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Three points, a clean sheet and a return to solid foundations
At the end of a week that started so badly, any sort of victory that raised spirits and the league points total, while retaining the unbeaten home run under Tom Cleverley, was very much what was required.
Not every win can be built upon swashbuckling dominance, particularly against a side sitting in the top six that had only lost twice before arriving at Vicarage Road.
So the 1-0 success over Blackburn Rovers delivered what Watford needed, with the added bonus of a clean sheet – something not achieved in the league this season since August 17 against Stoke.
This was a professional, diligent, functional performance.
As Tom Cleverley said afterwards, his team got the basics right: they ran hard, they won duels, they challenged, they defended set pieces.
They are all things you’d expect of a professional team, but let’s not forget that at Kenilworth Road we’d have been grateful to have seen any one of them.
Having listened to the radio on the way home from Vicarage Road and then watched Match of the Day, there was incredulity that Manchester City hadn’t battered lowly Southampton and had ‘only’ beaten them 1-0.
The broadcasters looked at an expensively-assembled, star-studded City side, saw they were playing a winless Saints team and expected the defending Premier League champions to dismantle them.
Football, like life, doesn’t always go the way we expect it to.
As with City’s win, Watford’s defeat of Blackburn earned them three points: there is no additional column in the league table that allocates points for winning with swagger.
Having suffered such a grim derby day experience seven days earlier and then losing, with much credit it must be said, at Leeds on Tuesday, the return to Vicarage Road offered a chance for solace and consolidation.
The Hornets grabbed it and, while on another day it was a game that could easily have swung the other way, there will be occasions this season where Watford find themselves in the same position as Blackburn – playing well enough to get something and feeling frustrated they got nothing.
The clean sheet was somewhat overlooked in the delight of a win, but they have been a rare commodity of late and one which (obviously) makes winning games far more possible.
It was also only the second time in 10 Championship games where Watford have scored first.
Three points, a clean sheet, scoring first – there was plenty to be positive about even if the Hornets didn’t play their visitors off the park.
The back three looked solid again. Dominant displays from Mattie Pollock are almost becoming a given now, but it’s worth remembering that at the start of this calendar year he was just failed paperwork away from leaving, having barely played a first-team game.
Ryan Porteous continues to look as if he is returning to the form he displayed after first moving south.
He can be impetuous at times but that comes from a good place of wanting to win, and his gritty determination – when controlled – is an asset in a division where scrapping to win games is often essential.
One big plus in the last few games has been the return of Francisco Sierralta.
The big Chilean prince may have been overlooked amid the departure of Wes Hoedt and arrival of Angelo Ogbonna, but he has more than shown his value since coming back from injury.
He can handle the physicality of a big target man (though he’ll face far tougher tests than Rovers’ Makhtar Gueye, who was shocking), but can play on the deck, lead and read situations.
A fit and in-form Sierralta makes the loss of Ogbonna far easier to absorb, that’s for certain.
Admittedly the defence had a let-off early on when Dominic Hyam missed a chance that looked easier to score, maybe being guilty of trying to burst the back of the net and instead sent the ball against the bar, down onto the line (but not over it, as technology proved), onto the post and back into play.
It could have been another painful moment for much-maligned keeper Dan Bachmann, whose intervention presented Hyam with the chance.
However, as Lewis Travis’ low cross arrowed towards the near post the sliding Andi Weimann meant Bachmann couldn’t go directly for the ball as he risked either being beaten to it or leaving his goal unguarded.
That his touch sent the ball towards Hyam wasn’t great but, as at Leeds on Tuesday, there is a case to be made that his defensive colleagues shouldn’t be leaving an opponent totally unmarked that close to goal.
Bachmann and his defence survived and the Austrian keeper made a decent save to keep out Gueye’s header in the aftermath.
In the second half, Bachmann did well to stay upright and ‘make himself big’ when Todd Cantwell’s chip sent Weimann clear on goal.
The midfielder was left with no option but to attempt a lob which then landed on top of the net. Weimann might have done better but Bachmann did all that he could to limit his options.
Bachmann had a nightmare at Leeds and understandably was lambasted. But equally he deserves a bit of praise for his part in a first clean sheet in two months.
Talking of players that get it in the neck, Vakoun Bayo showed against Blackburn why Tom Cleverley has put faith in him.
The striker is not a goal machine, and while Mileta Rajovic may be prolific inside the six-yard box and that is regularly trotted out when debating the merits of the two, it’s unlikely the big Dane could have delivered what Bayo did yesterday.
He won headers against bigger rivals simply with well-timed leaps, he held the ball up, he made runs in behind and he was a constant nuisance to a tiring Rovers defence.
There was a chance that fell to Kwadwo Baah in the first half when he volleyed a Festy Ebosele cross over the bar which, had the same thing happened to Bayo, would have led to howls of derision.
Baah is younger and less experienced and, presented with the same chance again, may have opted to take a touch rather than attempt a volley.
The message is, in an attempt to do their best, players of all abilities and experience will sometimes make bad choices or execute poorly.
The two combined for the move which led to the penalty as well.
Baah had done well enough through the middle, but switched out to the right he looked far more of a threat and it was his drive and cross that saw the ball deflected up into the air.
Bayo headed the loose ball and then chased it which led to it striking the hand of Ryan Hedges. It was handball under the current laws no matter what we think of them, and the only surprise was it took referee Darren England to give it.
As a regular Premier League official, perhaps those few seconds was how long it took Mr England to realise there was no voice going to come through from Stockley Park in his ear to help him on this one.
Rovers protested strongly at the time, and after the game John Eustace said the officials had cost his team.
It was certainly one of those where the receiving team thought it was spot on, and the conceding team felt hard done by.
With Tom Dele-Bashiru injured and Tom Ince – on penalties in his absence – off the pitch, Cleverley discussed with his captain Moussa Sissoko who should take the penalty.
Their first selection – not named by the head coach but described as a player with “lots of confidence at the moment” – didn’t fancy taking it but step forward Edo Kayembe.
The Congolese international has scored some crackers this season but anyone expecting him to thump the ball home might have been surprised as he stroked it calmly into the bottom-right corner as Aynsley Pears dived the other way.
Kayembe now has five goals this season – making him joint third top-scorer in the Championship.
Given the long delay after the award of the spot-kick, extenuated by Mr England’s insistence the ball was moved inches, Kayembe was coolness personified.
The man of the match award went to Festy Ebosele, who gave his best performance so far as he combined the pace, power and awareness that had preceded him when talked about before he joined on loan.
The Irish international offers real threat down the right, but is also able to defend – a balance that isn’t always easy to deliver in that crucial wing-back position.
It was a most welcome victory against a strong and talented opponent who showed many of the characteristics that their manager made a career out of.
Eustace was peeved about the penalty afterwards, but also said more than once that he felt Watford were a very good side and teams will not find it easy coming to Vicarage Road.
Five league wins and one draw from six games confirms that. Watford have turned their home games from a buffet for visiting teams into offering mere crumbs from the table since Cleverley took charge at the end of last season.
Now, though, they must start to pick points up on the road. The trips to Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea – two teams in the bottom half of the table – will provide both an opportunity for Watford to do so, as well as providing more evidence as to whether they really can claim to be top-six contenders.
