Helping hand
Hornets’ Doucoure stings Saints as he pushes home late equaliser, sparking calls for VAR extension
Southampton were denied their first league win since November after Abdoulaye Doucoure appeared to bundle in a 90th-minute equaliser with his hand, reminiscent of Diego Maradona’s goal against England in the 1986 World Cup.
Saints, who had led 2-0 at the break after James Ward-Prowse’s goals, were furious and surrounded the officials after the goal and at full-time, with this result keeping the pressure on their manager, Mauricio Pellegrino.
“It surprised me because for me the standard of the referees of the Premier League is good, but everyone can make mistakes,” he said graciously. “Obviously my feeling is like all my players in the dressing room. I don’t remember many chances for them. We are a little bit sad because even in the second half when Watford, they tried to push us, I think most of this time we played well.”
A game of two halves might be the best cliche to apply. The Saints were slick and organised in the opening 45 minutes, cutting through the Hornets at will and creating a glut of chances, two of which they took.
The impressive Shane Long created both goals, one from each flank. The first came as he raced down the right and crossed for Ward-Prowse to guide his finish low into the left corner.
For the second he outpaced Molla Wague on the left and crossed for Dusan Tadic, who deftly played in the overlapping midfielder to tuck away his second a minute before half time.
The Hornets have conceded more goals at home than any team in the division and their woeful run looked set to continue, with fans jeering Silva’s firsthalf substitution of Roberto Pereyra for Tom Cleverley and booing the team off at half-time. He responded by introducing the muscular presence of Troy Deeney and, later, Stefano Okaka, and it made all the difference.
“Troy is an important player for us – I think everybody knows that,” said Silva. “Every time he came off the bench, he had a fantastic impact on our team. I think we deserved the result. It’s true we did well the second half but we did really badly the first half. We didn’t start well. We didn’t play with the right mentality. Completely different in the second half.”
Predictably, Deeney was involved in Watford’s first goal, robbing the hesitant Steven Davis and finding Daryl Janmaat, whose shot cannoned back off the bar to the waiting Andre Gray.
With the game heading into injury time, Southampton looked to have quelled the storm and earned an overdue victory. But on the first anniversary of Graham Taylor’s death, marked before kick-off, it was not the divine intervention attributed to Maradona’s goal at the Azteca but perhaps the spirit of Taylor smiling down on the club he lifted from the Fourth Division to the First in five years.
Doucoure was the beneficiary, bundling in Deeney’s knock-down after Jack Stephens had slipped, as the bemused Southampton defence looked to the linesman. “I think we have to try the technology because every single team sport, the technology helps to make better decisions, and why not football?” said Pellegrino when asked about the introduction of VAR.