WATFORD'S decision to hand Adrian Boothroyd a new four-and-a-half year contract just before Christmas acknowledged the emergence of one of football's brightest young managers.

But it was the invitation to Sir Elton John's wedding party that proved that the rookie boss, who goes head to head with Sam Allardyce in the FA Cup on Saturday, has been truly welcomed to the Vicarage Road fold.

The rock legend might have cut his financial ties with the Hornets, but he remains a staunch fan and would not have asked Boothroyd to accompany club chairman, Graham Simpson, at his celebrity bash if he did not have the highest regard for the work he has done over the past 10 months, transforming his team from relegation candidates to promotion contenders.

Yet before his appointment in March of last year, the 34-year-old defender who numbered Huddersfield, Bristol Rovers, Hearts, Mansfield and Peterborough among his former clubs, was untried, untested and unknown.

But so too were Watford, before they rose from oblivion to the top flight in just four sensational years - 1978-1982 - under the management of Graham Taylor. When they beat Wanderers in the FA Cup in 1969 that was the first meeting between the sides, who were traditionally poles apart in league terms.

Taylor's gatecrashers managed six seasons in the old First Division and, although relegated in 1988, the foundations laid in the days when John Barnes and Luther Blissett reigned supreme and the Rocket Man's patronage put the club on a sound financial footing, they were able to snatch a season of Premier League football.

They famously beat Wanderers in the 1999 Play-off Final a result that ultimately led to Allardyce succeeding Colin Todd in the Reebok manager's chair.

This time Watford, managed by Taylor in his second Vicarage Road spell, were unable to consolidate and, while Wanderers have gone from strength to strength with Big Sam at the helm, the Hornets have flirted with danger at the wrong end of the second tier escaping relegation last season by just two points.

Six managers in 10 years tells its own story but, in Boothroyd, Watford believe they have a manager who can not only achieve success, but also sustain it hence the conversion of his 12-month rolling contract into the new deal which runs to 2010.

Now up to fourth in the Championship and considered strong play-off contenders there is again talk of Premiership football.

In Marlon King, the ambitious striker who this week converted his loan from Nottingham Forest into a permanent deal for a bargain £500,000, they boast one of the most prolific marksmen in the game.

With 12 goals, he is joint top scorer in the Championship and, with seven-goal Darius Henderson alongside, Wanderers will have their work cut out if they are to clear the first hurdle on the FA Cup trail.