**In the build-up to the 25-year anniversary of Watford's 2-0 play-off final victory over Bolton Wanderers on May 31, we will be reproducing some of Mike Walters' Party Like It's 1999 articles which have appeared in this season's matchday programme.**

Mike looks back on the key individuals from the squad which secured promotion to the Premier League. This time, it's Allan Smart...

Three straight wins for starters followed by three consecutive defeats. Would the real Watford please stand up?

The mini-slump included a 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield, with former Hornets striker Wayne Allison among the scorers, and next up at The Vic was a local derby with QPR.

After Keith Millen's early goal had been cancelled out by Steve Slade's second-half equaliser for Rangers, Watford banked the first dividend on their £250,000 investment on Carlisle strikers Allan Smart and Nick Wright.

Smart popped up at the far post to hook Nigel Gibbs' cross into the roof of the net just four minutes from time, and the Hornets were deservedly back to winning ways.

    Graham Taylor's decision to go shopping in deepest Cumbria had raised eyebrows – Wright and Smart were, frankly, not the names on everyone's lips over the summer.

But the Golden Boys messiah often signed forwards who had given Watford a hard time, Sunderland's Colin West and Tottenham's Mark Falco being two examples in the 1980s.

Taylor had been impressed by Wright and Smart's movement in the Hornets' laboured 2-1 win against Carlisle the previous season, and he was convinced they were equipped to prosper in the second tier.

It turned out to be the best quarter of a million quid he ever spent.

They knew all about fairytale finishes in Carlisle, after goalkeeper Jimmy Glass had kept the Cumbrians in the Football League with his far-fetched injury time winner on the last day of term the previous year, but nobody could have envisaged the impact of GT's double deal.

Smart had been about to sign for Northampton when his Carlisle chairman Michael Knighton (of ball-juggling fame in front of the Stretford End at Old Trafford) told him Watford were offering him a trial with a view to signing him.

With 24 goals in 79 appearances for Preston and Carlisle, Smart – then aged 24 – was intrigued by Taylor's interest. And he was startled when the great man skipped the trial and delivered this opening gambit in their first conversation: “Do you want a three or four-year contract?”

He was even more impressed when Taylor sent him a telegram on his wedding day, with a gift voucher on behalf of Watford. He returned from his honeymoon to find voicemails from the Hornets boss assuring him he would have a big part to play in Watford's season. Not for the first time, Taylor's words proved stunningly prophetic.

    “I remember my debut at Portsmouth, and I didn’t feel it had gone well,” Smart told the Watford Legends website.

“But Graham Taylor spoke to me on the Monday morning, and explained that I was here not just for one game but for a few years, and just to enjoy the football.

“After that I went on something of a scoring run, starting with the winner at home to QPR in the last few minutes.”

The fans warmed to Smart, especially after that poacher's goal in the nearest thing to a local derby in the 1998/99 campaign, although it remains unclear why the chant about him being wonderful was qualified by the clause “even though he comes from Scotland”.

When promotion was sealed, in glorious shades of yellow and red, at Wembley, the Independent's Phil Shaw observed Watford's triumph had been built on the two forwards Taylor “all but stole from Carlisle”.

And we all remember Smart's tearful celebration when the clinching goal against Bolton arrowed into the bottom corner.

If he was not the most prolific Watford striker of modern times, Smart retains a special place in the affections of this parish because although his goals may not have been plentiful, they were often significant.

      Watch Now                    SEO Image