Tales From the Vicarage: Ross Jenkins on his tough start to life with Watford

Here, Oliver Phillips looks back at Jenkins’ struggles in his early days at Watford.

For two or three seasons after Jenkins signed for Watford, some fans would compete in their attempts to be creative in rubbishing the striker.

The fans often reached the point of ridicule but they reflected the accepted viewpoint that manager George Kirby had ‘bought a pup’.

I will not attempt to rewrite history or appear to dilute the terrace admonishments, but I would pose the question: did we have an unfair and unrealistic expectation?

Jenkins had made 15 First Division outings, scored four league goals and caught Kirby’s eye in a reserve-team fixture when he netted four. In transfer terms he looked a gamble but for Watford to pay a record fee, rising to £35,000, it seemed desperate.

Signed in late November, it would be almost three-and-a-half months before Jenkins scored his first Watford goal – part of a brace in a 5-1 win over Scunthorpe United that was met with some derision and ironic cheers from supporters. Two goals in 29 appearances was a dismal return and appeared to confirm his status as a flop.

“People no doubt remember that time. It was a difficult, unhappy and demoralising time. Everything seemed to be going wrong. You just wished you could disappear for a while,” said Jenkins.

What was not known was that his wife Eve had been suffering badly after a major operation and their baby, Ross junior, was critically ill. It was Jenkins who had to get up at night and administer to the baby’s needs.

“The travelling and domestic situation did not help,” Kirby said. “I was criticised by the directors for not buying value for money but it was a case of a little bit for now and more later. In the end, it all came later.”

Jenkins was unable to take advantage of a fresh start under the new management of Mike Keen because he contracted a stomach illness in the last week of a holiday in Javea. He did not enjoy a regular run in the team until February but his return of just four goals in 26 outings did nothing to shift deep-rooted opinion.

Reflecting on those days, Jenkins said: “Under Kirby, the pattern of play was not really emphasised. We did not gel enough. Later – with John Barnes, for instance – you knew where the ball was likely to come.

“We worked on that but with John Farley you did not know when the cross was coming. Then Stewart Scullion joined in Mike Keen’s time and, in his case, the cross might never come or, if it did, it would be beyond us all in the box.”

In Keen’s first season, Billy Jennings did not find that Farley-Scullion service a handicap as he scored 29 goals.

But Keen, concerned about his lack of work-rate, dropped him and brought in the all-action Jenkins - until the lack of goals forced the manager to turn to Jennings again.

At the time, Ross was being paid £40 to £45 a week, lived in a club house and had used his £1,000 signing-on fee to place a deposit on an apartment in Javea.

“That decision has provided us with the mainstay of our lives ever since. We spent every close season there and now we are permanent residents,” said Jenkins, who found the policies at Watford as baffling as his own struggles.

“I remember, for instance, Keen bought Alan Mayes and said he was one for the future. I never bought into that idea. For me the future was Saturday so I wanted to be in the team on Saturday. Saturday was the start of the future.”

The door opened the following season when Watford sold Jennings but, without Billy’s goals, they slid down the table. They compounded this by selling Pat Morrissey, a steady journeyman striker who always put in a shift.

“It was lean times as far as I was concerned. It was a bit of a cliquey dressing room in those days and I was not really accepted as part of the club. When Pat Morrissey left, well, that was it,” said Jenkins.

“When [Troy] Deeney played well at Watford, he reminded me of Pat.”

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