Webb of controversy costs Watford

Watford will, once again, be feeling rightly hard done by after inexperienced ref David Webb handed Scunthorpe a share of the spoils in the highly eventful 2-2 draw at Glanford Park, all thanks to a controversial 95th minute penalty award that Malky Mackay has slammed as “incredible“.

Braveheart boss Malky insisted his side “should have been 3 or 4 goals ahead” and the Hornets own homepage reckon it was `a lucky point for the home side` as Gary Hooper`s double cancelled out strikes by Danny Graham and John Eustace – not that the Iron agree mind you.

Oh no, Nigel Adkins insists “it was 2 points dropped” despite seeing his tired-looking side completely outplayed for large chunks of the game.

In fact, how Watford went in undeservedly 1-0 down – following Hooper`s tidy finish from Hayes` clever throughball – we shall never know here at VitalWatford Towers as there could have been little argument had the Hornets been out of sight after 45 minutes of complete one way traffic with a display of footballing dominance that should please the fans.

Cowie, Cleverley , Demerit and Tiny Taylor all were far too close for comfort whilst Helguson whacked the woodwork TWICE and Danny Graham fluffed his lines in front of goal on a hattrick of decent chances as Malky Mackay`s men chalked up 17 shots on goal!!!

No wonder the gaffer bemoaned his side`s finishing, adding “we have got to learn to be more clinical in front goal.’

OK, so Loach made a flying save at the start of the second period to keep out a Woolford piledriver and the England U21 stopper did ever so well to deny Hooper and a cheeky back heel flick by McCann as the game become more end to end after the break but Watford were always in this clash.

And it was good to see Danny (oh so nearly so Golden again) Graham get back on the scoresheet [64] – after a 3 month drought – when he rifled in from 12 yards after a Cowie corner had caused chaos – even if the Iron gaffer reckons there was a foul on the keeper.

If Murphy was manhandled -as Adkins suggests – before Graham netted then it was the only decision Watford got from the officials in the second half and inexperienced ref Webb certainly made up for it by showing a red card to Cleverley for a bad foul on O`Connor and then failing to dismiss Cliff Byrne for wading in to spark a 10-man melee.

Clever Tom admittedly deserved to walk for his mistimed lunge on O`Conner but how the ugly Scunthorpe skipper only got a yellow for the resulting argie bargie as Cleverley walked off defies belief…

Still, even with 10 men Watford fought on, showed their fighting spirit and again deserved their last gasp 2-1 lead when Eustace connected with a now trademark header on Harley`s free kick on 89 minutes to give the 560+ away fans the chance to start believing a deserved away win was on the cards.

Sadly for the travelling support, ref Webb had other ideas and took matters into his own hands (literally) by awarding a spot kick 5 minutes into injury time – given amazingly against Demerit for er, ‘handball` after a misdirected Byrne ball into the box hit him full in the face from point blank…

Malky Mackay has since blasted the ref with a furious rant insisting ‘it was one of a series of strange decisions that we got from him’ and even Nigel Adkins added “the referee had a very interesting afternoon”…

Not that Hooper was complaining as he drilled hard past Loach from the spot to salvage a point for Scunthorpe.