Watford

The football club grew out of Watford Rovers, a side that had been playing since 1881, and took its present shape in 1898 when it merged with Watford St Mary's. Its first trophy came before any of that settled — a county cup in 1889.

The ground came later. Watford played at Cassio Road from 1891 and only moved to Vicarage Road in 1922, in a stadium that now holds 22,200. The yellow and black stripes gave the club its name among supporters — the Hornets — with red kept for the shorts and socks.

Most of what people remember about Watford runs through Graham Taylor, the manager who took the club out of the lower divisions and into the top flight, with Elton John as chairman alongside him. The Fourth Division title in 1977–78 was the first step of that climb; the Third Division had been won in 1968–69, the Second in 1997–98, and before all of it, a Southern League championship in 1914–15. Twice the club reached the FA Cup final, in 1984 and 2019, and twice went home without it.

The fixture that matters most is against Luton Town, 20 miles up the same motorway that gives the meeting its name — the M1 derby. Two towns of similar size, similar distance from London, competing for the same corner of the map and, for long stretches, the same divisions. A derby with no love lost, and one that has often been played with both clubs outside the top flight, which has done nothing to soften it.