I WAS not going to say a word about Z-Cars but I have found the Watford Mailing List quite interesting. There are a number of claims which need answering. I do not play it at home, we did not pinch it off Everton and I also think it is a naff tune.

Then again, it is fairly anonymous. It is not "over the top" nor making promises the team might not be able to deliver. When Wolves come out to Simply The Best, or at least they have until recently, isn't that a bit of embarrassment for them, because they have failed to live up to the sentiment for so many years.

Z-Cars was naff and neutral but it is also associated with good times, successful times and will remain in Watford's folklore, fondly remembered by those who felt the goose-bumps and the hair rising at the back of the neck as the first drum-beat sounded and the team took the field.

Doubtless, if you had a vote in 1963, when the manager, Bill McGarry, chose it, there would have been all manner of votes for Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Elvis Presley and whatever else was in vogue at the time.

The fact is the club chose Z-Cars. It helped that Watford set up a club record of being unbeaten at home for 27 games when it was first played. That endeared it to fans and management alike.

Now it has been replaced and, just as they would have argued in 1963, there will be arguments over what constitutes the most appropriate track now.

Whatever is chosen, will not last as long as Z-Cars and I personally lament the loss of a tradition which I do not think needed to discarded. There are far more important things to attend to but I can see, from the perspective of the new management team, they want to make their own mark and establish their own personality.

As for pre-match music and the public address system, these are always a cause for debate. I can well recall when records really came into prominence in the early 1960's, older fans complaining about the playing of Peter and Gordon and Beatles tracks, and urging the club to use the Salvation Army band far more for pre-match music.

I am old enough to recall the Sally Army doing their thing, and the sound of a brass band can still act as a trigger for a host of fond memories - cold days, with the breath showing white as it came out of the mouths of so many on the terraces; pies, supporters wearing scarves, gloves and hats. I can see it all, and it seems sepia-toned in my mind's eye, because it was the 1950's, but, at the time, I thought life rich and colourful.

Good memories, but then I don't have a Sally Army or a brass band record in my cd collection.