Wally meets... Watford defender and new goal hero Lloyd Doyley

By Mike Walters

Published 06:00 12/12/09

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Limited edition T-shirts go on sale in the club shop today so Watford fans can wear the moment history was made.

After 269 appearances spanning nine seasons, Lloyd Doyley finally scored his first goal for the Hornets against Queens Park Rangers on Monday night, a diving header which made you wonder what took him so long to break his duck.

It was the stuff of pure legend, the most memorable snapshot of a full-back at Vicarage Road since debutant Albert McClenaghan’s hapless execution of a throw-in against Southport in 1978, when he managed to hurl himself on the pitch while leaving the ball behind in touch. McClenaghan never played for the club again.

December 7 was the date the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, but the £9.99 T-shirt says it all: in Hertfordshire, it will now always be remembered as the night 15,000 fans could sing: “We were there when Doyley scored.”

In an instant, it catapulted Watford’s longest-serving player into the ranks of ’Brazilian’ greats: move over Ronaldinho and Jairzinho, who needs the Copacabana when we’ve got Lloydinho from Whitechapel?

Doyley’s equaliser, the catalyst for a 3-1 win which sent QPR’s dressing room into a seismic squabble, made his mate Andy Collins - who organises Watford’s end-of-season dinners - leap so high out of his armchair at home in Aylesbury that he cracked his head on an oak beam and needed hospital treatment for an eight-inch gash.

And Doyley only realised how far his legend had spread when he popped into a bank in central London the day after his goal and the cashier told him: “Nice goal last night.”

Today he returns from cloud nine to normal orbit for the home game against Derby hoping it will not be another 269 games before he takes a bow.

“It’s true what they say - the longer you wait, the sweeter it feels,” said the Hornets cult hero. “I always knew I would score one day... it just took a bit longer than I thought.

“In my time at the club I’ve been through a lot of highs and lows, including promotion, relegation, Cup semi-finals and four different managers, but that header was extra special.

“All the boys had been taking the mickey out of me, and the fans had been telling me to shoot from the halfway line, so I’ve got to say it’s right up there with the best feelings I’ve ever known.

“Heidar Helguson, who is probably the best header of a ball I’ve ever seen, came up to me afterwards and said, ’Nice finish’ - which, coming from him, is a real compliment.

“Now the lads can’t take the mickey out of me for not scoring, they have been going to town on my celebration because I didn’t know where to turn, but it’s all good fun and the place has been buzzing this week.”

Doyley’s drought-buster leaves Everton’s Tony Hibbert (241 appearances, no goals) and Bury defender David Buchanan (194 appearances without troubling the scorers) among the contemporaries who are positively jealous of his strike rate.

All that remains for Doyley, who was 27 last week, is to live up to the legend of ’Lloydinho’ in a vibrant young side who have been a credit to Malky Mackay’s maiden voyage as a manager.

He earned his samba nickname last season for a wicked pass which set up Tamas Priskin’s goal against Chelsea in the FA Cup, delivered with the outside of his right boot normally reserved for slicing or shanking clearances into touch.

Brendan Rodgers, who defected to Reading last summer 194 days after Watford gave him his big break in management, christened him Lloydinho at a fans’ forum as a tribute to Doyley’s assist - and it stuck like superglue, not that he minds.

“The day after that fans’ meeting, Brendan mentioned to me what he’d said during the Q&A session, just so I wasn’t surprised if one or two supporters started calling me Lloydinho on message boards or whatever.

“Next thing I knew, there were thousands of fans in the Rookery chanting, ’We’ve got Lloydinho.’ The nearest I’ll get to playing for Brazil is a handful of coffee beans, but I’ll take it as a compliment even if it’s only a joke.”

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