Ismaila Sarr scored for Senegal at the World Cup, but Gerry Armstrong was the first watfordfc player to achieve the feat. He recalls that and other Hornets memories
Watford fans who watched Senegal beat Ecuador on Tuesday will remember where they were when Ismaila Sarr became only the second Hornet to score at a World Cup Finals.
Back in 1982 there was a second group phase where Northern Ireland drew with Austria before losing to France, who topped the group and progressed. Scoring so early in the second half meant it was going to be a long second half for the Irish, and their task was made harder when defender Mal Donaghy was harshly sent off.
“But it made no difference: we were down to 10 men and that made us more determined. We could have played for two hours and they wouldn’t have scored against us that night.” Just playing at World Cup is a dream for all footballers – to score goals, and beat the host nation was even more special.“We were just happy to be there because Northern Ireland had only qualified once before, and that was in 1958.“Our preparation was really good. Billy Bingham, the manager, took us down to Brighton for two weeks before the tournament and we were really fit and organised.”
“So Billy took a chance on him, and brought him into the senior international squad, and that was a great decision.” “He asked me if John was quick enough and I said he was plenty quick enough. I just said to Graham he would be perfect, you’d love him. So he said he’d go and have a look at him. “After both those signings, a few weeks later Graham called me to say thanks for helping him make a good choice. That was typical of Graham. He was a very good man.”
“I remember our first league game was away to Newcastle, and I got booked in the first few minutes because Graham had got me that fired up! “I wasn’t getting much game time so I was actually training on my own, doing work on my own where I lived in St Albans. I’d go and do five or six-mile runs to get myself primed. I really pushed myself as I wanted to make sure I was fit for Watford but also for the World Cup.
When he returned, he then had to hope his World Cup exertions didn’t prevent him from being part of Watford’s inaugural First Division match. That Jenkins/Armstrong combo soon delivered and, after 21 minutes, Armstrong quickly followed becoming the first Watford player to score at a World Cup by becoming the first Watford player to score in the First Division as well.
“We’d had a really good start in the First Division, and we’d been top of the league. There was a trip for the players to the Midlands to do some promotional work for a car showroom, and I really wanted a day off. I’d got a new house and I actually needed to buy a load of stuff for it “I remember watching games like the win at my old club Tottenham and then the game at Liverpool, and when I came back it took me a couple of weeks to properly get going again. I came off the bench as a sub a lot to get fit, and then I played more games towards the end of the season.”
Armstrong had a spell managing non-league Worthing and had two periods as assistant manager of the Northern Ireland senior team.
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