Not one of Glenn Roeder's more inspired purchases, Gary Penrice returned to Watford at a time when the team was struggling at the foot of the First Division.

If you want my honest opinion, it was a complete waste of money - we were (and still are) over-endowed with nippy little support strikers, we were (and still are) in desperate need of a strong centre forward. The transfer fee may not sound particularly huge but throw in a couple of seasons' worth of Premiership-level wages and you've spent quite a lot of cash on someone with a bad moustache.

It's not that Penrice is a crap player or anything like that. He's quick, he's sharp, he's got a brain that reads the game well. But, while acknowledging his talents, I'd argue that he's really not effective at lower division level. Far from imposing his undoubted class on games, he gets sucked into the maelstrom and becomes yet another hustly-bustly player in a division of hustly-bustly players.

There were occasions when Penrice would run games, dictating the course of the match from his new midfield role. Those occasions were simply too few.