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BLIND, STUPID AND DESPERATE
WORLD EXCLUSIVE!
 
Reviews: Videos:
End of season video
1998/99
 
Veterans of the End of Season videos will be most disappointed with this season's offering from Watford. After all, having got used to the regular naming of the wrong goal scorers, the deep, ponderous breathing that drowns out the crowd noise, and of course the usual clichés such as "And just when it seemed...." after only 46 minutes of the match, anything else would just not be a Watford commemorative video!

But yes, the club has produced a corker of a video, a video so good that even the worst bits of February and March don't seem so bad. And even that entrance music is gone!

I was lucky enough to get a chance to do this World Exclusive for BSaD the other night, and duly invited round a couple of likely lads to help me in being objective. I normally spend a good deal the video looking out for "3rd eye" clips (there is a cracker at home to Huddersfield) or familiar faces in the crowd doing stupid things, but such is the quality of not only the on-pitch action but also the presentation, it is hard to take your eyes off the play for a second.

Starting away at Stockport, featuring footage that still to my mind doesn't clear up the Branch / Chamberlain penalty, the journey finishes the day after the playoff final, with cameras on the open top bus tour of the town. It also features the most poignant ending to a video I have seen, a heartfelt appraisal of the season by GT who admits he got it wrong at home to Swindon and that Bury was a dreadful, depressing game!

I think the only criticism of the video is something that cannot be levelled at the club, and that is that some of the away action is a little thin on the ground. This is most noted at Birmingham away in the play offs, as while not the fault of the club nor production company in so much as they can only get what they are given, the sending off of Holdsworth and the Iroha miss at Ipswich are two pieces of action that I would love to see again with the good fortune of hindsight.

Comedy moments include Ngonge being described as "the decoy" against Palace when his diabolical miss set up Mooney for the second goal. Mike Vince even re-iterates this in the replay, which for me is one of the all time moments of making a bad effort seem deliberate! I was hoping to catch a bit of that Stevie Palmer chant during the video, and just when I thought it had been edited out, Grimsby at home comes along, and you get the first hearing of...
"There's only one, Stevie Palmer;
And he smokes...."
Cut to action! It was as if the deliberately contentious words had been even more deliberately removed! We are a family club, I suppose!

And so to Wembley. We've all seen the replay, the goals, and felt the emotions time and time again. Comments will not do that coverage justice. Just watch the video and marvel!

The feature of the video is a Tommy Mooney montage, celebrating his goals of the season just gone, and an interview with him shortly before Wembley. If GT is God, Mooney is the result of his reproductive organs! Set to 'Pinball Wizard', all the goals from his 1999 record goal spree excite and revitalise the soul to a level that no literary genius could ever fully convey to paper, or indeed a website.

This video is the perfect tonic for the remaining few weeks in the lead up to Wimbledon at home. Let's hope this is not the only thrilling action we get to see in the remaining months of 1999.

The video will be available in the Hornet Shop from July 21, and will cost £12.99. However, if you want to pre-pay for a copy which will be posted to you, this will cost £14.99 (to include postage etc). Call the Hornet Shop on (01923) 496005 with your credit card details, or write to the Hornet Shop c/o the usual club address with your name, address and credit card details, or a cheque/postal order for £14.99 made payable to Watford FC.

Final touches are currently being applied to the full-match video from the Play-Off Final at Wembley, which will also be available soon from the Hornet Shop.

Pete Fincham