freddie starting rehab imminently and he’s growing with every game - and he’s with the hope of potentially playing at the a winner, his attitude is fantastic” very end of the season. Rhys Tyler has And he scored the odd goal or two! FROM NEWS THE CLUB AT LATEST struggled with a knee injury which we’re hop- BY SUDHIR RAWAL WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD 05.01.2019
most telling, was that you didn’t realise it was an artificial surface, unlike say the awful surface at Remembering Simon Oxford. ow we need to continue in the same manner at the Vale; Ricketts and Les Bull starting today, we need to Nimprove our home form again. TODAY there will be a minute’s We haven’t won a home league ‘banging out’ in place of the game since the fag end of Octo- usual silence to mark the ber, when we beat Gloucester at passing of two well-known mem- the Vale. bers of the Wealdstone family. In the post match interview, Banging out (on metal, or Neil Baker, the joint Slough Town anything that makes a din) is manager, made an interesting the traditional mark of respect comment. He basically said for journalists as they leave the that they expected Wealdstone building, and SIMON to come to the game at Arbour RICKETTS (pictured left with Is the expectancy of winning Park and play with the freedom his partner Andrea Gibbs) was we don’t show at home, as the both a Guardian journo and www.wfcmegastore.co.uk crowd gets on their (our team’s) a Stones fan who was loved back at the Vale, as we saw on and respected by all who knew him. at The Vale a blessing or a curse? Boxing Day. He was a familiar face on the tea bar side at The Whilst our home form has fallen off Vale alongside his fellow wit, Glenn Rodgers, after the cliff of late, our form away from switching his allegiance from Watford half a dozen here was palpable relief at the final we would win. Not by any logic of course but home is still pretty solid with only years ago. His Twitter profile was one of the whistle at Slough after our well de- the fact that I had seen four other games live one defeat in seven on the road. funniest and most humane, and his served one nil victory, with hugs involv- over the Christmas break, involving Stones Our home record at the Vale has recent blogs (after being diagnosed with Ting the management team and Chelsea, and the away team had been poor since our promotion into cancer) almost unbearably moving. appearing to have greater won all four! the Conference South and whilst Please remember him today. resonance than the normal. The management team went there has been an improvement LES BULL (pictured right) was well We needed that for sure. with a bold line-up, set up to under the current regime, it seems known to the Wealdstone fraternity The stats had not been good. attack and after the first 15 min- that the old fallibilities still exist. throughout the 1980s when he was the No league wins in five games, utes or so, we grew in confidence Our home crowds, particularly with first team kit man... and had the honour four league matches without and started to be the better side. expectations, can be seen as much of being on duty in the Stones changing a goal and after our heady Their keeper pulled off a couple of as a curse as a blessing. That said, room at the 1985 FA Trophy final when win at Hemel which took us great saves in the first half, includ- is it the crowd that is the problem or (of course) we won the second part of momentarily to second spot ing one fabulous one right on half more defensive team selections? the non-League double. (pictured right), a slump time that kept the scores level. Food for thought certainly. Staunch Stones fan Victor Klarfeld down the table to 14th place. Stones carried on attacking in got to know him closely via the ground- We’d also never won a the second forty-five and were re- hopping scene when he used to attend MAGAZINES AT THE WFC MEGASTORE: THE MEGASTORE: WFC AT MAGAZINES proper game of football on warded with a goal, our first in the games all over the country with Les and his best plastic. The portents were league for six weeks, with a fine friend Paul White. not good. We already know Connor Stevens header. Yes, we “He used to love waving his stick in the air about our abject defeat at had to weather a Slough fight back when he didn’t agree with the referee’s decision Biggleswade in the Trophy and needed a brilliant save from and - being a dyed-in-the-wool Sunderland fan - and once you get into a slump, confidence Jonathan North at the very end to keep the he got very animated at any mention of skunks, wanes and it is difficult to see where the next scores level, but we could have been home magpies, zebra crossings or in fact anything goal will come from - let alone a win. The two and hosed had we’d taken one of the two gilt black and white! (Very Newcastle-averse was home defeats over Christmas hadn’t helped edge chances that presented themselves in
