JORDAN BRINGS HORNETS BACK DOWN TO EARTH

Foster despite being boxed in by three defenders.

But then niggling and playground pettiness took over.

Zaha, rightly booked for cynically pulling Etienne Capoue’s shirt, complained bitterly that it was his first offence – but he was trying to play ref Anthony Taylor like a golden harp.

Last season at Vicarage Road, Taylor had only booked Capoue for a poor challenge on the Ivory Coast winger when it deserved a heavier sanction.

Now it spilled over as the handbags came out in force – and amid the posturing, pushing and shoving, Zaha put his hand in Capoue’s face, Cheikhou Kouyate and Abdoulaye Doucoure volunteered for afters and Taylor’s yellow card worked overtime.

If Watford were trying to get Zaha sent off, and Palace were doing the same to Capoue, neither side scored high marks for subtlety. Pearson said: “Rules are rules, and I know what my players think about it. But I’m not going to sit here and talk about other people’s players, or start looking for events where I expected the officials to take action.

“It’s quite straightforward in my mind – that’s what we have VAR for.”

Palace boss Roy Hodgson saw it differently, of course, insisting: “I’m pretty certain that if you keep a TV monitor on Wilf for 95 minutes, you’ll see plenty of prods in his face or little kicks.

“I had no thoughts that Wilf was in danger of being sent off. I can’t praise my players enough for putting us in this position with nine games to go.”

When the feuding finally ended, Troy Deeney had a piledriver tipped over the top. But he was otherwise policed superbly by former England defender Gary Cahill and Palace deserved their victory.