Watford's 2002 financial crisis actually had the effect of forging the fans, players, staff and sympathetic businesses into one body, determined to steer the Hornets out of the fiscal wood. The Watford Observer was among several who made donations, announcing the intention to turn over the profits of their poster offer to the Supporters’ Trust.

The posters were giant limited edition posters of some of the Watford stars, taken by former staff photographer Jane Parr, who is alive and well living near Sheffield where she teaches camera-craft and photography. An award-winning photographer, she found it hard to earn a living in the dwindling local newspaper market but her photographs of Watford FC spanning some ten years, rank among the best ever taken. She was a sad loss to the industry.

In addition to earmarking the poster profits for the Trust, we also commenced to publish a list of fans that contributed £25 or more to the cause and published the names of businesses that donated percentages of their profits.

The fans also rallied round with attendances rising in answer to an appeal for the fans to help generate funds through the turnstiles and the Target 10,000 scheme to raise the number of season ticket holders was also progressing well.

Former players Darren Bazeley, Ken Furphy, Nigel Gibbs, Kenny Jackett, Martin Patching, Pat Rice, John Ward and Peter Kennedy showed their support for their former club by joining and contributing to the Trust.

On the field, Watford strung together a run of seven games unbeaten – six victories and one draw – which suggested the dressing room was in a healthy condition with the camaraderie heightened by the decision to surrender a percentage of their wages.

They stretched their run to nine outings with only one defeat – at home to Luton Town – when they won at Stoke City in mid-week late in October, which enabled them to nose into fourth place.

“Could this be the most unlikely of fairy-tales?” mused chairman Graham Simpson.

Sadly that was not to be the case for Watford after extending the run with another draw, managed only one win amidst five defeats in the next six games as reality struck.

Manager Ray Lewington had done well with an unbalanced and severely culled squad but you can only get away with playing the likes of Stephen Glass at left-back for so long. Glass did well in emergency, reflecting the general spirit in the squad but you could not paper over the cracks indefinitely. Even so, Lewington received the Manager of the Month Award for his successful run.

Luton manager Joe Kinnear made an enquiry with regard to signing Marcus Gayle but Watford turned down the approach. This did not prevent Kinnear from mentioning the fact he wanted to take a Watford player on loan and without naming Gayle, admitted he had “worked with the player at Wimbledon’’, which made the identity of his target obvious.

Watford were not in a position to loan players and Gayle, who had been out with injury, was close to returning to the first team. “We need the likes of Marcus,” said Lewington.

The financial issues were never far rom the headlines however and, with the club’s annual meeting coming up, the release of the accounts revealed Watford made a £7.6million loss on the previous (Luca Vialli) campaign.

Fellow financial strugglers, Leicester City, went into administration, axing 30 employees in the process.

“It is a timely warning for us,’ said Simpson, who had backed the rescue package with £2.4m of his own money.

Watford launched a new share issue with a view to plugging the £1.9m hole remaining from the original £15.5m shortfall facing the club over the next two seasons.

This figure was broken down in a Watford Observer graphic, which included the £4.3m net loss on the promised income from ITV Digital. The club had also expected a further £600,000 investment from a director (believed to be Brian Anderson) but he decided to move to Israel instead.

Because the outgoing players were so stubborn in their negotiations, Watford had to pay out £1m, more than they expected. In this respect, Vialli had assured the board that if the players did not fit in, he could sell them so the directors inked in a possible £2.5m income from transfers – perhaps the most wildly optimistic error they perpetrated after signing the Italian.

Because the club was not challenging for promotion, Watford suffered a loss of £1m on the projected gate revenue and also lost a further £400,000 on the PTV website income that did not materialise. Also the commercial revenue was £750,000 down on what they projected. Similarly, having known the club would have debts after backing Vialli, the directors expected to count on £3m loan from the bank but when the collapse came about, the banks were no long interested in loaning the money.

There was a £550,000 rent deposit on the sale/lease back of the ground and the setting up of the deal cost £140,000 in costs. Further, the club had to find £1.26m for the payment of two years rent. All in all it provided a rude awakening for those who were so convinced as to the wisdom of appointing Vialli, a man totally inexperienced in second-tier football, as manager and backing him to the extent the club ran into what was considered at the time a manageable debt. If Vialli had been successful, gate receipts, commercial revenue etc, would have risen and the debt would have been manageable. But it all hinged on the wisdom or lack of it in appointing Vialli.