Saturday, July 26, 1997
Finnish side FC Rips provided unusually aggressive opposition for a pre-season friendly.
The match referee failed to penalise two violent challenges on Steve Talboys and Tommy Mooney, both in the penalty area, but a Peter Kennedy 30-yarder and a Mooney scissor-kick sealed what the Watford Observer described as "one of the more satisfying results of pre-season".
Manager Graham Taylor commented: "As I say it was a big game for them, but as for their approach it surprised me a little bit."
Reproduced by kind permission of Matt Rowson from his book,Watford FC On This Day