Past and present Watford goalkeepers Tony Coton and Ben Foster were reunited after the Hornets’ win over Manchester United on Sunday.

The pair conducted a joint interview following Watford’s second Premier League win of the season, with Coton returning to the club having spent six years at the club in the 80s.

Foster credited Coton with starting his “whole career” after he came to watch him while on loan at Wrexham while Coton said it was he who sent Foster to Watford on loan initially.

In the interview on the club’s YouTube channel, Foster started by saying: “When he was at Man United, he was goalie coach. I was on loan at Wrexham at the time and TC was the guy who game in to watch me. He was the guy who started my whole career really.”

Coton then joked: “Is the cheque in the post? Or is there a bottle of wine at this festive time?” before continuing: “I knew about Ben from Racing Club Warwick and Stoke and that background, but then he was at Wrexham.

“It was a friend of mine who lives in Mold just outside Wrexham who said ‘we haven’t got a bad goalie here’ so I went down and Richard Hartis who is the Man United goalie coach now was the academy coach, I said come with me and I’ll show you how you scout a goalkeeper, and it was Ben.

“I followed it up and I said to Sir Alex [Ferguson] ‘we need to sign this guy but the thing that he needs is games’. So the first thing I did was popped him off on loan here, so I actually didn’t get that much time to work with him on a daily basis but I spoke to Aidy Boothroyd and said ‘there’s a goalie here, you’ve got to take him’ and that was part of the process we thought was best for Ben’s development.”

Foster has remained thankful for Coton’s influence on his career throughout the duration, and he says that he among one of the many great mentors he has had.

He said: “The reason why I came out on loan here all those years ago was through TC. It was him that was pushing to get me here, he knew the club inside out. I had Alec Chamberlain as my goalkeeper coach at the time but I was well aware of who TC was and what he had done at this club in its history.

“It was nice to walk in his footsteps, walk in his shoes. Even Al Chamberlain, who is absolutely huge for me, has remained a life-long friend, I’ve been blessed with some incredible mentors.”