Clue one for this week gave us Watford, or rather Watford Junction, the first stop on the new Lioness Line, which commemorates the Women`s England Football Team, and also passes Wembley Stadium, the scene of their epic 2-1 victory against Germany in the Euro 2022 Final
The two footballers are :
Brian Pollard - in what appears to be his only cartophilic appearance. We know that he was born in May 1954, in York, starting his footballing career with local team York City, turning professional there in 1972, and also making some good appearances in the England youth squad. This seems to have attracted the attention of Watford F.C., who bought him in late 1977 for their then record fee of £33,000. Watford had a new manager then, Graham Taylor, and a relatively new club chairman, Elton John, who had come aboard in 1976. The team quickly moved from their Fourth Division, being top of the table that first season, reached the second division in 1978, and the First Division in 1981. However, by that time our man had gone, he had been sold to Mansfield Town, for £45,000 in January 1980. After that he joined many clubs, ending with Sherburn, in the Scarborough and District League, where he seemed content to settle, and buy a local pub. He is still alive, as I type, aged seventy.
Luther Loide Blissett, OBE, was a bit more popular on cards, and twenty-four appearances are recorded at the Trading Card Database. He was four years younger than Mr. Pollard, born in February 1958, in Falmouth, Jamaica, and actually began his career with our team, Watford, as soon as he left school in 1974, turning professional in 1975. He played for Watford in over five hundred matches, and scored a hundred and eighty six goals - which earned him a place as a "legend" in the Topps set of "Match Attax Watford Club Edition", issued in 2020. However he did play for other clubs, including AC Milan, who bought him for a million pounds in 1983 - and for England, fourteen times.
This set is listed in part III of our original set of British Trade Index books, as :
Football 80. 65 x 52. Nd. (582) ... PAP-16.
However it is not listed in our updated version, which stops at 1970.