In light of the Vicarage Road centenary celebrations earlier this season, writers from The Watford Treasury magazine look back at players who performed great feats on home soil.
First featured in last season’s matchday programme, Mike Raggett writes about the striker whose efforts sparked a promotion run and delivered several ecstatic moments for Vicarage Road fans – not least two goals against Liverpool.
The chant of ‘Always believe in your soul. You’re indestructible’ rings out loud and lustily from the massed stands as wannabe Spandau Balladeers salute the second of Odion Ighalo’s goals against… Liverpool. We knew he was good in the Championship but could he do it at the top level too?
Ighalo initially joined on a season-long loan from – you guessed it – Udinese in July 2014. By October that loan was converted into a permanent signing and his performances, especially alongside Troy Deeney, were a significant factor in Watford gaining promotion in 2014/15 to the Premier League. Deeney and Ighalo forged a very impressive strike partnership running fearlessly at Championship defenders.
Odion Jude Ighalo was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1989, played for local clubs before being scouted for Norwegian side Lyn for whom he made 20 appearances in 2007/08 before being recruited by Udinese and sent out to Granada on loan. At the time, the Pozzo family owned Udinese, Granada and Watford and were often vilified for their extensive inter-club loan policy. In two spells at the Spanish club he scored 32 goals before joining Watford.
Perhaps the high point of the promotion run for Odion, wearing shirt number 24, was when he scored four second-half goals against Blackpool. After a sub-par first half Watford found themselves 2-0 down to the league’s bottom club. Shortly after the restart, Ighalo taps in a great cross from Miguel Layun. Deeney equalises soon afterwards, and then Ighalo gets his second by tussling strongly but fairly with the Blackpool defenders to slot home from a tight angle. Suddenly Watford are in the lead. A great run from Ikechi Anya feeds Matej Vydra the fourth before Angella makes it 5-2 and then Ighalo gets his hat-trick by heading in Deeney’s shot which rebounded off the post. His fourth is thanks to Deeney, who selflessly crosses it to give the Nigerian his 12th of the season. The victory took the Hornets to within three points of second-placed Middlesbrough and four of leaders Bournemouth.
Later in 2015 Ighalo made his debut for Nigeria, saying: "I feel good because it is my dream to play for my country." He went on to be the top scorer in qualifying for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations with seven goals and netted four times for the Super Eagles as they finished the campaign in third place. By this time he’d left Watford to play in China for Changchun Yatai in 2017/18 and Shanghai Shenhua in 2018/19.
But let’s go back to December 20, 2015, when on a three-game scoring spree Ighalo joined the ranks of Barry Endean and Tommy Mooney in netting in victories against highly-fancied Liverpool. It has to be said that at the time, after four wins on the spin, we were standing seventh in the table, two places above Liverpool. Nathan Ake opened the scoring with a tap-in after keeper Bogdan dropped a Ben Watson corner. But if that goal was a bit fortunate the second was superb. Deeney lofted a through ball for Ighalo, who brushed Martin Škrtel aside and slotted home off the post. His second goal, sealing his man-of-the-match award, was started by his own intervention in midfield – with passes to Deeney and from Valon Behrami he ran into space to head home and guarantee the victory. He now had 28 goals in the 2015 calendar year, the best tally in any of the leagues, and he and Troy Deeney were the most prolific partnership for goals and assists in the Premier League. It would bring him the Player of the Month award for December and the manager’s equivalent for Quique Sanchez Flores.
It really is a curse isn’t it? It would be 599 minutes into 2016 before Ighalo would find the net again – against Arsenal in the FA Cup. His exciting time at Watford would end rather limply – in 2016/17 he scored only one goal and failed to find the net in his last 15 games with us before leaving for China in January 2017. He returned to Premier League football on loan at Manchester United in 2020 but after the Covid-affected season reduced his opportunities, he signed for Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia, and later Al-Hilal. The Odion Ighalo Foundation has used some of the substantial salary he received on his transfer to China to establish several charity initiatives in Nigeria including an orphanage in Lagos.
He gave us a couple of seasons of real excitement and goals galore so let’s celebrate the “indestructible I-gha-lo” and his “power to know”!
