Jackie Bass speaks to the skipper in this week's feature.

SOMETIMES timing can be just perfect. Like this week for example when I realised that my weekly interview had Gavin Mahon stepping up to the plate.

We began talking about his role as skipper, a harder task than many would know. There are few men who take the role on the chin, adapting naturally and sail through with flying colours. Indeed many see it as a burden, something that takes their eye off their own game. Gavin is man enough to admit that in the past that has in fact happened, but now on the other side he continues to progress from strength to strength.

He begins: "When I was young I was really quiet on the pitch, not a natural captain at all you might say. But with Aidy, he wants someone who will get his point across on the pitch during games, he wants me to know what he wants and to not just play my game, but concentrate on everyone else's and keep them ticking over. So I've had to adapt.

"We've had meetings before and the lads have said they needed someone to dictate more, so not only do I have to play my game, but everyone else's, telling them who's available and where the ball should be played. Organising set pieces is a huge deal because sometimes people switch off and they are vital passages of play that you need to be alert for.

"My position in the middle of the park is ideal. Sometimes goalkeepers are captains but how can he organise his strikers? It's a job that rests on my shoulders; I'm in the middle of the park and close to the referee. I can speak to everyone all over the pitch. But in truth, Aidy wants everyone to be organising, it's the old cliché of having eleven captains."

I ask him to elaborate more on his relationship with the match officials. As captain, Mahon goes into the referee's room prior to the match along with Boothroyd and their opposite numbers to hand in the team sheets and conduct the time honoured toss of the coin.

"The gaffer will always say to us before the game 'Eleven players stay on the pitch' and that's what we always aim to do. I believe in having a good relationship with all of the referees and I can't say there's one that I don't get on with. I always say to the ref before the game, 'If you've got any problems with any of the lads, then let me know.' It's just a respect thing and I don't think it can do you any harm to get in their first and show that you're a decent, disciplined side and that I won't stand for any nonsense either.

"Quite a few times I've had referee's say to me after the game 'Brilliant, you made our jobs so much easier'."

So that's the case for the captain, but I'm sure having read this far the burning question remains. What was going through his mind last Saturday as he was substituted to an audible chorus of jeers from his own crowd?

"I wasn't happy with it. We were however many points clear at the start of the game although obviously it was a poor performance."

"At the end of the day, we were 3-0 down and the expectation at this club is massive. I have to get sevens and eights out of ten every week, not just to stay in the team but also to keep the fans happy. It's not a nice thing, I thought it was harsh, even the lads and the staff have said they couldn't believe it and that it was bang out of order, but I'm an experienced professional and I can take it."

Boothroyd always talks about 'one team' and if anybody in the team doesn't perform, he will let them know. Alternatively, he will praise them if they've done well. He knows what he's doing. And let's not forget, this is a former Player of the Year, a man who has enjoyed FA Cup semi finals with the club and one who skippered them to the Premiership. Plus the fact that he was a one man force behind encouraging his fellow players to follow his lead and take a pay cut when the club was in serious trouble.

It's easy for the strikers to win fans over with their goals. For keepers to pull off outstanding saves and have the occasional penalty save heroics. Defenders with their last ditch tackles and wingers have their quick feet and mazey runs to thrill the fans with. But the holding midfielder with their flick ons, hooks and headers. Well that's just not sexy enough is it? How many times have you got on your feet and applauded a square ball? If forwards are the Thoroughbreds, the sleek and stylish racehorses of the football world, then defensive midfielders are the Shire horse. Steady and reliable. Not at all flashy, but my God you'd miss them if they weren't around when it comes to the 'hard graft' stakes. It is quite literally horses for courses.

"After a bad result I do a lot of thinking, both about the team performance and my own. I don't want to play with the kids or be sociable, just reflect on the performance and why we played so badly. Against West Brom we had too many players who didn't turn up. That's why I said to the lads before the Norwich game, 'Let's start enjoying our football,' because we've got some players who can really play and we still feel like we're not firing on all cylinders yet. I said let's get back to enjoying football, pass it, move it and I think we did that during the first half in Norwich.

"There are parts of my own game that I haven't been happy with and not just this season. I said to Aidy over the summer that maybe I was concentrating on other people's games too much rather than concentrating on Gavin Mahon's game and making sure I was sorted before the others. But that's part of the job, you've got to cover that responsibility, the team isn't doing well and I'm the captain, so I have to rectify that."

Now this season Watford have thankfully seen results that are similar in respect of them pretty much all being positive, yet the performances have been varied. That's something that Mahon believes contributes to a successful team, the ability to be footballing chameleons.

"It's always the sign of a good side when you can play different styles of football, we want to get wide, get crosses in and cause them problems. But some teams will sit back, especially at home, when they play us and you can't really turn them because there's no space so you have to be patient and pass the ball around. That's what the gaffer has got us doing in the last week or two, more possession and ball orientated work, because West Brom taught us a lesson in that sense. I think we've done it in a lot of games but not enough to dominate them. I thought Norwich was a step in the right direction though.

"Aidy is always looking for that complete performance. In every game this season we've shown glimpses of it. At Cardiff we had resilience, at Coventry we showed quality, but he wants both of those factors from start to finish and we've got the players to do it and maintain our league position.

"Aidy and myself have a mutual respect for each other. We have a laugh and a joke together but I know what he wants out there from his players and he knows what he wants from me and if I don't produce he'll tell me. If I think we need to do something differently on the training ground I'll tell him. He's been a great part of my career so far."

The greatest day of this partnership no doubt came on May 21, 2006 as Watford saw off Leeds to take their place in the Premiership. I ask Gavin to tell me the story of that day.

"We proved a lot of people wrong, we were one of the favourites to go down at the start of the season, but with Aidy you could see that he had something special about him. When we came back for pre-season we had a meeting and there was only one man in the room who thought we could get promotion and that was him. Throughout pre-season we'd be having these meetings and you could see the belief rising. The season began and we were getting results, you could see the players thinking hang on a minute; we could achieve something special here. We all stuck together and when we did get a bad result or have a setback, we would always come back and re-group and believe in what we were doing. We knew if we kept at it, we could get there.

"I remember the journey down to Cardiff and you could just feel the confidence on the coach, it was our weekend. If you asked me if we were going to win, I and everyone else would have said yes. One of the player's wives in the hotel the night before had heard some of the Leeds players in the lift, they were confident and arrogant, once it got back to me and I told the rest of the lads it spurred us on. It was the old cliché of 'we won it in the tunnel' because the tunnel that day was electric."

And speaking of tunnels: "At Crystal Palace the other week, because it's a small tunnel there wasn't much room for the two teams anyway and you've got Danny barging down the middle of them. From where I stand you can just see people's shoulders being thrown forward and the referee's thinking: "Is he alright? Is he a bit mad?"

"It's all about confidence from the moment we step on the coach at the hotel, walking in to the ground confident, walking round the pitch together and coming in together.

"So far it's working well. The belief this season is much higher than the season we went up. That time around the belief escalated, but this time it's there from the start. We think we can beat every team, so when we lose or draw we're disappointed because we think we should win them all. But there's a long way to go and we won't get carried away. Teams like Cardiff had good starts then and didn't make the play-offs last year."

So when next May comes and Gavin Mahon has lead Watford into the Premiership once more, how distant will those boos sound then? Roll on May.

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