ELMSLIE ENDER ENDER ELMSLIE our Les)”. the mood, as performances were a long the second forty-five. Victor missed the Slough game this week as way from where they should be. Slough in As I said before, the selection was bold, but he wanted to keep Les’s friend Paul company particular was awful. we also saw some decent football played on at Wingate v Haringey. Paul was devastated at o we went to Slough without much the ground that was as equally pleasing as Les’s passing but will be at today’s game to pay hope I suspect, certainly on the terrac- the win. I should also mention that Slough’s his respects... as will we all. FIND OLD Ses, though I had some confidence that 4G surface was as good as they get and, WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD O5.01.2019 BY MIRIAM GOODMAN
Some things in life are more important than football ..RIP Les Former Stones kitman Les Bell (ringed, and Simon left) with the FA Trophy-winning squad at Wembley, 1985 Good afternoon one and all was more worried about the effect his situ- hese notes are written after our match ation had on his partner, family and friends last Saturday when the team’s than on himself. His attitude to life was performance was definitely an improve- awe-inspiring; he was a true gentleman, a Tment on the two previous outings. good friend and had a marvellous way with Now, more than ever, our team require our words. Both will be sorely missed and long www.wfcmegastore.co.uk support from the terraces and not disparag- remembered. We send our deepest condo- ing remarks being shouted out when any lences to their nearest and dearest. RIP Les mistake is made. These do nothing to assist and Simon. those on the receiving end, especially if the Back to today; please visit the Megastore players are teenagers. Encouragement is a situated by the half-way line to purchase much better use of vocals. your belated Christmas gifts or spend the Saturday was also a day when we heard money you were given. I will be performing of great losses to our fan base which puts all my usual Golden Goal duties just inside the of our great club’s problems into perspec- turnstiles. Tickets are £1 each, time of the tive. First we heard that Les Bull, a kit man first goal wins £50, time of the last goal wins whilst we were at Lower Mead and who was £10 unless it ends one-nil. I shall be in the recently seen at the Vale, had passed away Megastore if you think you have a winning in Northwick Park Hospital before Victor had ticket. Good luck! a chance to see him. Here’s hoping for an entertaining perfor- _FC MEGASTORE: WFC Then later the news broke that our fellow mance on the pitch this afternoon...come on supporter Simon Ricketts had finally suc- you Stones! cumbed to the cancer that had been attack- Mim @GoldenGoalStone ing him relentlessly. He spoke so eloquently in his blogs about his battle, showing that he wealdstone December Team Draw results 1. £150 - Bob Bangs 7. £10 - A. Smith 2. £75 - Chris Andrews 8. £10 - B. Woolford 3. £50 - Keith Stonestreet 9. £10 - Doug Robinson 4. £25 - Toby Jackson 10. £10 - Stephen 5. £25 - Douglas Horgan Lawrence Voucher - Trevor Davies OUR TWITTER FEED: @ 6. £10 - Daniel Gloor WEALDSTONE YOUTH, ISTHMIAN YOUTH LEAGUE
WithJOE RINGER the Under-18s PROFILE Name: Joe Ringer Position: Goalkeeper Best Attributes: Lots of Comunication, Distri- bution, Shot Stopping, Comitted, Organising the team Age: 17 School: Canons High School Studying: Level 3 B- Tech Sport Teams Played For: Barnet FC, Rayners Lane FC, Northwood FC
Best Football www.wfcmegastore.co.uk Experience: Play- ing for Barnet FC reserves against Southend FC Worst Football Experience: Not getting signed by Barnet FC Dan Finill pictures from Slough 0 Wealdstone1 _FC MEGASTORE: WFC wealdstone
SO NEARLY A PRATT-TRICK... Dave Pratt (9) returned from injury at Slough and might have had three goasls with better luck. Here he just fails to connect with Simon Mensah’s low cross OUR TWITTER FEED: @ WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD WILLIE WATSON INTERVIEW BY TIM PARKS 26.12.2018/29.12.2018
in his youth - and in the East London Boys team and we had then, even more some great players there. I was spotted by strangely being the well-known scout, Wally St Pier and he 18 England caps came round our house which must have overlooked by the England non-League been an eye-opener! team in his seven “He invited me to train with West Ham and a shot like years at Lower Mead twice a week... but the best thing to come - Willie finally reaped out of that was meeting Ginge Fulton on the international the tube. He was a Burnt Oak boy, and we Bobby Charlton rewards when he met up at Stepney Green and travelled on was transferred to to training together. It’s a friendship that has Yorkshire top-dogs endured!” ...meet Willie Scarborough in ut Willie