H on his return at Chesham last night

Nigel Gibbs' Reserves fired pre-season blanks for the first time as they were held by Chesham United in a game highlighted by the successful return to competitive action of Heidar Helguson.

H, whose last appearance in this country was a scoring one for Iceland against England in early June, had a good workout and suffered no reaction to his recent thigh strain during his 66-minute comeback.

"He played well tonight, he put himself about and he didn't look as if he was struggling with his injury or fitness,'' said Nigel. "He didn't want to come off which is always a good sign. We're pleased with him as he's come through it tonight and the more games he gets the better for us.''

The second string was littered with trialists as management, all of whom were watching from the stands, continue to run the rule over possible additions to the squad.

On a pitch that was very bobbly, Scott Fitzgerald was again employed on the right wing, with Helguson joined up front by trialist Jeff Goulding. The trio combined well early on to create a shooting opportunity for Fitzgerald, but he fired just over from 20 yards.

The new No.12 had several efforts on goal in the first period and came closest to breaking the deadlock when his low drive from the edge of the area was pushed around the post by former Watford Academy keeper Bradley Hughes just before halftime.

Earlier Fitzgerald saw a header deflected wide from Ben Herd's left wing cross and mid-way through the half his scooped effort from Anthony McNamee's dangerous ball into the box was also deflected to safety.

The home side posed little threat to the Hornets' rearguard, which was made up of three of the trialists, Danny Boxall, Adam Howarth and Jay Demerit, who had impressed for Northwood in last week's friendly.

Richard Lee dealt with a number of crosses impressively and stood firm when Chesham striker John Lawford tried his luck from long range.

Unusually for a pre-season encounter, neither side many any changes at halftime and Watford began the second-half very positively, with McNamee and Herd linking impressively on the left hand side and Goulding beginning to cause the home defence problems.

In the first attack Fitzgerald went close again with a left-footed strike from distance and from the resulting corner Goulding hooked an effort just wide from close range.

Two minutes later the Hornets were attacking again and McNamee's right-wing cross was glanced just wide of the far post by Goulding. The young striker headed wide of the near post from Fitzgerald's cross shortly afterwards as Watford assumed total dominance of the game.

Ten minutes into the half a break from deep saw Helguson release MacNamee on the left wing. His return ball to the Icelander was held up in the long grass just enough to allow keeper Hughes to bravely deny Helguson as he was about to open the scoring.

In the next attack a superb cross on the run from McNamee was only palmed away by Hughes and Goulding's follow-up was cleared near the line. Goulding then came the closest to breaking the deadlock when his fine shot from 20 yards crashed against the post and Helguson headed the follow-up cross onto the top of the net from a difficult angle.

The final period of the game petered out as both sides made the inevitable substitutions although youngster Toumani Diagouraga showed some neat touches in the closing stages.

"The pitch made it very difficult to play football but in the second half we were a lot better,'' summed up Nigel. "We upped the tempo and our passing got better and we created chances. "It's still pre-season so what you are looking at are the fitness levels. They looked quite strong and fortunately we have no injuries so all those are important factors. I thought our lads showed a terrific attitude that we have come to expect.

"We had five trialists out there and they didn't let themselves down. It was very hard to judge them on a pitch like that, but they gave it a really good go.''

Watford: Lee; Boxall (Mawer 75), Howarth, Demerit, Herd; Fitzgerald, Hand, McMahon, McNamee (Diagouraga 66), Goulding (Norville 82), Helguson (Keane 66).

By Guest Reporter Jon Marks