00:00Now, let's have a look at another of last season's promoted sides.
00:03Watford made it to the Premierships via the playoffs.
00:06Their reward, a home start against the Wimbledon side,
00:08selected for the first time by Egill Olsen.
00:10Watching this one for us at Vicarage Road was John Champion.
00:14Vicarage Road bids welcome for the first time to Premiership football.
00:19Watford have been in the top flight before, but only when it was merely subsonic.
00:24In fact, Graham Taylor designed the template for success by the meek amongst the mighty,
00:28and so faithfully have Wimbledon followed it,
00:31that his old World Cup rival Egill Olsen inherits a team beginning its 14th season in the top division.
00:36An inveterate wearer of Wellington boots, he's taken them off today
00:40because in time-honoured Wimbledon fashion, the players have threatened to cut them off.
00:45Unfortunately for Watford, seven of the 14 men on duty in the playoff final are unavailable.
00:50Five of them are injured.
00:51Taylor has decided to pay his squad more rather than spending heavily on transfers.
00:56Only Des Little and Steve Palmer have experienced the Premiership before.
01:00Mark Williams at centre-back is newly arrived from Chesterfield.
01:05Wimbledon include only one newcomer,
01:07Norwegian defender Tura Pedersen, who had brief spells with Oldham and Blackburn.
01:11Olsen expects Court and Gale to push forward in support of Hartson.
01:15Robbie Earle and Michael Hughes will also be urged to attack,
01:18leaving Andy Roberts as the midfield safeguard.
01:20One of the Premiership's most experienced officials, Steve Lodge, is in charge.
01:28The ground is not full, although Watford have sold nearly 14,000 season tickets.
01:33And for many of the locals, this is a day they thought they might never see again.
01:36Watford back in the big time,
01:38and with a side that costs less than half a million pounds in transfer fees to assemble.
01:43A familiar yellow and red bank amongst the elite of English football.
01:55Watford's Peter Kennedy has every reason for his mind to wander today.
01:59His wife is expecting their first child.
02:01She's a fortnight overdue,
02:03and he was inseparable from his mobile phone right up until kick-off.
02:09Kenny Jacket on the left,
02:10alongside Watford's most successful manager by far.
02:17Kennedy.
02:20Ahead of Kimble.
02:23And Gale.
02:24Oh, and a chance for Mooney!
02:27Tommy Mooney, so nearly set up by Wimbledon's Marcus Gale.
02:31A careless header.
02:36And it was only the fact that Mooney couldn't find any power in his effort
02:39that meant that Sullivan wasn't beaten in very embarrassing circumstances.
02:52Bono.
02:54Into space for Johnson.
02:56And Gongi desperately trying to stay onside this time.
02:59Kennedy.
03:01Bono.
03:02Little on the overlap.
03:05Cross-headed away by Blackwell.
03:08More promising for Watford.
03:12As shown by the enthusiastic reception around this much-changed stadium.
03:17Short corner to Kennedy.
03:19Oh, and the header from Mooney.
03:23Somehow carried by Sullivan.
03:26A second clear opportunity for Tommy Mooney to score Watford's first goal in the Premiership.
03:35Watford.
03:37More than holding their own.
03:39Driven in by Easton.
03:43Bono.
03:48Out to Little.
03:48Four to aim for with the cross.
03:51Four to aim for with the cross.
03:51Get beyond Kimble.
03:55Here's Marcus Gale on the counter.
03:57Oh, and here's Hartson in space.
04:04And Carl Courts opens the scoring for Wimbledon.
04:08The Dons' new era dawns with a very crisply taken goal.
04:18They allowed Hartson far too much space and despite his lack of control, the court was unmarked.
04:25Driven low and to the keeper's left.
04:36The gap at the near post exposed.
04:38And the Premiership's first Marxist manager, to my knowledge, can celebrate.
04:44Tennyson.
04:46Headed by Johnson to Kennedy.
04:48Back with Johnson.
04:50Oh, and Mooney it was who slid in.
04:55He's really in the thick of it, Tommy Mooney.
04:59It's a lovely cross.
05:00Just too far ahead of Mooney and just too far behind Ngongi.
05:06Watford showing every sign of being capable of equalising quickly, though.
05:12Kennedy tends to take these corners well.
05:20There's Bono.
05:22Here's the handball against Kimble.
05:25Only a throw-in given.
05:39Johnson.
05:43Mooney, nice touch.
05:44This is Ngongi.
05:44Penalty, surely, for Blackwell's tackle.
05:48And Blackwell could be in trouble with the referee.
05:51There was no other defensive cover.
05:55And only quarter of an hour into the new season,
05:58Dean Blackwell is sent off.
06:00Deemed by referee Lodge, understandably, to be the denial of a goal-scoring opportunity.
06:16Red cards generally on the increase in Premiership football.
06:20But an easy decision for the referee to make.
06:22The rule is clear enough.
06:28So was the contact.
06:35So Wimbledon are reduced to ten men.
06:38For 75 minutes of the game.
06:42And Peter Kennedy, the young Ulsterman, has the responsibility from the spot.
06:47And scores!
06:48Fortuitously!
06:50But he does score, and it's 1-1.
06:52Relief, self-evident, on the faces of supporters and the taker himself.
07:01Because Sullivan's trailing leg so nearly kept it out.
07:09He'll be a father by this time tomorrow, Peter Kennedy.
07:14And already the first player to score a Premiership goal for Graham Taylor's Watford.
07:22Wimbledon have been forced to rearrange because of the sending-off.
07:27And Andy Roberts has dropped back from midfield into the back four.
07:35Hartson.
07:38The kick has been given.
07:41Robert Page and John Hartson have been colleagues through all the junior international sides run by the Welsh FA.
07:50They're now senior international colleagues.
07:52The pity for Wimbledon is that arguably their best free-kick taker, Michael Hughes, is now off the field, having been substituted.
08:00Gale, Kimble, Roberts and Earl.
08:04Sitting in session, adjacent to the ball, as Hughes looks on.
08:07It's complicated, presumably it's pure Olsen.
08:15It's Gale!
08:16Well, if it is pure Olsen,
08:20he knows what he's talking about.
08:23very intricate set up for the set piece
08:27it confused everyone except the taker
08:30lazy swing of the left boot and look at that for perfect placement
08:35another of Drillo's drills has paid off
08:42maybe the keeper was too far to one side of his goal
08:51but even so it would have taken some stopping
08:53oh and Gayle's got goal side of Little
09:10and round the keeper but the angle was too tight
09:21Hartson had so long to measure exactly what he was going to do
09:25and Gayle's physical presence was enough to brush off Des Little
09:28and to wrong foot the keeper
09:30this is Little
09:43almost found Johnson searching inside the Wimbledon penalty area
09:50they do put their minds to it what could play with a freedom and style
10:02Palmer's throw
10:04that could be Palmer's cross which will be just about the last act of this half
10:11Mooney out jumped
10:14and that concludes an educational half
10:18the first sighting of the new regime at Wimbledon
10:25given a flying start by Carl Court inside 10 minutes
10:28Watford on terms
10:30Blackwell sent off for bringing down Ngonghe
10:33and Peter Kennedy's penalty leveled matters
10:36and then Marcus Gayle with the 50th league goal of his career
10:40scored
10:41the goal that separates these two well-matched sides
10:45at half-time in an entertaining contest here at Vicarage Road
10:49those at Swiss
10:52and that's the only one
10:53when you see he was