is rightly scarred by his expe- 1980. His 18 caps rience of pro football. His bitterness www.wfcmegastore.co.uk for the semi-pro at his treatment by “The Academy of Watson, a true Three Lions, across BFootball” at Upton Park is long-lasting and six years are only understandable. bettered by Altrin- “I was in West Ham’s reserves at the age cham full-back John of 15. One of the youngest-ever. I was in Wealdstone FC Davison. the same team as Trevor Brooking, Harry Certainly, if play- Redknapp and David Coss, but about 10 ing for your country years younger. John Lyall was the youth all-time legend is a true measure team manager and he rated me. We played of a footballer’s Gillingham at Upton Park on my debut and We’ve an eight-page New Year Watson (left) at the ‘Willie & George” ability, John “Willie” we won 6-0. I was on top of the world. treat for you in this issue! Tim sporting lunch at Ruislip in 2014. For Watson is in a “I got picked to play for England Youth in Parks sits down to interview once Willie takes a back seat as Mr Duck league of his own the Little World Cup, along with my team one of his favourite Stones (right) entertains the large crowd among the mates Kevin Locke and John Ayris, and the players in history.... Wealdstone greats. next week the West Ham manager made a F THERE’S one little story that sums his whistle went with the ball at our end of You have to be of a certain vintage to point in the programme of congratulating the up the cheeky playfulness of John the pitch, pitch black, and when the lights have watched and appreciated the man other two... but not me. For some reason I ‘Willie’ Watson - the man revered came on again me and Ray Fulton were up who patrolled the centre of the pitch like a wasn’t his cup of tea. Maybe I was a bit of Iand feared throughout the Stones’ first in front of their goal, sticking the ball in the man on a mission, earning the admiration a rascal, too naughty, always getting into golden era of the 1970s - it’s the one net and falling over laughing. They didn’t of friend and foe as he protected the back scrapes - it was just the way I was brought about Gibraltar and The Floodlights. know what on earth was going on!” four and worked to provide chance after up. Whatever it was, I was slung out of West You’ve not heard it? Well, Wealdstone Willie and Ray were the jokers of the chance for our celebrated forwards of that Ham.” were winning the Southern League Division team, but chalk and cheese on the pitch time. It was now 1971. John ‘Budgie’ Byrne, ex One South and the club rewarded Eddie with Watson the midfield enforcer and ‘Gin- et it was his fiery temper and will to West Ham, was manager of Durban City in Presland’s team with a midweek break in ger’ Fulton the artful wide man. “Has Ray win that, perversely, stunted his op- South Africa and he offered an escape route Gibraltar - and a match against First Tower still got his red hair?” I asked Willie. portunities of making it in the Football to ‘the seriousl y p*****d off” Willie Watson. FC, the tiny nation’s resident football team. YLeague. Willie had a tough upbringing in “It may sound like a strange move but it “Yeah, but now he keeps it in a box by Willie takes up the story: “The pitch was his bed”. East London’s Stepney Green. “My dad was great for me. It was real quality football. right next to the airport runway, and at was a boxer. My mum was a cocker span- Johnny Haynes, the ex-England and Fulham atson’s dry humour iel” he joked, making light of the difficult some point the is the stuff of legend skipper was starring in midfield - he could referee said ‘There days when his path in life seemed likely be horrible on the pitch but a real gent off it, at Wealdstone. to follow his dad, Stephen, into working at is a plane due in WBut he earned respect on a smashing bloke - while the team had four the breweries off the Mile End Road, mixed soon, so I’m going the pitch by having one Germans who had been in the World Cup to give a long blast in with a bit of boxing for money in the squad a year earlier. Hertha Berlin had been of the biggest engines in fairgrounds of Southend. on my whistle and the game, shrewd tactical punished for accepting bribes and all their the floodlights will awareness, a crunching “Me dad wanted me to do a bit of boxing players had to find a game outside FIFA, and Willie (No.4) go out for a mo- tackle and a shot like Bobby but I gave it up - I was playing football twice South Africa was ideal as they were also out- ment so the pilot poised to tackle Charlton. on Saturday for the school and for Senrab, siders because of apartheid. So Durban City Hereford in and in goal for a team on Sundays, plus was chock full of internationals, top quality can land safely. Although cruelly over- Then we’ll resume the FA Cup at training four nights a week” says Willie. players... and me! It was a real education.”
