Matthew Connolly's Watford career may have been brief but the memories the defender has of time his time at Vicarage Road will live long in his mind.

It was back in March that the Hornets signed Connolly on a short-term loan from Cardiff City. At the time Watford were involved in one of the closest Championships promotion races in history and the 27-year-old was something of a good luck charm in that area.

You see, Connolly had been promoted to the Premier League in the three previous seasons. His experience was seen as invaluable.

The centre-back, who was born in Hatfield and who owns a flat in Bushey, made six appearances, four of which were starts. He scored one memorable goal in thrilling 3-1 win at Nottingham Forest.

And come May 2 he was celebrating yet another promotion to the top flight. Although it wasn’t a fourth successive Championship title as Watford were held agonisingly held to a 1-1 draw on the final day by Sheffield Wednesday.

Connolly was keen to remain at Vicarage Road if a deal could be struck. Unfortunately for the defender Watford have looked elsewhere.

Despite the best efforts of Cardiff’s media team to stop Connolly speaking to the press, he was happy to chat about his short spell at Vicarage Road after last night’s friendly between Watford and his current side Cardiff City.

He reflected. “When you go on a journey like that, whether if it’s short or long, and you achieve what you want to achieve then you make some great memories, especially as I am a local to Watford.

“I was there last year, had a great time and we achieved what we wanted to achieve. There has obviously been a lot of change, with a new manager and, in my mind, I was always coming back here to Cardiff anyway.”

He continued: “For a few years Watford deserved to go up, especially when (Gianfranco) Zola was manager. I thought they were a great team then.

"When we played them last season when I was at Cardiff I thought, ‘wow, that squad is amazing’. So I think the deserved to go up because they were fantastic last season.

“The lads did a great job before I got there to be honest and I helped with the finishing touches. All the lads who are there deserve great credit for what they achieved last season.”

While Connolly has been busy preparing for another Championship campaign with the Bluebirds, Watford have been recruiting and building a squad that will, hopefully, be competitive in the top flight.

Connolly - who says he has stayed in contact with many his former Hornets teammates, such as Troy Deeney, Ikechi Anya and Gabriele Angella - was impressed with the Golden Boys’ summer additions who featured in last night’s friendly.

Although the Bluebirds were able to record a 2-1 victory over Quique Sanchez Flores’ side.

“They’ve brought a lot of players in and that was always going to be the case,” Connolly admitted.

“Different teams do different things when they get promoted; some buy and some don’t. They have brought some quality players, you can see that, and I’m sure they will be fine this season.”