Boss with X-factor is Taylor-made for happy Hornets fans
ON THE day Watford honoured the memory of the club’s greatest ever manager, Hornets fans are starting to like what they see from the latest man in the hotseat.
Four years on from Graham Taylor’s death, the 20th boss to have a go since the Vicarage Road great left his position in 2001 is already impressing.
With a daunting triple-header of Norwich, Swansea and Manchester United, Xisco Munoz was certainly given a baptism of fire.
But after beating the league leaders his side made light work of Huddersfield to continue their assault on the Championship’s top two.
Secondhalf goals from Tom Cleverley and Joao Pedro did the job and new boss Xisco said: “It is an important day for Watford.
“His story is his story – he is in the memory of everyone and if you can give three points to the fans on this day, then fantastic.
“We had the control of the game and I am so happy with them because since I came they have given me everything.
“We have passion, we have 24 players ready to play and that is excellent for us.”
Pedro’s snap-shot forced keeper Ryan Schofield into action 10 minutes in, before Troy Deeney nearly snapped Juninho Bacuna in two and was rightly booked.
It was the one talking point of a tetchy first half devoid of big chances and quality.
The Terriers, who won the corresponding fixture 2-0 on December 19, needed their goalkeeper at full-stretch to keep Ismaila Sarr at bay but a goal before the break wouldn’t have been fitting of a poor game.
For all his hard work, Schofield was left with egg on his face when the breakthrough did eventually arrive.
Alex Vallejo’s ball back to the goalkeeper was simple but he froze for a split second.
That allowed Cleverley in and before he could recover it was too late. It was a bad error from the youngster and the experienced midfielder showed no mercy.
Watford have managed just six goals in their last eight games and then achieved a rare thing soon after – scoring more than once in a game.
Kiko Femenia rampaged down the right before the ball eventually fell to Pedro, who couldn’t miss.
Huddersfield hadn’t come close to scoring and it was game over with most of the second half to come.
Terriers boss Carlos Corberan said: “We gave Watford a goal and it was not possible for us from there.
“I think the team did well enough in the first half.
“We didn’t have a lot of Watford chances on our goal but we know the level of the opponent.
“The mistake was hard for us to take and we had to accept the consequences of that.”
WATFORD: Bachmann 6; Femenia 8, Troost-Ekong 7, Sierralta 7, Masina
8; Sarr 7, Chalobah 6 (Hughes (67th)
7), Cleverley 7 (Garner 80th), Sema
7 (Zinckernagel 80th); Joao Pedro 7, Deeney 6 (Gray (67th) 6)
HUDDERSFIELD: Schofield 5; Avila
6, Edmonds-Green 6, Vallejo 7 (Ward
(76th) 6), Crichlow 6; Toffolo 6, O’Brien
7; Aarons 6 (Jones (61st) 6), Bacuna 6, Rowe 6 (High (68th) 7; Campbell 6
STAR MAN: Kiko Femania
REF: M Salisbury