They were still chanting “Elton John’s Taylor Made Army” as Watford continued their unbeaten start to the 2000- 2001 campaign, but was the chant redundant?

Graham Taylor would not have come back to Vicarage Road for his second spell, had Elton not insisted they try to roll back the years together.

Yet Graham was to be very disappointed at Elton’s commitment to the Watford cause. It was largely because his partner, David Furnish, was not and is not a football fan, so Elton’s appearance at the Hornets’ games were very few during the “second coming”.

Graham declined to comment publicly other than to say he had never known the chairman work so hard, but he was disappointed and while he was given the right to represent the chairman at board meetings, this was another factor in the manager feeling things were not the same, particularly with so many directors on board.

The former vice-chairman, Rumi Verjee, who was found to be showboating on his association with the Watford chairman, did concede he was surprised when the rock star came back as chairman and chipped only £250,000 into the kitty. This was considerably more than Verjee put in, but not quite the amount you associate with one of the world’s biggest stars.

Having Elton’s name as the chairman, gave the club a cachet and to this day, fans of the game think Elton still makes a significant contribution as a major player.

Graham stressed in 2000 that Elton phoned regularly and his was one of the first calls he received after a match. The chairman continued to be well versed in the game, and obviously set aside Saturdays wherever his career took him, to concentrate on football.

Subsequently, after Taylor’s departure, he took to phoning the managers every week for an update on the recent match and future plans. No one can doubt Elton’s love for the club and he stressed, on Sky when he was in Oslo and the Hornets beat Bolton in the play-off final, that he never wanted to be without Watford. The facts were he became an absentee chairman, playing little part in the great scheme of things, so it was certainly a Taylor-made Army, but I should imagine the claim it was Elton John’s Taylor-made Army, may have irked a few directors.

Bookies' favourites for the then First Division (second tier) title were Blackburn Rovers. If there had been an element of luck about the size of Watford’s success against Portsmouth, as admitted by Taylor, the Hornets passed the acid test with a great victory in a seven-goal thriller at Ewood Park.

It was one the finest and most memorable games of that era with Watford coming back from a two-goal deficit after Damien Duff and Nathan Blake had struck in the fifth and 17th minutes respectively. The Hornets looked as if they might be on something of a hiding as Rovers hit the woodwork and had a goal disallowed – controversially according to their manager Graeme Souness.

A well-placed shot from Micah Hyde reduced the deficit in the 19th and after 34 minutes, Watford were back on terms with Heidar Helguson heading the equaliser. Two minutes later, the Hornets were ahead when Allan Nielsen slipped the ball in for Hyde to record his second with a well-placed shot.

Having been in the face of a Blackburn hurricane, the Hornets had rolled their sleeves up and aided by some luck, produced a gritty display, which made us think they were coming to terms with what is now the Championship.

Souness claimed they were mugged but the free-kick count was even and the game was played in far better spirit that the Blackburn manager’s after-match press interviews would suggest.

Souness harped on about the burglary detracting from the treasure trove of excitement afforded by the exchanges. There is no doubt Rovers had more and better chances but the quality of Hyde’s finishing – one with his left and the other with his right – certainly made a difference for the Hornets, whose selection was limited by the number of injuries to their squad.

Just after the hour had passed Paul Robinson’s corner was met with a late run by Tommy Mooney who headed firmly into the net to give the Hornets a 4-2 lead, so standing the game on its head. Blake pulled a goal back three minutes from time to provoke a hectic finale to a game that neither side deserved to lose.

Graeme Souness is one of the pundits I rate when I see him on television. I enjoy his comments and his perception but he has arrived at that more considered approach after years of passionate autopsies. At Blackburn he said he attempted to speak to the referee but he was “like a cornered rat”. “I thought him inept and a clown”. Certainly not a homer then?

The other Graham – Taylor – proved to be a little premature when he said after the game: “I now believe we may have got last season out of our system when we produce a display like that.”

He had prepared his players thoroughly, telling them Rovers tended to win games in the first 15 minutes.

“So that went according to plan,” Taylor conceded: “Rovers’ plan.”

“Opposition managers tend to say these things when they are beaten by my sides. Rovers looked to get the ball to their front two as quickly as possible and why not? They are a great partnership. There was quality out there. Don’t talk abokut mugging, talk about quality. It was a tremendous game, as simple as that.”

Souness finished the season with a bigger smile than his opposite number, however.

This article was first published in Friday's Watford Observer.