FIND A WHOLE OF THE WORLD WEALDSTONE MEMORABILIA MEGASTORE: AT looked at West Ham by the game’... well, Lower Mead, “I must have had something cos I got CONTINUED OVERPAGE 1977 manager Ron Greenwood WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD WILLIE WATSON INTERVIEW CONTINUED 05/01/2019
But after a year Charlton Athletic got in Sid, and first off I said ‘to be honest, I don’t as the club built a reputa- touch. “I had this persuasive letter from know who you are, or where Wealdstone tion for fast, attacking them and they convinced me that my future is. Who else have you got in the team? football. was back in London. So I returned. But I “And then he mentioned George Duck. But the spiky, combat- had a ‘mare and very soon I was back at Now, I’d sort of known George for a few ive side of Willie’s nature home wondering what to do.” years as he was at Millwall and Spurs, often bubbled to the sur- is saviours, as it turned out, were a playing the same level and I knew how face. “It was always there, combination of Wealdstone manager good he was. So I thought ‘well, if this I’m afraid. I hate losing, Sid Prosser and George Duck. Wealdstone are good enough for him, they whether it’s at football or H“Sid was an old friend of Ron Green- can’t be bad’. draughts and sometimes I wood, and Ron actually did me a bit of “I went over to train and it was a good stretched the laws.” a favour when he was slinging me out set up, a nice tight ground, good training His most high-profile of West Ham a year earlier. As a parting over the road at Hamilton’s and a good moment was in the FA shot, he said ‘You should get in touch with feel about it. I’d stayed in touch with Ginge Cup 3rd round at QPR in
Wealdstone’. Fulton and when he was released by Orient 1977 when the referee www.wfcmegastore.co.uk “At the time I thought nothing of it. I’d I got him over too. And Vince O’Kane who booked Willie for one never even heard of Wealdstone. I just was an East London boy like me. strong challenge too wanted to get away from West Ham. But “Well, we had some great years didn’t many - and the irate Wat- then Sid kept writing to my old address in we? I won the Conference in the 80s with son knocked the card out Stepney Green, even when I was in South Maidstone but that Wealdstone team, that of his hand! Africa, sending those old blue airmail let- group of players were something else. I’d oday, that would ters and my mum kept opening them. never enjoyed football as much before or mean a straight “My dad had fixed me up with job at the since. Particularly winning the Southern red and a lengthy brewery. I wasn’t convinced. But my mum League in ‘74, the team had such a good Tban. Willie knows how just said “At least this Sid Prosser bloke balance and flow to it and we knew where lucky he was, but it could Willie’s renowned temper wants you, that must be worth something.” the ball was going as if by instinct. The first have been even worse. “If boiled over in the FA Cup game at QPR when he knocked So I agreed to chat to year after promotion too. I was used you look at the footage of the yellow card out of referee Ron Crabb’s hand mainly at left back or right back that game, I was actu- winger, who was a charge hand there. “ but that season Eddie Presland ally picking up a lump of mud to throw at (another Essex lad who used the ref when he booked me! I was just so ut the ultimate full-time job - playing to give me a lift into training) incensed.... the non-League clubs always football - was tantalising still within moved me into midfield for the seem to get the rough end of the stick in reach as the 70s wound to a close. first time - at Dover, I think it BWith Wealdstone becoming inaugural those circumstances and the decisions was - and I thought I was ter- went against us, right through the 90 members of the Football Conference (today’s rible. I hardly touched the ball. minutes. National League), Willie was able to shine “I said to Eddie, ‘I ain’t done on the biggest non-League stage and soon “But we only had ourselves to blame. Hull City were sniffing after our mercurial nothing all afternoon!’ And he We had some players who could have hurt said: ‘They ain’t done nothing midfielder.... and also the Stones’ up-and- Rangers but they went into their shells a coming left back Stuart Pearce. either Willie. That’s all part of bit. We weren’t on our game”. the game’.” “’Hull! I’m not going to Hull’ I said when our I mentioned Steve Brinkman as being an daffy manager Ken Payne told me they were rom that moment, Willie exception. Watson grew into the interested. I think Wealdstone were inter- “Well, Brinky was a showman. A real ested in the transfer fee. I was 25 and Stuart most powerful midfield talent. Ex Arsenal youngster. I was working Fpresence in non-League was 18, and I said ‘I’m not going but you go, for Brent Council by then, working in pav- you might enjoy it’. football. He