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Brilliant Bayo is four-midable as Watford end away hoodoo in style
It had been a long time between drinks for Watford and their fans who travel around the country for away games - but, wow, how they supped to their hearts' content at Hillsborough yesterday.
While the performance in defeat at Leeds had been a marked improvement on the flat lager served up at both Preston and Luton, there was nothing to suggest that the Hornets would go to Sheffield Wednesday and put their credit card behind the bar so that everyone could gulp down their tipple of choice, over and over again.
Six times in total, more goals in one incredible afternoon than Watford had scored in their previous six Championship away games added together.
In fact, not only did recent away games offer no hint at what was coming yesterday, the first half at Hillsborough offered little if any clues as to what was about to happen after the restart.
While angry home fans inaccurately claimed they should have been comfortably ahead by half-time, they certainly were the better side and looked the more dangerous going forward.
Indeed, the Hornets went in front against the run of play and Wednesday deserved to go in at the break level given they had mustered 10 attempts on goal with 57% of the possession.
However, once the second half started it was like a switch had been flicked.
Watford came alive, in every area of the pitch, and as much as home fans will berate their own team's shortcomings, they were just swept aside by a side which had shown glimpses of being able to dominate during the season so far before pulling it all together in one destructive 45-minute spell.
Wednesday supporters also turned their ire on referee Sam Allison, both inside Hillsborough and again on social media in the hours after the final whistle.
Described as "the worst referee we've ever had" because of two "disgraceful" penalty decisions, Allison is unlikely to be given a game at Hillsborough for a while and yet neither spot kick was an incorrect decision.
There were only mild reactions to them from the Owls players on the pitch at the time, and after the game manager Danny Rohl did not make any attempt to contest them.
The penalties acted as the catalyst for Watford to go and express themselves, to show their class as Tom Cleverley aptly described it.
The Hornets had 12 goal attempts in that second 45 minutes, seven of them on target - had they ended up scoring seven or eight it wouldn't have flattered the way they shredded the Wednesday defence left, right and centre.
And at the heart of it all was Vakoun Bayo, a player who has been the target for some cruel abuse ever since he arrived in 2022.
Being brought to the club by an agent whose low popularity among Watford fans is a good deal more understandable, Bayo was pretty much trying to run up a glass mountain from day one.
And he has been rightly criticised in these columns several times due to his poor finishing.
Running hard, holding the ball up, linking play: they are all great assets of which Bayo has never lacked, but ultimately strikers get measured by what they do in front of goal and The Crow has often lacked in that area.
Nonetheless, some of the vitriol aimed at him is more to do with the fee Watford paid and the individual who signed some of the paperwork, and that is quite clearly unfair.
In the same way that Daniel Bachmann's contract has made him the subject of the boo boys, that Bayo cost several million has left him exposed to snipes.
Contracts and transfer fees are decided by the club - using the individuals who benefit from those decisions as blunt instruments with which to bludgeon away at the Hornets hierarchy is as short-sighted as it is unfair.
One thing about Bayo has been that he has always come back for more. No matter how bad things have been for him, he's not hidden away or stopped trying.
Rarely seen without a smile on his face, he is a player that puts in a shift even if, sometimes, his best efforts up come up short.
Yesterday, he got his payback.
Admittedly, when he took the ball and put it on the spot to take the second penalty, there was a distinct feeling of fear as to what might be the reaction if he didn't score it.
It takes some guts when you're a striker that has scored one goal all season - back in late August - to decide you want to take a spot-kick at a key moment in a game when there are two players who have already scored penalties this season on the pitch with you.
But that's what Bayo did, and promptly smashed the ball straight down the centre to put Watford 3-1 up.
With less than an hour gone, those two penalties in the space of six minutes served to pump Watford up and totally deflate Wednesday.
For Bayo, it appeared to send a surge of confidence coursing through his veins.
His back-post header to make it 4-1 was exactly the sort of goal he is accused of not scoring, and one that his detractors would have pointed in the direction of Denmark for someone who snaffles those up for fun.
