Your memories of Watford's first FA Cup Final

It was a day that ended in disappointment but the pride at Watford reaching an FA Cup Final for the first time remained undimmed, as further evidenced by the thousands of fans who congregated in the town centre the following day to salute their Hornets’ heroes as they paraded on an open-top bus.

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the final when Graham Taylor's side were beaten 2-0 by Everton and to mark the occasion we asked supporters to get in touch with their memories and share any pictures they may have of a special day in Hornets’ history.

Tim Sharp has been a Watford supporter for more than 70 years. He moved to Richmond, in south-west London, in 1970 but didn’t let that diminish his enthusiasm for the club.

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The front cover of the cup final programme (Image: Peter Grocock)

He recalled: “My friend Jerry and I had talked about getting tickets and going, but both, being idle, had done nothing about it.

“As younger men, we had roused ourselves sufficiently to get to White Hart Lane for the semi-final loss to Chelsea in 1970 but somewhere along the line we had lost our mojo.

“We met for a drink on the Friday night eve of the big day for an in-depth discussion of our prospects (much adversely impacted by the absence of Wilf Rostron, we felt) and our customary game of darts.

Benskins produced this commemorative ale to mark Watford's achievement (Image: Peter Grocock)

“A couple of pints in, I was bemoaning the fact that we wouldn’t be at Wembley for the great day, when Jerry reached into his pocket and with a broad grin, produced two precious tickets.

“His father, only too aware of our administrative incompetence, had bought us tickets and we were going!

Do you still own one of these? (Image: Peter Grocock)

“This glorious revelation prompted several more pints and even stretched to a couple of pork pies, as I recall.

“The tickets were for a standing section way up in one top corner. We were hung over and surrounded by Watford fans whose drinking excesses seemed to be much more recent than ours but we were in heaven.

Peter Grocock's tickets from the final (Image: Peter Grocock)

“We were gloriously thrilled as the Hornets walked out onto the hallowed ground, angered and outraged as Andy Gray’s clear foul on Steve Sherwood went unpunished and lead to a goal and a saddened but very proud on the long journey back to Watford.

“I have disliked Everton ever since, a feeling recently exacerbated by their shameful poaching of Marco Silva but somewhat salved by the current presence of the great Sean Dyche at their helm.”

Peter Grocock, a Bristol-based Hornets fan, shared his memories of May 19, 1984 by sending in pictures of items of memorabilia from his collection, including the bottle of commemorative ale and the model bus.