Tuesday, March 4, 2003

With a much-anticipated FA Cup quarter-final with Burnley only days away, Watford manager Ray Lewington elected to rest half of his first team for the league visit of Preston North End.

The result was a 1-0 defeat, Graham Alexander scoring the only goal from the penalty spot and the Hornets' captain for the evening Sean Dyche being dismissed for a second yellow card after half-an-hour.

A debut was awarded to 20-year-old goalkeeper Richard Lee, who was to go on to make over 100 appearances for the Hornets.

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