Doing another Leicester? Wilf says just maybe

THEY have the bookies running scared and gave the Rocket Man himself, Sir Elton John, a day out he and his boys will never forget.

Watford’s barnstorming start has left the nation – but not necessarily their own supporters – asking whether the Hornets could repeat Leicester’s title feat of 2016.

The same bookmakers who made Javi Gracia’s men relegation favourites three weeks ago have slashed their title odds from 1,000-1 to 200-1. They couldn’t go one better than Graham Taylor’s class of 1982-83, who finished runners-up behind Liverpool... could they?

With immaculate timing, Taylor’s longest-serving captain Wilf Rostron returned to his old parish on Sunday night, 90 minutes after Gracia’s men had harpooned Tottenham 2-1, for a nostalgic chat show on stage at the town’s Palace Theatre.

Rostron (above, with Hornets team-mate John Barnes after their FA Cup semi-final win in 1984) had been a member of the last Watford team to beat Tottenham in the League, 31 years ago, until Troy Deeney took his battering ram to Mauricio Pochettino’s back line on Sunday afternoon.

Sir Elton and his young sons, Zachary and Elijah, loved it. But Rostron, now 61 and living back in his native Sunderland, warned the odds remain stacked against the current squad emulating Taylor’s achievement, let alone topping it.

The Hornets’ 100 per cent start has, however, reawakened the excitement he felt when Taylor’s freescoring upstarts took the top flight by storm 36 years ago.

The Watford legend, who made 404 appearances for the club, said: “You can feel there’s a real buzz about the place. It’s nice to see Watford doing well again because the 10 seasons I spent there were the best times of my career.

“But it’s a bit early to start talking about them doing a Leicester and winning the title, though if they are still up there in February or March, that’s a different story.

“Leicester will always live on the memory for what they did even if, three-quarters of the way through that season, nobody expected them to do it – including their own fans.

“But they did have Jamie Vardy, an exceptional poacher who could put the ball in the net, and Riyad Mahrez was in the form of his life.”