Has Watford’s promising opening to the campaign prompted us to expect too much? I questioned myself after watching the Hornets fritter away the near-certainty of three points at Craven Cottage. The plain fact is, it would not have taken much to have tweaked that performance to turn it into a comfortable victory.

Of course the usually pretty reliable Jose Holebas had a nightmare with mis-hit corners and free-kicks - in fact some of the corners never made it to the opposition penalty area, such was the peculiar tendency to play it short when all the taller guns were in the box waiting in vain. So, when the out-of-sorts Roberto Pereyra took a couple of free-kicks, he seemed equally drawn to playing it into the goalkeeper’s hands.

But it was the tendency towards sloppy passes when they had carved Fulham’s defence in tatters that caused me to wonder if we might expect too much from the Hornets. I ran the incidents through again on the television and reminded myself that on each occasion, a brilliant, inspired or a quality pass was not required - just a simply effective, accurate pass was all that was needed and Watford would have been in with clear-cut chances sufficient to wrap up the points.

Fulham were poor in the first half, mediocre in the second period but it was interesting that the hitherto impressive Christian Kabasele allowed himself to be bullied by the rejuvenated Aleksandar Mitrovic after the break. That needs work as does the delivery of Watford’s free-kicks for they really were woeful.

I watched the match with house-guests Eve and Ross Jenkins, who are heading for England and will be there to witness the Horns against Bournemouth.

Reaching into a wardrobe shelf on the Saturday morning, I pulled out a t-shirt and put it on. When I caught sight of myself in the mirror later that morning, I realised I had unearthed an old t-shirt with a Terry Challis depiction along with the message - As Cool as Craig.

“Who is Craig?” Ross asked and I explained, but there should not have been need for explanation. Craig Ramage’s talent was such, his exploits should have filtered down to Javea, Spain, and reached the ears of the then-bar-complex-owner Ross.

The fact that Ross was unaware was down to Craig himself.

I remember when Glenn Roeder first signed Craig and my Derby counterpart informed me: “You will enjoy him. He has a lot of skill but what you may notice is that when he walks out onto that pitch, it is as if he owns it.”

Indeed Craig did have a swagger and he did have the skill to back it up. Where he fell short was in his application.

I remember Glenn relating an anecdote on how he was stuck in traffic in Watford’s one-way system. and noticed the driver in front of him was scoffing a pie. As Glenn peered ahead for an easement of the traffic, he saw the driver reach for another pork pie and consume it.

Glen shook his head for he had recognised then scoffer: it was Rambo - Craig Ramage, ‘who ate all the pies’.

Ramage’s career had been limited by a cruciate ligament injury, the like of which had ended Martin Patching’s career some 20 years earlier. But it was his application that proved the biggest handicap - a fact that Rambo has since admitted. He wished he had made more of his career and his undoubted talent.

He certainly had talent and also an eye for goal - scoring 29 in 120 Watford outings. But as statistician Trefor Jones accurately summed up Rambo, he was the purest natural talent to grace Vicarage Road in the 1990s.

I remembered I had not worn the Rambo t-shirt for years because in fact it did not fit. However, a plethora of rounds of golf and some 13 years of landscape gardening has enabled me to say the t-shirt now fits. However, I shall not wear it again.

The image and the message “As cool as Craig” was provided by Terry Challis, my old mucker who was the first to admit he struggled to capture facial likenesses. The image on the t-shirt is similar to Craig but does not quite hit the spot. In fact I can recall many Thursday mornings when the late cartoonist, who coincidentally was always late with his cartoons, struggled to capture the likeness of his chosen man of the match on his cartoon panel.

Terry spent many hours down the years, trying to capture my likeness. When he died, I was encouraged to look through his effects and came across a simple drawing, which did indeed capture my likeness at the time. Too late however, for time has moved on and I’m no longer in my fifties, more’s the pity. Which enables me to segue neatly into the so-called likeness of Graham Taylor, which is displayed in the statue in front of the Vicarage Road stadium. I have seen photos but am still not convinced.

“It looks more like Mike Keen,” said Ross’s wife Eve, when I showed her the photos.

“I think it looks like Andy Rankin and look at the length of Graham’s shins on the statue. He never had shins that long.”

I shall wander along to Vicarage Road next week and see for myself but, as a likeness, I can only hope the photos do not do justice to the statue. However, I will sit next to it and take my first-ever selfie for I have never been disposed to do so before. Which only goes to show it is the spirit and thought that counts.