Ex-Watford man Noel-Williams' gratitude to Elton John

It’s not very often someone in any walk of life can be that precise about the moment they will remember the most. Even harder for professional footballers who played hundreds of games and thousands of minutes.

But former Watford striker Gifton Noel-Williams will readily tell you that the 14 minutes between his winning goal against Sunderland on January 30, 1999, and the tackle which was to end his season and could have ended his career, were the highlight of a life of a professional footballer that ran to more than 400 matches.

That game was one of many memorable matches in a season that took the Hornets to the Premier League for the first time, and Noel-Williams will no doubt be asked to tell his story when the Black Cats visit Vicarage Road this season on September 17.

When they headed south 24 years, Sunderland were on their way to winning the Championship led by a feared strike force combining the height of Irish international Niall Quinn, and the predatory instincts of former Hornets striker Kevin Phillips.

However, Watford had also recently found their own striking talent in the teenage Noel-Williams, who had made his first-team debut at the tender age of 16.

He was to end the 1998/99 season as the club’s top scorer with ten goals in 27 games, although nobody knew that his sublime finish for the winning goal was to be one of his last touches of that season, and that he would only play three more games in the next year.

“That was a great season, despite what happened,” said the striker. “Having gone up the season before, to do it again on the bounce was a bit special.

“The group of players was brilliant, and the spirit in the squad was what made us successful. The blend of players really worked: younger players, older players and so diverse. We had Israelis, Icelanders, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, French, Nigerian – so many different nationalities, different cultures, different personalities. Yet we were all as one.

“The way the gaffer had us united as a unit was what took us up. We got on a roll and the boys were so together that we felt we could beat anyone.”

Gifton Noel-Williams celebrating the Hornets' promotion at Fulham

Watford went into the game with Sunderland having only won once in six games, but the Black Cats arrived having lost at Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup and then at home to Leicester City in the league. They had only lost two matches before that and, incredibly, the defeat at Vicarage Road that day was to be their last of the season.

“We knew that it was a big game. They got a lot of attention and they were running away with it, but we knew if we could win then it kept us in contention and it would give us more belief,” said Noel-Williams.

Watford went ahead after 19 minutes when a superb piece of trickery followed by a burst of pace from Tony Daley down the right gave him space to cross for Nick Wright to head home.

However, Sunderland levelled after 36 minutes when Quinn headed home from only a few yards after Alec Chamberlain had parried a shot and the ball looped up.

The defining moment – and the start of the best 14 minutes of Noel-Williams' career – came in the 53rd minute. Presumably he remembers it pretty well...

“I’ll never forget any of it,” he said, with that typical laugh.

“That throw-in from Ben Iroha. It was out on the right and he always had a long throw, but that one went so high! If you watch the highlights online the ball goes off the top of the screen!

“I had a defender in front of me and behind me. When Ben threw it, I judged where it was going to drop. I did that early, and that allowed me to pin the defender behind me. I knew where the ball was going to land and I knew the guy behind couldn’t get to it. Then I backed into him a little to create a bit of space.

“I took the ball down with a nice little cushion on my chest, and then just swivelled and volleyed it. I used to do that all the time in training: pin a defender, get the ball down and then turn to hit it. It wasn’t always from a throw in, but generally when a ball came in at that height, I was looking to take it on my chest. If the ball had come to me higher that day, I would have flicked it on. But it was perfect for the chest.

“I knew I’d got a good connection, but I had no time to think whether it was going in or not. It happened so fast. My intention was just to create space so I could cushion the ball and get a shot away.

“My left foot was my weaker foot! I could finish with both feet but I was stronger on my right. So that goal, and especially what it meant on the day, was the best I scored with my left foot.”

That was the 53rd minute. In the 67th minute, Noel-Williams was on the end of a challenge that injured him so badly, his season was over.

He recalled: “There was a ricochet and the ball broke in front of me. I knew I had been killing Andy Melville and Paul Butler all game. In my mind, I knew I was getting to the ball first because Melville was already on a yellow card and Butler had come close to a booking. I could feel they were getting angry and I was feeling full of confidence.

“I just tried to toe the ball past the defender that was coming towards me, as I knew if I did I was through on goal. But what Butler did was wait for me. He slowed down, let me have the touch and then hit me. He got the ball, he got me, he got some of the pitch.

“It hurt! My knee was wrecked, I knew that straight away. Instantly I knew I couldn’t play on.