Wednesday did make it 4-2 but even then it felt forlorn on their part, and within six minutes it had become so as Bayo took centre stage.
His finish to complete his hat-trick was delicious, sumptuous, classy and cheeky.
When he was sent clear by a magnificent Festy Ebosele pass, Bayo was running through on goal - while he was thinking about what to do next, doubtless many of us were recalling similar situations at Sheffield United and Preston, and thinking 'please don't do that'.
This was a different Bayo though, and his execution of the little dink over the hapless James Beadle utterly belied the problems in front of goal that have dogged him.
He wasn't done though, and his predatory finish for his fourth and the Hornets' sixth was also remarkably similar to the sort of goal that some felt had been removed from the squad when the club's actual No.9 was loaned out.
Let's be clear: while this was a truly outstanding performance from a striker who badly needed it, these four goals do not suddenly turned Bayo into the new Erling Haaland - in much the same way that the win overall does not make Watford top-two material.
Bayo's back story still remains, Watford's abject surrenders at Deepdale and Kenilworth Road haven't been erased.
But hopefully, when his name is read out at Vicarage Road on Friday night, Bayo gets a louder cheer than usual because four goals away from home in any setting is definitely deserving of it.
Understandably, he will take the headlines and nobody would deny him that, but there were other performances which will possibly sneak under the radar that were also instrumental in this stunning win.
Tom Ince is transformed under Tom Cleverley - and he's not alone in that to be fair - and from being a player that struggled to get on the pitch last season he is rapidly becoming a key figure this term.
His footballing brain, reading of the game and sense of what is required in different situations has come to the fore. Ince is a true team player, one who puts the needs of the collective above his own personal gain.
Some lead vocally or by force, Ince leads by example. At Hillsborough he barely put a foot wrong, and while what he does isn't always highly visible it was the fulcrum upon which Watford slowly crushed the life out of their hosts.
Ince did not feature at all at Norwich, and was a late sub at both Preston and Luton. It's more than mere coincidence.
Once again Kwadwo Baah was at his terrifying best. As a defender tasked with marking him, it must be difficult to know quite what to do for the best.
Get tight, and he'll spin you. Let him get into a foot race and chances are he'll be too fast for you. Turn it into a battle, and Baah's power will likely see him come out on top.
Just as Ince has benefitted from having Cleverley in the driving seat, Baah has truly prospered under the head coach, who way back at the start of pre-season was playing the forward in different positions to see how best to accommodate his suite of assets.
In the press room after the game, and on social media throughout the evening, Wednesday media and fans were enthusing about "your No.8", and when Giorgi Chakvetadze is in full flow it's easy to understand why those who don't see him every week are so impressed.
The Georgian glides past people as if they aren't there, and he does it at pace too. It's like those days back in kids football when one team has a player significantly bigger and faster than everyone else, and so when given the ball they just sliced through the opposition.
Chakvetadze is a joy to behold and clearly a nightmare to play against, though he does still need to add end product to all that amazing approach play.
Once he starts ending those mazy runs with a goal or a killer pass then he really will be some player. Perhaps it might be wise to let him find his own way until the January transfer window has come and gone though...
For all the pain of derby day, the ignominy of the defeats at Preston and Norwich and the many miles travelled so far this season for little reward, this was a victory that will be cherished.
Rarely this season have Watford fans been clamouring for the extended highlights of an away game to pop up on YouTube, that's for sure.
It secured back-to-back wins for the first time since the end of August, and lifted Watford to fifth in the Championship table, a height which even the most positive would have felt bold predicting.
Nonetheless, amid all the joy and celebrations, a flag also pops up: the season is still only 13 league games old, there's another match on Tuesday and teams who are serious about being involved in the battle for promotion relentlessly follow good performance with good performance.
This memorable victory needs to be the foundation for more of the same, not an oasis in a desert of barren journeys across the country.
We will not need to wait long to discover if Watford can achieve that - and in the hours between yesterday and Tuesday, we have those YouTube highlights to unashamedly savour.
