In passing with Oliver Phillips

As well as having the chance to meet Harry the Hornet, Watford FC's mascot, visitors will be able to win a signed ball or match tickets in a football quiz, take part in a football workout with members of Watford's community outreach team or make a rosette to support their favourite team. There will be free face painting and a chance to vote for your favourite player of all time.

Museum Curator, Victoria Barlow, said: 'We're expecting a brilliant day for all our visitors. We're very pleased that Harry the Hornet will be joining us. We've had a lot of support from Watford Football Club but you don't have to be a Watford fan to have a great day.'

The Funday is open to visitors of all ages and starts at 10am. Entrance to the museum and Funday is free.

I know it is their nickname and I know they are fully aware of the implications, but making announcements over the public address welcoming fans to Northampton, is one thing. But you just cannot believe you are likely to hear anything credible when they say this is Radio Cobblers.

Similarly with their information line, Talk Cobblers.

Without using squad numbers on their shirts during practice games, Watford found themselves sending on substitute Panopoulos with a number 10 shirt on Wednesday. Foley was already on wearing number 10.

The fans, gearing up for the season, quickly launched into an 'He's here, he's there, he's everywhere, number 10'.

The new goalkeeper's names do not convert easily to nicknames. The Christian name, Espen, will obviously take a bit of getting used to, Overheard on Wednesday night, a Watford crowd favourite turned to the keeper and asked: 'Where do you live then, Big 'Un?'

Sigurd (Sigre) Rushfelt's name cropped up again recently. Some years back, he feature regularly on this page as Glenn Roeder attempted to sign the Norwegian.

Well when we talk about the significance of pre-season matches, how about Racing Santander have been playing practice games against lowly Dutch sides. They racked up a 34-0 victory and a 25-0 victory, which suggests something of a mismatch on the part of the tour operators.

Santander totalled more goals in two matches than in the entirety of the campaign. And Rushfeldt scored 16 of them.

The stand behind the goal at Barnet was missing on Saturday. I understand it will be back in time for the start of the season. There cannot be many league grounds that can claim their stand has been taken away 'for cleaning'.

The standards of journalism are slipping still further. When Taylor declined to speak to the Press after the Barnet game, it was no surprise to me. He never does talk about practice games. So I was surprised to receive a call from a national Sunday newspaper that evening, saying they had an agency story claiming Taylor was in ' a fury' over Spurs leeking the transfer story onto their website. 'Consequently he wouldn't speak to the press.'

I refuted that as a reason, the paper did not print the story, but another paper did.

'Pure fiction,' said a surprised Taylor who was delighted Spurs and Watford had been able to keep the negotiations under wraps so long. 'I didn't even know it was on the website.'

When Graham Taylor was celebrating play-off success at Wembley, Charlton's Alan Curbishley was on the Sky pundit panel, praising the former England boss as 'an example to us all'.

For Curbishley, the scenes of Watford's celebrations were particularly poignant for his side had enjoyed a similar success the previous year, only to finish relegated from the Premiership 12 months later.

Taylor is hoping to repeat Charlton's subsequent success because after Watford's triumph in 1999, he wrote to Curbishley encouraging him.

Said the Watford boss: 'I seem to be pretty good at prophesising things because at the end of the 98/99 season I told Alan in my letter that it could be my turn next to be at the bottom and his turn to be at the top.

'When Charlton came straight back up I wrote to him again to remind him of what I'd said.

'He sent me a very nice letter wishing me all the best for winning promotion and our aim has to be to do exactly what Charlton did.

'I would be foolish to say that we will definitely do this or that but we have got a stronger squad now and I expect us to be up there among the challengers.'

Taylor's link with Curbishley had been revealed earlier when Curbishley borrowed the expression saying 'being a yo-yo club is no bad deal for Charlton'.

'I chat with a few managers and I don't want to make real publicity of it. I have a friendship with Ray Graydon, for instance, which goes back a number of years,' said Taylor.

'Some time ago, Alan contacted me to ask whether he ought to leave. He knew I spent a long time at Watford and was seeking some observations on the pluses and minuses of a long commitment to a club. His decision was to stay but I don't think I influenced that decision. I have a lot of time for him.'

For many Watford fans, the trip to Cheltenham in the Worthington Cup will enable them to chalk another League ground off their list.

Last week I mentioned how Watford won the Third Division championship in the season they beat the Gloucestershire side.

But that was in the future when the Hornets travelled to the Southern League club with a line-up of: Walker; Welbourne, Garvey, Eddy, Williams; Scullion, Hale, Walley, Owen; Garbett, Endean.

It was a line-up that was as familiar to Watford fans in the late 1960's as the Linton, Bell Nicholas; Chung, Mc Neice, Catleugh; Benning, Holton, Uphill, Hartle, Bunce, listing was to those at the start of the decade.

That is ironic because that was the basis of the line-up the previous time Watford met Cheltenham, again in the FA Cup First Round, back in 1959.

Then, Cheltenham played seven qualifying matches in order to meet Watford, drawing 0-0 at Whaddon Road before falling to a Dennis Uphill hat-trick in the replay at Vicarage Road.

That was in the Holton era and George Fleming appeared in place of the injured Barry Hartle in both games and John Price was at right back, soon to make way for Bobby Bell.

After that, Fourth Division Watford went on a cup run which took in Birmingham and Southampton before being literally kicked out of it at Brammall Lane 3-2 at the hands of Sheffield United. Returning to the League action, they stormed through to gain promotion with Holton and Uphill hitting the goalscoring high spots.

Ken Furphy was the manager when Watford last took on Cheltenham in 1968 and the newly-named Hornets were then just behind Swindon in the Third Division title race, one the Hornets would eventually win.

Having looked forward to the tie for weeks, it all got too much for beanpole Cheltenham defender Alan Jeffries who actually caught the ball after around 15 minutes into the game, enabling Keith Eddy to score from the spot.

Terry Garbett and Dixie Hale scored in a 4-0 Watford success at Cheltenham, but perhaps the most significant was the fact Barry Endean hit his first senior Watford goal - the first of 20 in 28 outings - and this was his second appearance in the starting line-up.