Mooy’s joy!
WAGNER’S MEN IN WONDERLAND
IT was a real red letter day at Vicarage Road – for all the right and wrong reasons.
Elias Kachunga was the man who finally ended struggling Huddersfield’s long barren run of 738 minutes without a goal on their travels.
Aaron Mooy’s late spot-kick saw the Terriers’ hit four goals on a top-flight opponent’s ground for the first time in more than 60 years.
Watford skipper Troy Deeney was red-carded as the Hornets had a player sent off for the
game in a row. Town captain Jonathan Hogg followed him after two bookings on his return to his old club.
And referee Michael Oliver and his assistants must have been red-faced when they watched replays of Kachunga’s first goal of the season. The strike set the Terriers up for their only away victory since the opening day.
Watford boss Marco Silva has now watched his side have four players sent off and pick up only one point out of the last 15 available.
But he refused to get drawn into a war of words about the officials even though his body language reflected his disbelief at the first goal and Deeney’s red card.
He said: “I don’t want to talk about the officials. Of course, I have my opinion but at this moment I don’t want to talk about it.
“I’m sure we don’t have a disciplinary problem, I’m sure about that. We can talk about the red cards but I’m sure we do not have an issue.
“With my feeling now, better that I don’t talk.
“It is the same as with the first goal, you ask me about that because you know what happened and you know what happened with the red. I don’t want to talk about officials.
“I agree it was our worst performance of the season. We didn’t start well, we didn’t perform at our best.
“You can say a lot of things about the match but first of all we didn’t perform.
“We made mistakes which we cannot make.”
The Yorkshire side arrived at Vicarage Road having not scored on the road since their opening day 3-0 victory at Crystal Palace – a run of eight matches in all competitions.
Admittedly there was more than a slice of luck about their sixth-minute opener.
Replays showed that Collin Quaner, who poked the ball through to the German-born forward, was offside after the Hornets messed up at least three chances to clear a corner.
And there was no one between the DR Congo international and the goal when he poked home it’s from a foot or so with keeper Heurelho Gomes ahead of him.
No wonder Silva had a face like thunder in the technical zone. It is hard to see why the officials blundered so badly when it was so clear-cut.
Fortunately, there was no dispute about Town’s superiority until they were also reduced to 10 men.
Fingers had to be pointed at Adrian Mariappa for the second, the defender completely miskicking as he tried to clear Quaner’s cross.
Mooy was left to bundle the ball past Gomes and another defensive mishap let in Laurent Depoitre for the third.
The Hornets keeper, who hardly distinguished himself, left him far too much space to fire home.
Jose Holebas had initially won the ball but then crumpled to the turf, allowing the Belgian to follow up his midweek goal against champions Chelsea with his fourth of the campaign.
Watford fans were given hope of a nerve-tingling comeback when Abdoulaye Doucoure, who earlier had picked up his fifth yellow and an automatic ban, rifled home from outside the box with 22 minutes left.
It was short-lived though as Doucoure felled Depoitre and Australian Mooy sent Gomes the wrong way to complete a personal double.
Terriers boss David Wagner said: “Before the game I saw some stats that the team has not gone that long without scoring ever and this only shows how crazy football is sometimes.
“We didn’t look like a team that’s lost four in a row and this is one of their qualities.
“A lot of people didn’t expect us to be where we are at the minute, we are so calm because we know exactly what size club we are.
“Our budget is not comparable to any other club but our ambition is. I’m delighted, over the moon, for the supporters.”