“Even then, though, it was just an injury. I wasn't too bothered. Players get injured all the time, and I thought I’d be back soon. I might miss the Under-21 game but I’d get myself fit and playing again in a month or two.

“In the moment I was angry and upset, but I wasn’t worried. I never thought it would end up going the way it went.”

The striker in action against Crystal Palace

Indeed, it did take some time before the full extent of the underlying problem Noel-Williams had came to light.

“About ten days after that game, I woke up one morning and I couldn’t move,” he explained. “I couldn’t touch my own shoulders, I couldn’t put my clothes on, I couldn’t even clench a fist. I just couldn’t move. I didn't know what was going on. I was a 19-year-old who felt like a 90-year-old.

“At that moment I was really worried. I was a 19-year-old who a couple of weeks ago was flying around a football pitch, being physical, jumping high and all of a sudden I couldn’t even walk.”

From the highs of the best 14 minutes of his career, Gifton was suddenly transported to what was the worst moment of his career.

“I was sent for tests straight away, and I had a blood test done. The specialist took me into his office and said ‘you’ve got rheumatoid arthritis’. I didn’t know what he was talking about,” he said.

“I couldn’t understand it. What did he mean ‘you’ve got rheumatoid arthritis’? That’s what old people get.

“It got worse though. The specialist said that I should retire. He wasn’t aware of anyone that had played professional football with rheumatoid arthritis before, and if I played on I’d probably be crippled by the time I was 40.”

Despite the bombshell, Noel-Williams wouldn’t entertain the idea of retiring.

“I only wanted to play football,” he said. “I felt that if it meant I’d be crippled when I was 40, then I’d live with that. That was my mentality as a 19-year-old, play football regardless. As a 42-year-old now, if I was crippled I’d be upset, but the teenage me only wanted to play.”

Noel-Williams did play on too. He had another four seasons at Watford, clocking up almost 200 first-team appearances before leaving to join Stoke City in 2003. He hardly missed a game in two seasons with the Potters under Tony Pulis, and played at Burnley, in Spain and in America before finally hanging his boots up at the age of 38, four years ago.

He attributes that to a man who made his Vicarage Road comeback at the weekend: Sir Elton John, who was club chairman when Gifton was giving his terrible diagnosis.

“I was so lucky Elton read a magazine article in America about pioneering arthritis treatment, and called the gaffer to tell him. I realise now I’d probably never have played again without Elton finding out about that treatment, and then paying for me to have it,” he explained.

“He flew me out to Boston where I saw the specialist he had read about. He put me on a drug called Enbrel, and that was what allowed me to carry on playing.

“Even then, I had to adapt to help me cope with the condition, and that was hard because some people thought I was lazy or didn’t care. But I was in pain every game. Imagine playing with a little pebble in the heel of your boots. That’s what it was it like. It’s the only way I can describe it. Not a big stone, just a little pebble directly under your heel.

“Imagine that, every time you played football. That’s what it was like, even with the specialist treatment.

“It got worse and worse as I got older. And I wasn't helped because at that time there was no real understanding and awareness of arthritis in football. I had managers who couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to do a recovery session the day after a game. I’d tell them that I was hurting and I just couldn’t run. But there were managers, and other players, who thought I was pretending.

“I’d try to explain how much pain I was in, but there were managers and players who didn’t understand me, or didn’t believe me. They thought I just couldn’t be bothered.

“I had to have a special regime which meant I couldn’t train as much as other players. I also needed understanding of what I was going through as a person. It was more than just football, I was in a lot of pain and dealing with arthritis.”

Bearing all that in mind, Noel-Williams could be forgiven for being bitter and constantly thinking what might have been, but he’s not like that.

He said: “When I look at my career, there is a part of me that is disappointed because I had so much potential and I only was able to take it so far. But when I look at the fact that at 19 I was told I had arthritis and I should retire, then I thank God for the lovely career I had, and I thank God for every minute I spent on a football pitch. Now I’m no longer playing, I realise how privileged I was to be in the alumni of professional footballers because it’s so hard for youngsters to make the breakthrough.

“I’m grateful for the career I had, totally grateful.”

And so when Watford host Sunderland in September, for Noel-Williams it will undoubtedly bring back memories.

“God’s honest truth, those 14 minutes were the best 14 minutes of my career,” he said. “I knew, at that moment, I’d arrived. I was really in the zone. When I scored that goal, I felt so, so good.”