A football pioneer and another of the mainstays of Watford’s historic Division Four promotion-winning side of 1960 has died.

Cyril ‘Sammy’ Chung passed away on Sunday at a nursing home in Shropshire at the age of 90.

His death follows the recent passing of Vincent McNeice, aged 83, who was another vital cog in Ron Burgess’ side that secured the club’s first ever promotion.

Watford have also announced the death of Tommy Carpenter, who was their oldest former living player until he passed away last week at the age of 97.

Watford Observer: Sammy Chung died on SundaySammy Chung died on Sunday

Born in Abingdon in July 1932 to a Chinese father and English mother, Chung became just the second Anglo-Chinese player to play in league football when his professional career began with Reading in 1953 before he moved to Norwich City two years later.

Chung moved to Vicarage Road in the 1957/58 season under Neil McBain, but a 16th-place finish in Division Three (South) meant Watford dropped into the new Division Four following a league restructure.

Chung was to make a total of 220 league appearances for Watford over eight seasons, scoring 22 goals.

Watford Observer: The history-making 1959/60 squadThe history-making 1959/60 squad

Having gained his first coaching experience under Bill McGarry at Watford, he followed the manager to become his coach at Ipswich Town and Wolves where they won the 1974 League Cup.

Chung later succeeded McGarry as manager at Molineux and won the Second Division title in 1976/77, later coaching in the United Arab Emirates before he became Mick Mills’ assistant at Stoke City in 1985 for five years.

Chung made 37 appearances in the 1959/60 promotion season, one less than McNeice as the record-breaking partnership of Cliff Holton and Dennis Uphill scored 72 league goals between them to fire Watford to promotion.

Watford Observer: Vince McNeice passed away at the age of 83Vince McNeice passed away at the age of 83

Born in Cricklewood, McNeice moved to Watford from Brentford in March 1957 and went on to make 231 league appearances for the club.

His final game in the Football League was at the young age of 25 but he later played for Bexley United and Hillingdon Borough, as well as Montreal Concordia and Hamilton Primos in Canada.

McNeice lived in Copenhagen for many years and his coaching roles in Denmark included spells at Aalborg and Aarhus.

Goalkeeeper Carpenter initially moved to Watford as an amateur in 1946 before turning professional prior to his debut in the 1950/51 season.

His four appearances that year were to be his only games in league football, with injury later cutting short his days in non-league.

All three men will be honoured with a minute’s applause before tonight’s game with Middlesbrough at Vicarage Road.