Own goal allows Robins to head home with a point (From This Is Local London)

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Watford lose two-goal lead as Bristol City earn draw

10:01pm Tuesday 29th November 2011 in Watford FC - Match Reports By Anthony Matthews

Own goal allows Robins to head home with a point

A horrible moment for Adrian Mariappa and Scott Loach allowed Bristol City to complete a comeback from two goals down and claim a 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road.

The Hornets had looked on course for a fourth straight home win after Carl Dickinson’s stunning 25-yard strike and Craig Beattie’s first for the club put them two goals to the good with four minutes of the first half remaining.

However, Marvin Elliott pulled one back almost immediately and within two minutes of the restart the Robins were level when Mariappa’s innocuous back pass bobbled over Loach’s foot and into the net.

Substitute Troy Deeney nearly snatched a dramatic injury-time winner for the hosts but they had to settle for a second consecutive point as their run extended to one defeat in six matches.

Given that Sean Dyche rated Marvin Sordell as “touch and go” following the ankle injury he sustained at Doncaster Rovers, there was no surprise that he missed out as Beattie came in for the first start since moving on loan from Swansea City.

The Hornets boss also made another change – and it was a significant one. Jonathan Hogg returned after missing the trip to the Keepmoat Stadium due to a one-match suspension but it was John Eustace who dropped to the bench, and not – as some fans might have expected – Prince Buaben.

There was also a return to a place among the replacements following a four-game absence for Joe Garner, while Jack Bonham was again the back-up keeper.

Following an impeccably observed minute’s silence in memory of Wales manager Gary Speed and Private Thomas Lake, the Northwood soldier who died in Afghanistan recently, the first ten minutes were relatively low key, with not a semblance of a chance created.

However, that could have changed in the 11th minute when a lapse in the Hornets defence threatened to let Nicky Maynard through but the striker slipped slightly as Nyron Nosworthy chased back and the potential danger was averted.

But it was the hosts who had the first attempt on goal three minutes later – and they weren’t too far away from taking the lead when Yeates curled a 25-yard free-kick narrowly wide of David James’ near post.

City responded with their first effort soon after, with Neil Kilkenny seeing a cross-shot from the right side of the area deflected out for a corner, which the under pressure Liam Fontaine met with a header that was high and wide.

The match was simmering along nicely as the halfway point of the first half passed but the manner in which the Hornets took the lead after 25 minutes was memorable.

The move began with Beattie breaking forward from the right and finding Michael Kightly, who couldn’t advance with his first touch so laid it back to Dickinson and he took one touch before firing a stunning 25-yard left-footed strike across James and into the far corner.

The Robins tried to respond instantly, with a shot forcing Loach into his first save of the evening, while Fontaine headed a deep cross behind soon after.

The visitors continued to enjoyed a good spell after that, testing Watford’s discipline and defensive organisation, and Loach was forced to make a smart save at his near post to keeper a stinging drive from Albert Adomah, who had been put away on the left by Maynard’s neat flick.

But the game really took off in the final five minutes of the half after Watford had doubled their advantage in rather unusual fashion.

Yeates deserves credit for chancing his arm from distance but James didn’t appear too concerned as the ball approached him, seemingly destined to clear the bar a few feet above his head. However, to the former Hornets keeper’s surprise, the shot dipped very late, rebounded down off the bar and Beattie reacted first to head home his first Watford goal.

Within two minutes of going 2-0 up though, City were back in it as Elliott stretched forward to head Ryan McGivern’s cross from the left past Loach from six yards out.

There was still time for Yeates to have another well-struck goal-bound effort blocked as a first half, which started slowly, finished with the hosts a goal to the good.

But that was wiped out within two minutes of the restart after a horrible moment for Watford when Loach failed to deal with a routine back pass from Mariappa and the ball embarrassingly bounced over his foot to end up in the back of the Hornets net to make it 2-2.

Unsurprisingly, the two players involved came in for plenty of stick from the visiting fans in the following minutes and the Hornets did look rattled for a while, but they started to threaten again after the hour-mark.

First, James was not unduly troubled by Beattie’s downward header from a Yeates cross, although the former England stopper did require treatment for a knee problem moments later, before Kightly did very well to get beyond Cole Skuse and reach the by-line and stand up a cross beyond the back post, which Beattie headed back towards the target but the wrong side of the upright.

Back came City, with Adamoah hitting a half-volley from the right angle of the area across goal and narrowly wide of the far post and then Loach had to save at his near post after the dangerous wing man had set up Maynard.

Robins boss Derek McInnes made the first change on 66 minutes, replacing Stephen Pearson with Martyn Woolford, but Dyche quickly followed suit as Beattie made way for Deeney.

The match ebbed back Watford’s way as Kightly curled an effort from outside the 18-yard box wide and James saved comfortably from another Yeates effort, but in between times they looked to have a strong appeal for a penalty turned down when Deeney cleared appeared to be having his shirt pulled at a corner.

City made two more changes in the final ten minutes but neither side created a clear opening until the fourth minute of injury time when a Lee Hodson cross was chested by Deeney to Buaben, who laid it back to the substitute and he hit a shot on the turn from 16 yards out inches wide of the far post.

Watford: Loach; Hodson, Nosworthy, Mariappa, Dickinson; Yeates, Hogg, Buaben, Kightly; Beattie (Deeney 68), Iwelumo. Not used: Eustace, Mirfin, Garner and Bonham.

Bristol City: James; Skuse, Fontaine, Nyatanga (Wilson 90), McGivern; Elliott, Cisse (Pitman 84), Kilkenny; Admoah, Maynard, Pearson (Woolford 66). Not used: Bolasie and Gerken.

Bookings: Iwelumo for persistent fouling (84).

Attendance: 12,418.

Referee: Scott Mathieson.

Comments(73)

Estuary Hornet says...
10:05pm Tue 29 Nov 11

Taxi For Mr. Loach! 2 points down the drain