protected the ing and Brinky was my sidekick. I also got back four, moved the ball “But me and Stuart agreed to travel up jobs there for Nigel Johnson and Seamus there, despite neither really wanting to go, seamlessly through midfield Horgan. Very sad though as Brinky and - literally over-powering the and we arranged to meet at Kings Cross. I Nigel died very young.... must have been turned up and there was no-one there. So I opposition - and enjoyed working with me” he said ruefully. peppering shots on goal at got on the train anyway, all the way won- the other end So what was Willie’s career outside foot- dering what I was doing, and it was like an ball up to that point? “Well, before the Brent The Stones’ forward stars Ealing Comedy when I got off the train one Council lark I was working in the sausage end and Stuart got off at the other. He’d been of that generation - Georgie factory in Acton, Wolseley Sausages. I got Duck, Johnny Henderson and Bill on it all the time! Willie (ringed, back row) with the rest of the the job through Adriaan Eglite, the Stones Byrne - enjoyed the fruits of his endeavour CONTINUED OVERPAGE England semi-professonal side in 1980 FIND A WHOLE OF THE WORLD WEALDSTONE MEMORABILIA MEGASTORE: AT WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD WILLIE WATSON INTERVIEW CONTINUED 05/01/2019
“We met the manager Mike Smith who put start off with - until Batsford got the hump, us up in digs, and then next day got on saying I was a distraction. So I trained at the coach for a trial match at Grimsby in Barnet, where Barry Fry was manager, but pouring rain. Nobody spoke to us on the just played in league games. I was let off way down, Nobody. I said to Stu, ‘They Yorkshire Senior Cup matches!” are no better than us, no way’ and when At the time I remember thinking that Willie the game started we bossed it, me playing would be back to haunt the Stones but he left mid and Pearcey left back and Brian can’t remember facing his old club at all - Marwood playing right midfield. Of course until he signed for Dagenham. But that all they were all over us on the coach going came a bit later... back, but the money wasn’t great (they “A new manager came in at Scarborough, offered #200 a week) and I was adamant Jim McAnearney, and he wasn’t happy that I I wasn’t going. It didn’t stop me winding played so few games. But I played more than Stuart up, and he nearly signed because I should have - squads were much smaller in I’d told him I WAS going to!”
those days and you just had to play through www.wfcmegastore.co.uk remember the Hull fiasco well. I was the pain.... I was suffering from a damaged a sports reporter for the Harrow Ob- cartilage at Scarborough for 12 matches server at the time covering Wealdstone but I wasn’t going to be labelled a ‘Southern I(my dream job) and no sooner had I got Softie” so I just got on with it. Some games I to the bottom of the failed bid to land could barely get through the warm-up!” Willie and Stu Pearce than Scarborough e was still training at Barnet, who - high fliers in the Conference - came in were struggling in the Conference, with a £10,500 bid for Watson. and clearly coveted by their eccentric It coincided with the Stones being Hmanager Fry - who announced one Friday knocked out of the FA Cup in a replay by morning in early 1982 that he had signed Harlow Town. In fact it was no coinci- Willie on loan. dence as the club had been ‘robbed’ “I told him ‘but I can’t run - my knees are of a cash windfall - the winners of that gone’ and he said ‘never mind that, you replay were to face Charlton at home in don’t need to run - just tell the others they’re the First Round - and Chairman Fred f******g useless and gee them up’. His Deanus quickly recognised that Willie coaching skills weren’t the best, he just used could be the saviour. to yell at the players, and they were just a “Fred told me ‘You have to leave’. I said Harrow Observer, November 1980. Willie is mish mash. But somehow were scraped “I don’t want to leave’. He said that the club sold to Scarborough and T. Parks reports rings out ‘Willie! Willie Watson!’ And it was through FA Cup matches against Harlow (the were in financial difficulties and so I said Anniello Iannone, who used to wind me big giant killers at the time) and Wycombe, “Who is it then?’ When he said ‘Scarbor- for Scarborough if I got a signing-off fee up something rotten when he was playing and found ourselves facing First Division ough’ I said I wouldn’t even want to go - which he granted. I met Appleton in the for Weymouth against Wealdstone. Every Brighton in the Third Round at Underhill in there for a holiday. Post House Hotel at Luton on the M1 and game there was a run-in. We used to make front of 4,000. It was on telly and we nearly “Their manager Colin Appleton came suddenly I was a Scarborough player! jokes about him selling ice-creams and col- won the game on the boggiest pitch you’ve down to watch me but he chose a game “They were good to me though. Even lecting the deckchairs on Weymouth beach. ever seen. It finished 0-0 but we lost the when I was suspended. We sat next to though it was a strange start.... I was intro- “Now, years later he was visiting his replay 3-1. Gary Sargeant scored a crack- each other in the stand!” duced to the players by their skipper Sean cousin’s Italian restaurant and invited me ing goal for Barnet after I’d won the ball in a It was all happening at Lower Mead at Marshall, who I’d last encountered when I in. What a chance in a million!” tackle... only a year later Brighton were back that time. Ken Payne was also sacked was sent off in the league match at Scar- ut back to Scarborough. Willie’s time at Wembley playing Man Utd in the FA Cup in the wake of the Cup defeat and it was borough a month earlier. I’d nutmegged at Seamer Road was blighted by Final. appointment of new boss Allen Batford that him by the touchline and he went straight knee injuries and he ended up hav- “But the funniest thing of all was that we finally tipped Willie into leaving. through me - so I elbowed him in the face. Bing arthroscopies (cartilage operations) on had a decent left back at Barnet, Graham But he was nice as pie when we were team “Allen had a winning reputation but I’d both knees. Pearce who wasn’t getting games. Barry mates. He said he’d deserved the elbow for “I was there for two years until the sum- Fry didn’t like Pearce but he stuck him in had lots of run-ins with his Wimbledon side that challenge! in the 70s and his methods weren’t for me. mer of 1982. The condition for me signing the team against Brighton to put him in the I took part in his first training session and “It’s funny how all the on-field shenani- was that I could stay living in Tring, just shop window. Sure enough, he played well it was like a game of tennis with the ball gans disappear when you’re away from travelling up for matches and I could hire a and Brighton ended up buying him - and he whacked backwards and forwards over the the game. Years after I’d stopped playing car for every game, home and away from played in that Cup Final the next year! That net. Not a lot of subtlety. I was living in Tring, pushing one of my a garage round the corner from where I was typical Barry Fry”. kids in a pushchair along the High Street in “So I went back to Fred and said I’d sign lived. I was still training at Wealdstone to CONTINUED OVERPAGE Bekhamsted and suddenly this Italian voice FIND A WHOLE OF THE WORLD WEALDSTONE MEMORABILIA MEGASTORE: AT WEALDSTONE v DARTFORD WILLIE WATSON INTERVIEW CONTINUED 05/01/2019
Barnet couldn’t afford to buy Willie, even of friends still at Wealdstone - Stu Pearce, He was a publican for eight or nine years So we could see a Willie Watson descend- with their Cup windfall and eventually Maid- Robin Wainwright and Alan Cordice who until the recession began to bite - so Willie ant back in a Wealdstone first team shirt stone’s chairman Jim Thompson came in I’d room with on England international took over another pub in Kings Langley one day. And no doubt as bad a loser as with a £6,000 bid to bring him back closer matches. When Peter Taylor left the club while he did The Knowledge (licensed his grandad! to home. to coach at Exeter City I took over his role black taxi qualifications) and embarked on “Bill Williams had just taken over as - and the next thing you knew we were his cabbying career. manager with Peter Taylor the ex-England drawn against Exeter in the FA Cup and o what is Willie up to these days, now winger as player coach. They finished well knocked them out!” he’s 65? “Well, I’m still a cabbie, had Willie for England down the table the previous season but we Willie was only touching 30 but his a black cab for 25/30 years now. I illie Watson’s first cap had a three way battle with Wealdstone career was winding down. “I had an ap- Slive in Toddington (in Bedfordshire, just by came in 1979 at the and Enfield for the Conference title in 1982- proach from Ken Knighton at Dagenham the M1) with my second wife Christine and inaugural non-League tourna- 83... and I became a ‘penalty king’ like The who admitted he’d never seen me play but drive down to London for work every day Wment, staged at Stafford Rangers. The Duck back in the Wealdstone days!” wanted me to come over in a player/coach - around the hotels mainly - leaving home amateur game had become officially illie put away 18 penalties for role....it was the season Wealdstone won about 3am and driving back about 1pm. unrecognised in the mid-70s but it wasn’t the Conference and the Trophy and finally I’ve been doing it for a long time but not
