LAST MINUTE GOAL DOES IT FOR BEES AS THEY BEAT HORNETS AT VICARAGE ROAD.
Pontus Jansson’s last-minute goal condemned Watford to a 10th straight home defeat – a new Premier League record – to leave the ‘Hornets’ six points adrift of survival.
With more managers than home wins this season, relegation-threatened Watford squared up against a Brentford side with four victories in their last five with three points a ‘must’. And, with that necessity, should have come an early goal when Ismaïla Sarr had the chance to head home unmarked, only to send his effort clear of the crossbar. As it turns out, it was a chance that the winger would instantly regret missing, with Brentford taking the lead in the 15th minute through Christian Nørgaard, who volleyed home Kristoffer Ajer’s flick-on from Ethan Pinnock’s looping long throw-in for his third league goal of the season.
After losing the initiative, Watford failed to show signs of finding an equaliser as HT approached, with David Raya remaining untested. In fact, the closest that the ‘Hornets’ came to leveling was through Brentford’s Ajer, who very nearly inadvertently volleyed into his own net.
Come the second half, Watford had it all to do, but would have been buoyed by the fact that they had won seven of their last eight games against the ‘Bees’ heading into this one. With that record in mind, things got off to the perfect start in the second period, as Emmanuel Dennis somehow fired home into the roof of the net from a tight angle with 56 minutes on the clock to extend Brentford’s conceding run to 14 straight away league games. Once the hosts found the equaliser, they looked likelier to find the all-important winning goal. As the half went on, though, Brentford remained firm, much to the frustration of an increasingly desperate Watford side.
The hosts should have taken advantage of their pressure, and were made to pay at the death, when Jansson found the back of the net in the 95th-minute to seal Watford’s record-breaking 10th consecutive home Premier League defeat.
