Watford 1-0 Brighton

Watford notched consecutive home wins as they moved 4 points clear of the relegation zone beating a lacklustre Brighton side.

Keeping the same side that beat Peterborough on Saturday, Sean Dyche’s men set straight to work and pinned Brighton back early on.

Marvin Sordell ran onto a long ball forward and unleashed a shot testing Steve Harper from a tight angle. Mark Yeates had an effort not far wide and a Craig Forsyth cross caused chaos in the visitors defence before breaking for goalkeeper Harper.

Watford came very close after just ten minutes. After a foul on Jonathan Hogg, Mark Yeates whipped in a great free kick which Adrian Mariappa headed against the post.

Lee Hodson, impressive getting forward down the right, put in a number of dangerous crosses during the first half with Marvin Sordell coming very close to glancing one into the top corner after half and hour.

Brighton gradually grew into the game but offered little in the way of a goal threat. Craig Noone’s two long range efforts which Scott Loach watched sail wide the most they mustered during the first half.

Half Time: 0-0

Second Half

The second half failed to live up to the pace of the first half, as Brighton started keeping the ball well and Watford failing to put together any cohesive attacks.

Watford had strong claims for a penalty turned down by the referee midway through the second half when after a long cross field ball was played to the back post, Mauricio Taricco knocked the ball off Chris Iwelumo’s head with his hand. However the referee gave only a corner.

Brighton came close to breaking the deadlock in their only real chance of the evening when Gordon Greer connected with Craig Noone’s near post corner but the ball went just wide of the near post.

Watford took the lead out of nothing with fifteen minutes to go through substitute Troy Deeney. Carl Dickinson played a long ball into the box which Iwelumo knocked down for Deeney who mis-hit his original effort but charged down the clearance on the goal line to force the ball in.

Watford never looked like giving away their lead and in fact had two chances to make the game safe but Deeney’s later volley was blocked by Inigo Calderon and Michael Kightly’s long range effort was saved by Steve Harper.

Watford, then, managed back to back wins at home for the first time since March, and now travel to Middlesbrough on Saturday for the teatime game looking to move into the mid-table pack.