Watford 1-2 Doncaster: Match Report

By on August 27, 2014

Watford suffered a shock exit from the Capital One Cup last night at the hands of Doncaster Rovers. The two teams traded 2-1 wins last season before the latter’s relegation to League One, and the scoreline came up trumps again as they edged to victory at Vicarage Road. The Hornets last lost to lower league opposition in 2012, when they were eliminated from the same competition by Bradford but the Championship side recorded a dire performance in front of their own fans.

Rovers started the brightest in Hertfordshire, looking full of energy in the opening exchanges. This was in stark contrast to a heavily rotated Watford starting XI, who came off the back of a thumping 4-1 victory over Leeds United on Saturday. The 2013 Play-Off finalists were made to pay when Gabriel Tamas brought down Kyle Bennett in the penalty area, Nathan Tyson stepped up and powered it past a hapless Jonathan Bond to give his side the advantage.

The Golden Boys needed a response and they found one as going behind seemingly gave them a new lease of life. Lewis McGugan rattled the crossbar following a sweet strike from the edge of the penalty area before curling an effort just wide of the post.

Giuseppe Sannino has come under some pressure of late, despite winning four games from six, because the camp seems on the verge of mutiny at times. The player in the spotlight has been Lloyd Dyer, following his controversial celebration against Rotherham. The former Leicester man evidently feels starts are warranted, and he did his reputation no harm when he fired home the equaliser on the half hour mark. A clever flick from new boy Odion Ighalo found an onrushing Dyer, who managed to fire the ball past the goalkeeper’s right despite being at a reasonably tight angle – it was a fine finish.

Both went down the tunnel of the newly constructed stand, with differing feelings on the first 45. Donny looked the brightest after the interval and it took just eight minutes for the Vikings to restore their much deserved lead. Great wing play from Furman enabled him to pick out 19-year-old Liam Wakefield, who duly converted from 12-yards out.

Paul Dickov’s men were subjected to one further scare as defender Reece Wabara almost put the ball into his own goal. The centre-back put the ball past Jed Steer only to make a miraculous goal line clearance to save his blushes. Paul Keegan had a long ranged effort ruled out for offside as teammate Tyson, who was trouble throughout, was adjudged to be in an offside position. Two goals were enough to see out the win with the ball spending the remaining minutes namely in the corner.

The winning manager stated after kick-off, “I thought we were outstanding. We’ve come to a very good team who are flying high at the minute and really took the game to them.”

Meanwhile, Watford boss Sannino honestly proclaimed, “For me tonight, this was a night I was disappointed for a lot of people, the fans here at Vicarage Road and they deserve another show. Doncaster played better than us and they deserved it.”

About Conor de Smith

Aspiring sports journalist. Editor for VAVEL and writer for Football Every Day.