EVEN now the 1999 first division play-off final is capable of throwing up a surprise result.

Allan Smart is retracing the steps which took Watford into the English top flight, his recollection of a 2-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers interrupted by a realisation which has only been brought into sharp focus over the past 14 years. "I am the last Watford player to score at Wembley . . ." says the former striker, who got the second goal that day to burnish an afternoon which still shimmers in the memory.

Smart was in the mood to relive the occasion last week but that it takes a full 15 minutes for the 38-year-old to recognise his own significance proves how engrossing the match was. Recounting the '99 play-off has been common practice for those with ties to his old side, since Watford have today returned to the north London venue for the npower Championship play-off final and a meeting with Crystal Palace in which a lucrative place in the Barclays Premier League is the only item on the agenda. It can be difficult to consider the fixture without also accounting for its value to the winning club – victory this afternoon is worth around £120m in cold, hard cash – although the investment is more emotional for those asked to leave themselves spent on the pitch.

That much is clear as Smart describes the occasion from his perspective, but he can also see it from his old club's point of view given that his goal helped Watford make £60m. The strike ensured his popularity at the Vicarage Road club then, and he spent the weekend back in the city to visit friends from his three years there but also "to be around the place". Born in Perth before building a career in England's lower leagues, an enduring affinity with Watford lay behind that pilgrimage – he scored the winner against Chelsea in the league the following the season and again later to earn a draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

Those goals now provide stills of a plucky, if unsuccessful, season in the top flight but the win over Bolton provides a more compelling image. "They have fireworks up the side of the pitch and the walk is the best part of 100 yards," recalls Smart, who started out with Inverness Caledonian and retired at Southport in 2009. "We came from the dressing room and up over the brow of the hill in the tunnel and out all the way to the half-way line . . . as you start to get over the hill the fans can see you and you can hear the noise. It's great – it's what you want to do."

Wembley will look different through the eyes of Gianfranco Zola's team today given that the stadium has since been renovated, with Watford making their way to the Premier League in 2006 via a win over Leeds United in Cardiff. Their latest chance for success follows victory in this month's semi-final with Leicester City which arrived so late it should have been carrying a note from its mum but the exultation which followed will have seemed familiar to Smart, who winded Bolton in the last minute. "It flew in and from then on it is just bizarre," says Smart, changing tense as the moment plays out in front of him again. "You are living it; you are watching it rerun but it is one of those scenarios when you are left thinking 'is that me?'

"I had gone into a tackle and, if truth be told, I had gone in to look after myself and didn't go looking for the ball. I think [Bolton's] Scott Sellars did the same, the ball broke to one of our lads and I got up and on the end of a great pass. I just made sure the contact was good."

It proved the sort of connection which sparked euphoria in the stands and led to an open-top bus ride through Watford the following day. It is tempting to dismiss the hours in between as something of a Champagne-tinted haze but instead it proved to be a rather sobering experience for Smart and Nicky Wright, who scored Watford's first goal. As the architects of their side's arrival in the top flight, both were instructed to look upon their invention from a press conference located high in the stand; an obligation which was made to feel somewhat awkward, not least as the pair had scaled the steps still wearing their boots. They would only return to the dressing room long after the party had moved elsewhere.

"There is a bunch of photographs of the celebrations in the dressing room and I'm not actually in them. Me and Wrighty ended up in the bath on our own," says Smart. "We caught up with the boys and were on the bus going back to the hotel and had a right good night, as you would expect.

"With the team that's there now and the ability they have, it's not going to be a shock if Watford get to the Premier League. When we got promoted it probably was – but going into that play-off final, we didn't think we were going to get beaten. I don't think it was arrogance, we just knew."

A similar sense of assuredness today would help keep any surprises to a minimum for Watford.