Maidstone that season, plus four until the formation of the Alliance Pre- www.wfcmegastore.co.uk from open play but to this day I managed to play against them, but our as long as The Duck... although he’s given mier League in 1979 that it was decided Whe doesn’t know why he was even taking striker Steve Whitton missed three easy up driving for the moment and now works to form a representative non-League them! chances and we lost 1-0”. at Budgens in Abbots Langley, just round XI - and Stafford, one of the inaugural “We were awarded the first penalty in is last game was for the Daggers the corner from where he lives. I used to members of the APL,was chosen to host a pre-season game at Croydon and I was was at Swindon Town in the FA Cup. see him every day when we were both the first tournament. told to take it - maybe because I was the Dagenham won 2-1 but Willie broke cabbying but now we meet up to play golf “I can’t remember much about it, big-money signing - but I’d never taken Hhis hand and at the end of that season he mainly. I’ve been a member at Grimsdyke except that we won it” says Willie. one before. I actually kicked the floor, just was offered the chance to become landlord Golf Club in Harrow Weald for 15 years ‘Scotland, Italy and Holland were in it scuffed the ball but the keeper mistimed his of Shades, a pub in Lower High Street, now, but when I play George it’s more often and we beat the Dutch in the final”. With dive and the ball went in. It was a rubbish Watford. at Whipsnade near Dunstable... it’s quieter the Stones among the weaker teams in penalty but we got one against Bangor “I knew I couldn’t play for much longer there and people can’t see how bad he is :) the League it was quite an accolade for in our third league game and that went in and being a coach in those days meant “He plays golf like he used to play: Very our club captain to be chosen - and he too!” just being a dogsbody... although I took my studied and careful. Like his penalties, he was quickly made skipper of the Eng- He even scored twice from the pen- preliminary badge (along with Steve Brink- makes a science of it. Even when he was land side too. An honour he held on to alty spot in a 2-0 home win over Barnet man) just so I could say I had that qualifica- playing football, he worked hard to get his over the next six years, and 18 caps as as Maidstone eventually finished Gola tion. Sounds a bit silly but I wanted to have balance just right so he could volley and England remained the strongest side in Conference runners up to proof that football was my trade” head the ball so well. But his golf is defi- Europe. I recall travelling up to Scar- Enfield by a single point, nitely getting worse... borough in 1983 to watch England beat with Wealdstone third. “My main thing now is going off Scotland - and Italy beat Holland - on the Allen Batsford’s team had middle-aged cruising! I’m not retired same day, with Willie in majestic midfield had a fabulous season just yet but we love going off on theme form for his country (then a Maidstone after promotion from the cruises, particularly music ones. We’ve player) while Wealdstone’s Alan Cord- Southern League and the seen The Troggs, Yardbirds, Jerry ice zoomed around up front to finish games against Maidstone and the Pacemakers although he’s old top scorer in that tournament. Scotland were both cracking affairs enough to need one now! We’re going fielded striker Mo Johnson, who went on - goalless at Lower Mead around the Greek Islands next summer, to make a name for himself with Watford but a sensational 3-0 win plus the Caribbean in the New Year so and Everton. at Maidstone on Easter we don’t do too badly”. The Stones’ Neil Cordice and Paul Saturday. etween them, Willie and Chris- Bowgett were also on the radar of But Willie Watson was tine have four kids and eight the England selectors but missed out a notable absentee from grandchildren. And coincidentally, through injury. both games. “Around threeB of them (Alex and Mason Yerby, “I told Keith Wright (the England man- that time I was suffering 12 and 10 years old, and six year old ager) about how good Stuart Pearce was from a viral infection Ralph Miles, who live in Maple Cross) but he just said ‘I’ve got a left back and that kept flaring up. It are playing for Wealdstone Youth under that’s John Davison’... well Altrincham’s went on for about 18 Ronnie Welch. And yes, for the (much) Davison was very sold and reliable but months which restricted older Stones fans among us, those boys he was nowhere near as dynamic as my appearances. I Willie (No.4) in the thick of the action against are related to ginger-haired Dave Yerby Pearcey. I think he missed a trick there, would have loved to Hereford in the FA Cup first round 1977 at who played for the Stones in the last but Stuart didn’t do too badly in the end”. played in those games because I had a lot Lower Mead . Left is Steve Brinkman and amateur days at the turn of the 1970s.
No.3 Alan Fursdon FIND A WHOLE OF THE WORLD WEALDSTONE MEMORABILIA MEGASTORE: AT
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