DEENEY SPOTS WINNER
Trusty Troy’s penalty makes it 10 home wins for Hornets
1 TROY DEENEY was spot on yet again as Watford made it 10 wins at Vicarage Road this term.
The Hornets captain blasted home his fourth successful penalty of the campaign after 27 minutes to earn the points.
And like all the others before it his spot-kick went straight down the middle.
Watford have the best home record in England at the moment – and better than most clubs in Europe too.
And they moved up to third – and just three points from the automatic promotion spots, behind second-placed Swansea – with this third straight home victory under Xisco Munoz.
Barnsley started well and offered an early scare as Cauley Woodrow (above) headed over from Conor Chaplin’s cross.
But that was the best they could offer all night as they failed to score in a third straight league game in 2021.
Watford were gifted their goal shortly before the half hour too as Callum Brittain stupidly stuck out his hand to make contact with Deeney’s cross.
And the Watford No.9 did what he does best – hammering home his penalty at full blast.
Tykes keeper Jack Walton managed to get both hands to it but did not even come close to saving, such was the force in which it was struck.
Deeney now has 35 successful penalties from 41 attempts. Watford hit their stride after that with Michal Helik cutting out an Andre Gray effort after the striker had rounded Walton. Kiko Femenia then struck just over the bar before the luckless Gray was denied by Walton after racing onto Ken Sema’s pass.
Gray has just one league goal in 14 months but should have been celebrating before the break.
Only he knows how he did not convert from the impressive Ismaila Sarr’s cross.
Gray’s luck in front of goal continued at the second half.
He had the ball in the net on the rebound after Will Hughes’ drive had hit the post.
But the effort was chalked off for offside.
The pace of the game dropped after that as Watford failed to match their first-half efforts.
But despite having plenty of possession, Barnsley struggled to test young keeper Daniel Bachmann – again filling in for the injured Ben Foster.
In fact it was a Watford player who went closest to equalising, Francisco Sierralta forcing Bachmann into a superb stop with an inadvertent header from Alex Mowatt’s cross.
Watford should have grabbed a second goal late on as William Troost-ekong missed the target from substitute Philip Zinckernagel’s cross.
It did not matter though as the toothless Tykes crashed to yet another loss.
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