Home draws did as much to undermine Graham Taylor's England management as away defeats. The losses in Norway and Holland might not have dealt such mortal blows to Taylor's chances of qualifying for the last World Cup had the Norwegians and Dutch not already held England at Wembley.
The day after the 2-2 draw with Holland, England having led 2-0 at one stage, Taylor sought solace in the lyrics of Buddy Holly. `It's raining in my heart," he sighed.
It rained at Vicarage Road on Saturday and yet again Taylor saw his team draw at home. But these days, four years and six weeks after he resigned from the England job, Taylor's cardiac condition is cloudless, meteorologically speaking.
While Watford did not provide one of the weekend's FA Cup surprises by beating Sheffield Wednesday, their performance in forcing a replay at Hillsborough reflected the excellence of their record in the Second Division this season and offered strong hints of better things to come in the First, which is where they will surely be next August.
In Taylor's previous life at Vicarage Road, where he was manager from 1977 to 1987, Watford rose from Fourth Division to the old First playing direct football which concentrated on getting the ball forward as quickly as possible. To some this was mindless, long-ball stuff although there was always more to it than that.
Either way the contrast between the game Watford are playing under Taylor now and what they were doing before is considerable. On Saturday the passes were often to feet and if the ball was played long it was from wing to wing rather than high through the middle.
Jason Lee led the attack competently and enjoyed intelligent, industrious support from Micah Hyde, Clint Easton and Richard Johnson. Sheffield Wednesday did no more than establish parity in midfield and in the last 20 minutes of the tie were forced into deep and at times desperate defence.
During this period, with more composure near goal, Watford might well have won. "Even though we're top of the Second Division we still lack that finishing edge," Taylor said afterwards. Not Cutting Edge mark you, the Channel 4 programme that turned him into a touchline Tommy Cooper.
It was when Taylor spoke longingly of the extra quality a fit Ronny Rosenthal would have provided that the difference in perspectives between the Premiership and the lower divisions became fully apparent. "The little onetwos he gets us to play now and again and how he just plays people in before coming through himself, I would have liked that to be there for us today," he reflected. Rosenthal seldom commanded such affection higher up.
At the end of his England management Taylor met Nemesis in the form of a San Marino computer clerk called Davide Gualtieri who required just 8.3 seconds to beat David Seaman in Bologna. On Saturday redemption came in the shape of Peter Kennedy, a former sheet-metal worker from Northern Ireland who took only a fraction longer to bring the scores level after Sheffield Wednesday had taken the lead in the 63rd minute.
Until Watford's equaliser the Wednesday of Ron Atkinson did not look like leaving the FA Cup as dolefully as the Wednesday of David Pleat had gone out to Grimsby in the League Cup. Neatly though Watford played, their attacks struggled to achieve much penetration and when Niclas Alexandersson - a Swede, not a Romanov - headed in Benito Carbone's centre at the far post that looked enough to settle the match.
Yet no sooner had the game restarted than the ball was in the back of Wednesday's net, deposited there resoundingly by Kennedy from Hyde's pass. "For fully 15 seconds I was truly elated," said Atkinson.
"You say you're at your most vulnerable when you've scored," he added, "everybody's said it a million times. When you get a goal make sure everybody's switched on, make sure everybody's focusing, make sure everybody's preventing them getting into our half because they will be anxious to score.
"I think we were still going through who did what for our goal. But all credit to them. As soon as it went to the kid's left foot I said to Peter Shreeves don't let him hit it for Christ's sake because he can whack `em."
Taylor bought Kennedy from Notts County - where a change of manager had led to the loss of a first-team place and thoughts of returning home - for £130,000. He is now Watford's leading scorer with 11 goals.
"He was very unsettled at Notts County," Taylor explained. "He had come late into the game - it was his first year - and he was finding it difficult to get hold of full-time professional football. But having worked in the real world and tasted real life his appreciation of what football is about is very good."
After Paulo Di Canio had seen Alec Chamberlain tip a rising shot over the bar in the 70th minute Wednesday were content merely to survive. If Des Walker felt he owed Taylor a penalty, remembering the foul on Marc Overmars which had rescued Holland at Wembley in 1993, he did not show it.
"I thought we might nick it," said Taylor and the thought will no doubt persist for the replay. "Can we not nick it?" They may yet.
WATFORD: Chamberlain, Gibbs, Kennedy, Page, Millen, Mooney, Lowndes (Thomas 83), Hyde, Lee, Johnson, Easton. Subs Not Used: Palmer, Day, Robinson, Rooney. Booked: Gibbs. Goals: Kennedy 65.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY: Pressman, Atherton, Nolan, Newsome, Walker, Pembridge, Rudi, Carbone, Booth (Humphreys 77), Alexandersson, Di Canio. Subs Not Used: Clarke, Magilton, Nicol, Whittingham. Goals: Alexandersson 64.
Referee: G S Willard (Worthing).
