The last time Watford visited Craven Cottage in the Championship - Division One as it was then - they were sent home with their tails between their legs as Fulham hit them for five and went on to win the league.
Barry Hayles bagged himself a hat-trick in between goals from Louis Saha and Andrejs Stolcers as Fulham marked a merry Christmas with this superb 2000/01 Boxing Day result for the club.
Whites fans will be the hoping to repeat the feat when the two sides meet in the Friday night clash this week.
Hayles was in frightening form and a nuisance all afternoon for the Watford centre-halves and earned a penalty on the half hour mark, this gave Saha the chance to net his 21st goal of the season and he converted with ease.
Saha was a vital cog in the Fulham promotion machine as he went on to score 27 goals that season including a run that saw him score eight goals in four games in early September.
His goal opened the floodgates and Hayles grabbed his first two minutes before half time as he tapped in from a few yards out after Watford failed to deal with a corner.
Hayles wouldn't have believed his luck when he grabbed his second in the 55th minute with another simple tap in after excellent work in the middle of the park from Lee Clark.
The forward completed his first Fulham hat-trick, and the easiest he'll ever score, when he headed home from six yards halfway through the second half.
More superb work from Clark, now in charge at Blackpool, allowed substitute Stolcers to complete the rout and top of a miserable day for the travelling Watford fans.
This result marked Fulham's 14th game unbeaten, although the run came abruptly to a halt in the next fixture when they lost 2-0 on the road to Stockport.
Fulham went on to win the league with relative ease winning 101 points out of a possible 130, while Watford started the season strongly and initially looked like Fulham's main rivals for promotion, but drifted off and finished in a disappointing ninth place.
Follow all the build-up, matchday action and post-game reaction from Fulham v Watford on GetWestLondon.
