Blackburn Rovers 1 Watford 2 (January 23, 2007)
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0 commentsWatford finally sealed their second league win of the season last night in a pulsating encounter at Vicarage Road. The Hornets closed the gap on the other bottom teams with a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers, courtesy of a Brett Emerton own goal and another crucial goal from American centre-back Jay DeMerit.
Blackburn had started brightly and forced a corner inside a minute as they looked to unsettle the home team. They failed to create any dominant spells of possession or any clear cut chances as the colossal Danny Shittu comfortably mopped up anything they pumped into the Watford half.
Watford started to see more of the ball and the emerging combination of Adrian Mariappa and Tommy Smith on the right hand side was starting to bring results as they broke the Blackburn defence down at will to send crosses into the box. It was one of these crosses from Smith that saw Emerton rise above Watford's Damien Francis and send a thumping header into his own net, to an ecstatic celebration from the Rookery end.
With just over half an hour gone Shittu went down injured, with Hornets fans hoping it's not a repeat of the ankle injury that's already sidelined him for part of January. He tried to play on but was clearly struggling and was replaced by DeMerit in the heart of the defence.
On the stroke of half time a Watford throw-in inside their own half saw them lose possession, and with Malky Mackay out of position after taking the throw a quick cross from Bentley saw Benni McCarthy direct a header over Ben Foster to bring the score back level. His celebration in front of the Rookery earned him no fans either.
Watford dominated the second half, and with Smith again causing problems down the right he earned a free kick out on the wing. Jordan Stewart, captain for the night and turning in an impressive display floated the kick in and it appeared to have been slightly overhit and heading for the safety of the goal-line - until Mackay somehow got a head to it and kept it in. the resulting knock-down was flicked across goal unselfishly by the hard-working Hameur Bouazza for DeMerit to rise highest and guide his header into the far corner for the winner.
With just over an hour gone a typically strong challenge from Watford teenager Al Bangura caused the main incident of note in the rest of the game. Blackburn captain Robbie Savage, probably the least liked Welshman on the planet, an admitted cheat who likes to kick people and owner of the girliest hair in footbll went for a 50-50 ball with Bangura and came off much worse, something he's not used to. There was little sympathy for Savage at the time, but even such an absolute idiot as him deserves to be wished a speedy recovery from the resulting broken leg.
Nonda missed a gilt-edged chance to equalise for Rovers as he blazed it over the bar late on, Henderson was unlucky to miss two headers as Watford looked to extend their lead and Will Hoskins somehow miscued his shot for what would've been his first goal in Hornets colours after some excellent work from Jordan Stewart.
Hornets fans will be hopeful but it looks unlikely that this will be the start of a run in the league for them, their next game being away to Manchester United next Wednesday.
Date
January 23, 2007
