Tomorrow's local derby with Queens Park Rangers is set to be an interesting experience for Gavin Mahon.

Not only will the former Watford midfielder be returning to Vicarage Road in a playing capacity for the first time since moving to Loftus Road at the turn of the year, he will also be out to impress a new boss if selected.

Rangers appointed former Portugese international Paulo Sousa as their new first-team coach on Wednesday and Mahon was still digesting the news when he spoke to the Watford Observer only a couple of hours after the appointment was confirmed.

"I remember seeing him as a player," said the 31-year-old of the former two-time Champions League winner with Juventus and Borussia Dortmund. "He was a top player and hopefully he can bring some new ideas and new training methods."

Sousa will certainly be under pressure to get results from the outset. Rangers were one of the pre-season favourites for promotion and although they are handily placed in tenth, three points outside the play-off zone, they have suffered from the bug that affects the majority of Championship teams – a lack of consistency.

"We would like to have had a bit better start but we are in a resonable position," said Mahon, who "is trying hard to get back in the team" after being forced to settle for a place on the bench for the last four league games during Gareth Ainsworth's caretaker spell in charge following the departure of Iain Dowie.

Whether the Hornets' 2004 Player of the Season starts or not tomorrow, he is looking forward to returning to a club for whom he made more than 200 appearances during a near five-year spell.

He said: "I've only been back once for the Hull game in the play-offs, so it will good to go back and see a few old faces.

"I only spoke to Sean Dyche yesterday, I still live in St Albans, so I still bump into a few of the boys. I was there long enough to make a few friends which is good."

However, Mahon, who was a popular target for the Vicarage Road boo-boys, admits he is not sure what reception he will receive from the Watford fans, although he is hoping it will be a favourable one.

"I didn't have the best of starts, but once I got back to full fitness I played over 200 games," the former Vicarage Road skipper reflected.

"They paid £150,000 for me and five years down the line we’d been promoted to the Premiership and played in an FA Cup semi-final.

"I had a few good letters when I left from people who said they appreciated my work. Maybe it [the reception] will be mixed? Hopefully it will be good but you never quite know."

Mahon was controversially deemed surplus to requirements by Aidy Boothroyd in the aftermath of the season-defining home reverse against West Bromwich Albion at the start of last November and his Hornets' career ended on a low, substituted in the 2-1 defeat against Bristol City almost a month later.

That game was played on December 1 when Watford were still top of the Championship. Almost a year later they find themselves third from bottom of the table.

"I said on the record then that I didn't want to go at that time, I wanted to go at the end of the season," said Mahon, whose deal at Vicarage Road would have ended in the summer.

"Some people have said I got out at the right time. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't.

"By all accounts they've been a tiny bit unlucky," he added of Watford's fortunes this season.

"They've been scoring plenty of goals but defensively maybe there's been a lack of concentration at times and they've had some bad luck.

"From the supporters' point of view I don't know what they were expecting because a lot of the big-name players have gone. They have still got players good enough for this division, but that's for the supporters."

Looking ahead to tomorrow's game, do not expect the recent sequence of high-scoring affairs at Vicarage Road to continue if Mahon's light-hearted prediction is anything to go by.

"At the minute we are not scoring too many goals, but we are very strong defensively. Watford are scoring lots of goals, so it will probably be a 0-0," he said with a smile.