Gomes’s Gross error sees Seagulls end their drought
SO RARE had scoring a goal become for Brighton that when Pascal Gross’ shot sneaked under Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, Mathew Ryan simply could not resist.
The Seagulls stopper sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate with his team-mates as they secured their first Premier League home win since September.
Chris Hughton, the Brighton manager, said he would have taken being 12th at Christmas. ‘Morale has never been low here,’ he said. ‘I have a group of players that knew it would be a difficult season. The second half of the season will not get any easier.’
As for Watford, the good news is they finished with 11 men on the pitch for the first time in four top-flight games.
No side had ever managed to receive red cards in four successive fixtures, but thankfully for Watford, referee Paul Tierney kept his cards in his pocket. The bad news for Watford is that they did very little to avoid making it six games without a win.
After 19 games last season, Walter Mazzarri’s Watford had won six, drawn four and lost nine. They have an identical record under Marco Silva at the season’s halfway mark.
Brighton were on top in the first half and came closest to scoring after 15 minutes, when Tomer Hemed burst into the box and shot across the face of goal.
They finally got their goal in the 64th minute, when Gross shifted the ball on to his right foot and had a go. Gomes should have saved it.
With the last kick of the game, Watford sub Stefano Okaka could have bundled the ball into the net when Ryan failed to collect a cross. It went wide, summing up Silva’s day.