The broad smile on the face of Troy Deeney as he strode off the Villa Park pitch said it all. The Watford captain’s dream had come true. A goal in front of the baying Holte End which resulted in a Hornets win.

“It was a bit better than my dream goal actually and for it to be the winner means it is happy days,” Deeney said when reflecting on his expertly placed header which proved decisive in yesterday’s 3-2 win over the Villains.

“I’ve tried to calm myself down now because I get emotional during the game. Their fans were giving me a bit of grief so I was able to wind them up (after scoring). I’ve calmed down now and am back to being the normal professional Troy.”

Yesterday’s contest undoubtedly meant more to Deeney than his Watford teammates. Of course every single member of the Golden Boys squad wanted to win but for the striker it was personal.

He is after all a Birmingham City fan - Villa’s local rivals - and once had a four-day trial with the club at the age of 15.

He wasn’t offered a contract by Villa but that was more to do with the fact he only turned up for the final day of the trial.

However, he showed the Villains what they missed out on yesterday with an excellent performance which was capped off by that 85th minute goal.

“Days like this make all the hard graft I’ve put in worthwhile,” Deeney said. “If I hadn’t scored and Villa had won it would’ve been a bad weekend for me but I did score and we won so it’s a bad weekend for them.

“Everyone knows I am Birmingham which is why I was given a 'lovely' reception from their fans when I walked in.

“The fans are close enough to the pitch here that when we were trying to run the clock down in the last ten minutes I was getting plenty of grief. But I am big and ugly enough to take it.”

And that ‘grief’ may have even come from a few of Deeney’s mates, although between the hours of 3pm and 5pm yesterday they were far from friends.

“We don’t class them as mates…more associates,” Deeney joked. “No of course I’ve got mates who are in both ends and the ones who support Villa messaged me saying ‘today we aren’t friends, we’re going to give you grief’.

“That’s fine with me but we’ll go for a drink and it will all be back to normal. They’ll probably buy me a beer to be fair.”

He added: “We’ll go back to Chelmsley Town where it all started. It takes me 15 minutes to get there so happy days. I’ve got old mates there so I will see how they got on today and just chill out.”