It has taken 11 months of hard work through the night, drawing images of the likes of Kenny Jackett and Pierre Issa on a stretcher, but the completion of the Watford Mishmash has made it all worthwhile.

Lifelong Hornets fan Alex Bennett started the design last summer and has put the finishing touches to the poster, which is the history of Watford Football Club in one image.

Bennett came up with the Football Mishmash concept, which was finished in 2013. It was the history of the sport in one image.

A wrestling Mishmash and rugby Mishmash followed and the logical next step was a version for the club he supports.

The illustrator has contributed regularly to the Hornets’ matchday programme and needed no persuading to design a Watford Mishmash.

Bennett said: “I always knew I was probably going to end up doing it. It was just a matter of finding the time to do it because it’s quite unusual work, not getting paid for it until the end.

“It’s a year of doing something so it’s a bit of a gamble. It’s enjoyable in a sick way because you’re up at three in the morning drawing Kenny Jackett thinking ‘what am I doing?’ It’s good fun.”

Bennett has endeavoured to cover as much of Watford’s history as possible and has gone right back to the origins of the club using a variety of sources for the material included in the Mishmash.

He said: “It goes all the way back. The original founder is involved so I’ve gone all the way back to 1881. I’ve used the centenary book by Oliver Phillips so it goes all the way through. I’ve tried to cover as much as I can although the more modern stuff there is a bit more of it.”

Bennett added: “It’s a lot from memory [research] and I’m quite active on Twitter so I threw open questions to Watford fans about images of certain days.

“I looked through old programmes and whatever source I could find. YouTube is good as well for that.

“I’ve already had a guy contact me on Twitter saying ‘we weren’t wearing red shorts that day. We were wearing black shorts’. You have to get these things right and there’s always one person that will find out so it wouldn’t be good and defeats the whole purpose.”

Watford Observer:

Being the creator of the Watford Mishmash has its perks and Bennett managed to sneak an image of his son into the design.

But aside from this personal touch there are a range of quirky moments featured such as Issa being dropped on a stretcher and Juan Carlos Paredes throwing the ball in Daley Blind’s face last season.

Bennett, who has been going to Watford games for almost 30 years, since the age of six, said: “I’ve included me taking my son to his first game a couple of years ago which is not exactly a historical moment for everyone else but hopefully he’ll appreciate that in a few years and will make sure he doesn’t end up supporting Manchester United.

“I learned a lot myself. There was a woman called Gladys Protheroe. A Watford fan in the 70s, 80s and 90s, every away game he went to, would get the stadium announcer to give a 90th happy birthday greeting to Gladys Protheroe. He did this for 20 or 30 years and it turns out she never existed which is just bonkers. I did a tannoy with that coming out of it. It’s crazy stuff but quite fun.”

Every character is hand drawn and inked initially. Fitting all the detail onto the 69cm by 99cm print was no easy task.

He said: “One of the biggest challenges was making sure I could find an appropriate space for everything. It’s like doing the world’s hardest jigsaw.”

The football Mishmash is currently a massive mural in the Vicarage Road Stand and the Watford version is expected to be on display in the Rookery and Graham Taylor Stand next season.

Bennett said: “A special thanks to club photographer Alan Cozzi and banner designer Tom J Bennett for their assistance and use of their material in the image.”

To buy a copy of the poster log on to www.roundheadillustration.com.

A percentage of the sale from each Watford Mishmash will go to the Peace Hospice.