5 players who have turned out for both Southampton and Watford
Every fixture drags a few old boys along with it, and Watford away is no different. Kick-off is 1:30 on Sunday the 16th. Here are five who pulled on both shirts before then.
1. Kevin Phillips
Start with the one who got away, then came home. Southampton let a young Kevin Phillips go, and Watford turned him into a goalscorer, with 24 strikes in a couple of seasons lighting the fuse.
Sunderland followed, and 130-odd goals with it, plus eight England caps he'd probably tell you should have been more. It took until 2003 for Southampton to actually sign him. Super Kev paid them back with 26 goals before Villa prised him away in 2005.
2. Paul Jones
A cult hero in gloves. Vicarage Road had Paul Jones briefly, then St Mary's had him for keeps, near enough 190 games across seven seasons. The Welshman kept goal for the Saints side that reached the 2003 FA Cup final, and St Mary's loved him for the way he did it. Brave, noisy, never short of a word.
3. David Connolly
Another Watford kid who reached Southampton the scenic way. Connolly banged in 15 for the Hornets as a raw thing in the mid-90s, then spent the best part of a decade, and about a dozen clubs, getting to the south coast. When he finally landed in 2009 the knees weren't what they were, but he still weighed in as Saints clawed their way out of League One in 2010/11.
4. Jack Cork
The quiet operator of the bunch. Jack Cork's Watford spell was a Chelsea loan back in 2009, a short education before he found a proper home at Southampton in 2011.
He'd rack up 140 appearances and glide through the middle of the park as Saints climbed the divisions, all understated and easy to underrate.
5. Fitz Hall
Fitz Hall flipped the usual order here. Southampton had him young, Watford got him late, a 2012 to 2014 spell near the end of the road. A defender who saw plenty of dressing rooms in between, he's the one bridging these two from the back rather than the front.
Five players, two clubs, and a fair bit of shared history to chew on before kick-off. Saints Marching has the mood covered too, from the sold-out away end to the players with most to prove on Sunday.
If you'd forgotten that a Wales goalkeeper, two Watford-made strikers, a Chelsea loanee turned Southampton stalwart and a well-travelled defender all quietly bridge these two clubs, then consider the set complete before Sunday. None of them will be lining up this weekend, of course. But if you want a nice pre-match nugget for the pub, Super Kev knowing both ends of this fixture is a decent place to start.
