Remember what made this club special and set us apart'
04.08.26, 09:00 Updated 04.08.26, 22:42 2 Minute Read
Mike Walters
WATFORD legend Ian Bolton fired the starting pistol on a new season at Vicarage Road with a rallying call for the ages: “Remember what makes this club special.”
As a player, Bolton was one of four Hornets marvels who played in all four divisions on Watford’s magic carpet ride up the leagues when Graham Taylor was conducting the orchestra.
And he has seen the club he joined on £90-a-week in 1977 transformed from a dog track surrounded by corrugated sheds to a smart, shiny stadium worthy of the standards Taylor set in a golden era.
On the pitch, Watford have been treading water in the Championship’s midstreams of late, but Bolton - who still lives on the town’s outskirts - says the class of 2026 should be inspired by the high-water marks of history instead of being weighed down by nostalgia.
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Mike Walters spent 40 years on Fleet Street as a top sports writer and a regular in the Press box at Vicarage Road. His first game as a wide-eyed Watford fan was a 5-0 FA Cup win against Reading 55 years ago and, coupled with his national newspaper experience, few supporters are better-equipped to cover English football's original family club.