In the 44-year history of the Watford Observer Player of the Season award, the winner has been a goalkeeper on 12 occasions. The first winner, in 1972/73, was Andy Rankin. Like Rankin, Kevin Miller and Alec Chamberlain also won the award twice. David James, Ben Foster and the current holder Heurelho Gomes are all one-time winners.

But Tony Coton has achieved something that no other Hornet has managed – and that is winning the Player of the Season award three times, although in the latest edition of Tales from the Vicarage, he tips Troy Deeney to equal his record and perhaps go on to break it.

Back in January, Coton was honoured for his achievement with a special prize presented on the pitch at half-time during the match between Watford and another of his former clubs, Manchester City.

Coton was initially reluctant to go down onto the pitch, as he explains in the book. “I was down by the side and I was looking at the fans and they were all young. I thought, ‘What sort of reception am I going to get here?’ If you’re under 30, do you remember Tony Coton playing for Watford?

‘I was not sure what reaction I was going to get from the City fans either, because of going over the road,’ he adds, referring to his time at their rivals Manchester United.

It’s more than 25 years since Coton last dominated the penalty areas at Vicarage Road but his legacy is that he is still the benchmark against which all other goalkeepers are judged.

“Not bad for a keeper who let in five on his debut,” he says, recalling his debut, a 5-4 defeat to Everton in September 1984.

“Manchester City fans may disagree with this but I think Watford supporters saw me at my very best. I think my last 30 games for Birmingham and my time at Watford were the best of my career. I loved Watford – I played more games for them than anyone else.

“Thank God I joined Watford when I did because it was just what my career needed at that time. I’ve been very lucky to have an affinity for most of the managers I played for but Graham Taylor was the best and I count myself fortunate to have played for him at that time, when he was so full of energy and enthusiasm. He had a vision of how he wanted the game to be played. People thought it was long ball but if you saw us in training, you’d have seen how technical and tactical it was. People thought we played off the cuff, that we won the ball and then got it forward straight away but it was rehearsed. Those runs and those passes were planned. Everyone knew when to run, depending on who had the ball and where they had it. They knew the triggers to start off their moves. And it was so hard to play against.

“I am certain that if the technology that’s around now had been around then, Graham would have embraced it and would have been at the forefront of it.

“Even then, in 1985, we’d be in the guest suite at Vicarage Road, or in a room at the training ground, watching videos of our games. With today’s tech, I’m sure we’d be have been having more classroom sessions than half the schools in Watford. Graham was very analytical and he made you look at the game, how it was played and how you could get better.”

In Tales from the Vicarage volume five, Coton talks about how Taylor helped save him from a potential spell in prison, about the greatest games of his time at Watford – including a clean sheet at Anfield in the FA Cup – and why he stayed at Vicarage Road for six years when at the peak of his powers and other clubs were interested.

Tales from the Vicarage volume five is available now from The Hornets Shop, Waterstones, Amazon and talesfrom.com/watford