When the sad news of Graham Taylor passing away broke on January 12, naturally the tributes came flooding in. Whilst many noted that his time in charge of England was troubled, a lot column inches and html paragraphs were dominated with the successes Taylor enjoyed at club level, and in particular his glorious spells at Watford. When you see what Taylor had previously achieved at Lincoln City, and later at Aston Villa, it wasn't hard to see why England came calling in 1990.

Inevitably this blog will focus upon his heyday at Watford in the 1980s, and in particular Taylor's remarkable first season in the top flight during the 1982/83 campaign. To achieve three promotions in five years was one thing, but to then lead an inexperienced set of players to second place in Watford's debut season with the big boys was something else. Watford may have received a lot of criticism for their approach, yet for Taylor and Chairman Elton John, this was a victory for substance over style.

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Whilst browsing through my Telegraph Complete History of British Football book recently � I really, really must get out more � I stumbled across a section in the 1982/83 season that got me interested. It soon became clear that Saturday September 25 was something that I should be looking into. A day that would see 50 goals in the First Division alone, 151 in the whole of the Football League at an average of 3.35 a game, six hat-tricks, thrashings, outfield players in goal, and one player scoring four and ending up on the losing team. Football wasn�t always exciting in the 1980s, yet the events of this day in 1982 were refreshing to say the least.
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