KEVIN MILLER WAS AN ALL-TIME GREAT AT VICARAGE ROAD - AND HERE'S THE PROOF

A few of us had been watching him keep a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw against the infidels over the border on a Monday night, safe as houses, and yet here was Watford’s No.1 shooting the breeze and holding a debrief over a pint of shandy 20 miles away before the credits had rolled on the live TV coverage.

“There are some places you can’t get out of fast enough,” he grinned. Those of us who had left work too late to tiptoe along Rentokil Alley, down the back of those executive beach huts, agreed - and marvelled at him leaving the keys in the ignition in bandit country.

Miller would soon complete a unique hat-trick as Watford became the first club in English football to sell three goalkeepers for £1 million (Tony Coton and David James being the others) when he moved to Crystal Palace.

That was not before he had scooped the club’s player of the season award twice in three seasons and taken his place in the pantheon of Golden Boys keepers who were a class apart.

Nine times in 21 years the Hornets’ annual gong, then run by the Watford Observer, was won by the last line of defence: Coton (in 1986, 1987 and 1990), James (1991), Miller (1995 and 1997), Alec Chamberlain (1998 and 2002) and Ben Foster (2007). 

But statistically, or at last according to one key metric, Miller was the best of the lot.  In the history of Watford keepers who have made at least 10 appearances, Super Kev’s ratio of goals-per-game conceded tops the charts - bar none.

Coton was the best keeper never to win a full England cap. James was an unbelievable talent. Chamberlain was quickly forgiven his previous employment in Bedfordshire. Foster won his first England cap while on loan with the Hornets. And either side of them, Andy Rankin (also a two-time player of the season), Steve Sherwood (who played in all four divisions, the FA Cup final and in Europe) and Heurelho Gomes (the best signing of the Pozzo era?) were all top-quality.

But Miller, who never blew his own trumpet where a brass band could do it for him, was different gravy.  And now, unbelievably, he is gone. 

Kevin Miller, most recently the goalkeeping coach at Wigan Athletic and, before that, at Exeter City, has died suddenly at the age of 57.

Your correspondent found out at a funeral wake, of all places, that one of the most unheralded and under-rated keepers to hold the fort for Watford had passed away, and that another light has gone out on the dashboard of Hornets legends.

Miller was consistent, dependable, brilliant, the archetypal pair of safe hands.

He was the first Cornishman to play for Watford in 95 years, and during the austerity of the 1990s he was worth every penny of the £250,000 which prised him away from Birmingham City.

He had started out as a midfielder and was only converted to a goalkeeper at 18, but he took to the role like a duck to orange sauce.

After losing Kenny Jackett, his manager in the 1996-97 season where he topped the fans’ poll a second time, earlier this summer, it is another stab in the back from providence to lose the No.1 who kept 11 clean sheets in the club record 22-match unbeaten League run during that campaign.

It was only last month that I spoke with Miller, as a celebration of his No.1 status in the charts, for a future piece about Watford’s unique ability to attract high-class goalkeepers. I never thought it would turn into a eulogy.

The last time I saw him play was the day Exeter were relegated out of the Football League in 2003 despite a 1-0 win against Southend on the last day of term. 

Needless to say, Miller saved a Tes Bramble penalty that afternoon to keep the Grecians’ hopes alive, but Swansea’s 4-2 win against Hull sealed the Grecians’ fate. Ex marks the drop, read the Daily Mirror headline.

He was not impressed by the celebrity cast assembled earlier in the boardroom, where Michael Jackson was briefly made an honorary director of the club, and spoon-bender Uri Geller was bizarrely installed as co-chairman after placing “energy-infused crystals” behind the goal.

“You won’t see Michael moon-walking down the touchline at Leigh RMI in the Conference,” mused Miller on the pitch afterwards. “And I did my best, but those crystals didn’t keep the ball out of our net often enough, did they?”

In between football assignments after his retirement as a player, Miller worked for Serco, transporting dangerous criminals from prison to court appearances.

“It was the best job I’ve ever done,” he said. “When you’re a goalkeeper, if you drop a cross, one of your defenders might bail you out. But if a prisoner goes missing in transit, you’re in trouble. Fortunately I never lost one. It was a brilliant job."

Miller’s Watford debut was the pre-season friendly when Jurgen Klinsmann made his debut for Tottenham at Vicarage Road in 1994. He missed the nine-goal romp (which Spurs won 6-3) when the teams met again in the League Cup three months later because he had been sent off against Middlesbrough.

“Bryan Robson was a legend, but he was heading for the corner flag when I came sliding out to clear the ball and he rolled around holding the leg I didn’t catch,” he groaned.

“But I played in the second leg at Spurs when we won 3-2. They were bricking it when we missed a great chance to make it 4-2.

“Of all the clubs where I played, Watford were the friendliest, along with Exeter and Barnsley. From the tea lady to the top of the tree, you were treated the same. And of course the supporters were fantastic to me. They saw some great keepers down the years, so it was extra-special to be recognised by them twice as their player of the year.”

Miller’s last visit to Vicarage Road was as half-time guest against Brentford in the Premier League. Four-division legend Sherwood was also there that afternoon, and although they had never met the pair of delegates from the goalkeepers’ union forged an instant bond.

“We ended up going out to dinner and disappearing into the night down Watford High Street,” he said. “What an unbelievable bloke. And I tell you what, he was a top keeper in his day.”