Gifts between clubs are a regular tradition the first time they meet or when they don’t play often. The Argyle Archive has many of these kinds of gifts given to Argyle by clubs from Arsenal to Wormatia Worms.
But why would Argyle get a gift from a club they had already played 66 times before over nearly 80 years?
The opposition were, of course, Watford, and the date was one of the most famous in Plymouth Argyle’s history, 14th April 1984. The game was also Watford’s first FA Cup semi-final, and they presented Argyle with this silver salver to mark the occasion.
The inscription reads, “Presented to Plymouth Argyle Football Club on the occasion of their first ever FA Challenge Cup Semi Final, Plymouth Argyle v Watford, Saturday 14th April 1984, at Villa Park Birmingham by the directors of Watford Football Club.”
The story of the semi-final has been told many times before, and the fans of both clubs brought a riot of green and yellow to Villa Park. All 44,000 were hooked from kickoff to the final whistle, but unfortunately for Argyle, it was of course Watford who progressed to their first FA Cup Final thanks to George Reilly’s early goal.
This was of course the most famous meeting of our 94 meetings with Watford in all competitions, but there are only a handful of clubs that Argyle have played more frequently than the Hornets. There have been many other memorable matches, including our FA Cup Quarter Final clash at Home Park in March 2007. However, perhaps the most significant for the Greens was a game against Watford back in 1930, because this was the moment when Argyle celebrated their first promotion and championship as a Football League club.
Our very first meeting with Watford was a 0-0 draw in our second season of Southern League football in 1904-05. As stalwarts of the Southern League and then later the Third Division South, the two clubs had faced each other every season for a quarter of a century. It was therefore perhaps fitting that it was Watford who were the opposition at Home Park for Argyle’s final game of that triumphant 1929-30 season on 3rd May 1930.
After falling agonisingly short throughout the 1920s, Argyle had clinched their long-awaited promotion with three games to go. A crowd of 23,459 were in party mood, and Argyle captain Fred Titmuss was presented with a gigantic pasty carried on a stretcher and placed in the back of the goal for good luck—a tradition that was repeated before the cup game between the sides in 2007.
Watford, wearing the blue shirts that were their club colours in the 1920s, took the lead through Barnett, but goals from Frank Sloan and Sammy Black made sure that the two points stayed in Plymouth and started the promotion party in style. Argyle had struggled for a decade to win promotion and had set many records without winning the prized place in the Second Division, which only went to the champions. After missing out narrowly so often and finishing an agonising six seasons as runners-up, the bus tour of the city streets and celebration dinner at the Duke of Cornwall Hotel must have been incredibly sweet that evening.
