Pre-season friendly, 15/7/98
Hitchin Town 0(0)
Watford XI 5(2)
Team: Chamberlain, Gibbs, Robinson, Anderson, Millen, Daley, Hyde, Easton, Kennedy, Lowndes, Smart
Subs: Palmer, Yates, Bazeley, Hazan, Wright, Johnson, Ngonge
Scorers: Smart 2, Ngonge 2, Lowndes
 
Good attitude
Report by Rupert Licht

I know everyone will say it was only Hitchin but we have played teams like this in the past, not done well and not given a shit. The team really took the game seriously, which was great to see. It was a full first team squad that took part with the exceptions of Page, Lee and Mooney - it was sad that the game was advertised as a Watford reserve team as I'm sure there would have been two thousand there if everyone had known it was full first team.

We all thought that the triallist Derek Thompson was Alon Hazan - they looked very similiar. Allan Smart looked sharp. Tony Daley looked superb - oh, we must sign him - he looked fit, fast and full of trickery - he is still a class act and is a delight to watch.

Second half saw the arrival of Michel Ngonge - a man who will hopefully become our new hero. He is fast, powerful and skilful and I am getting excited even thinking about him now. He scored two wonderful, wonderful power headers and loved it. After the second goal he turned to us behind the goal, blew a kiss and gave us the victory sign - wonderful.

It was a great display - not like any pre-season friendly I had seen before. I know the opposition were very poor but I have never seen a Watford side play with such a good attitude in a friendly - you can tell they all know they have places to fight for - there are no more passengers at WFC, it seems.

After the game we all went to the bar and had some great "red hot soccer chat", as Mellorphant Man would say, with Dave Croft from BBC 3CR. A great night all round. Roll on the season!