Monday, October 20, 1958

Watford pulled off the most audacious signing in their history, recruiting Arsenal striker Cliff Holton for a club record £10,000.

Seemingly on the verge of an international call-up a year earlier, Holton had fallen out of favour at Highbury but had plenty of offers from more prominent clubs, not least Liverpool.

Holton's keenness to pursue an interest in a London engineering business helped sway fourth division Watford's claim, and to the surprise of a disbelieving local public Holton signed.

The attendance on his debut was more than double that of the previous home game.

Reproduced by kind permission of Matt Rowson from his book,Watford FC On This Day