Mitrovic makes Watford pay

ETIENNE CAPOUE fell to the floor when the final whistle sounded at Craven Cottage and let the injustice of football sink in for a few moments.

Then he pounded the turf once in frustration, got up and looked around. Daryl Janmaat was on the ground, too, not knowing where to look, but knowing he was at fault, knowing his team had thrown victory away.

Great expectations do that to you. Winning your first four games of the season do that to you. Desperately wanting to regain the momentum that was interrupted by defeat to Manchester United last week does that to you. Outplaying your opponent for 90 per cent of the game and then making one mistake that costs you dearly does that to you, too.

And that was Watford’s story. For the majority of this match, they looked every inch the team whose start this season has surprised everybody. They oozed class.

They looked as if they were about to cruise to a fifth victory in six games and regain a share of the lead at the top.

In Capoue and Abdoulaye Doucoure, they had the best two players on the pitch. In attack, Troy Deeney played like a man who was intent on continuing to make a point to England boss Gareth Southgate, whose judgment in leaving him out of the international reckoning he had questioned.

To add to all that, Fulham should have been down to 10 men after 32 minutes when Timothy Fosu-Mensah lunged in studs-up on Deeney but escaped with a yellow card from referee Martin Atkinson. Deeney played on but left the ground in a medical boot after the match and said he is to have an x-ray.

‘I may have a broken bone or two but we crack on,’ said Deeney. ‘I am a tough, ugly boy so it will be all right. Martin is a very good ref, but I thought on that occasion it could have been a red card.’

Watford have gained something of a reputation as slow starters but only 90 seconds had gone when a scramble on the edge of the Fulham box fell to Will Hughes. The situation cried out for a moment of calm amid the falling rain and Hughes provided it. He rolled the ball wide to Andre Gray who slid it past Marcus Bettinelli.

Craven Cottage was stunned into silence but then, 11 minutes from time, Watford’s failure to put the game out of reach came back to bite them. All it took was one error and Janmaat made it. He allowed Luciano Vietto to force his way in front of him and get to the byline.

Vietto crossed low and hard and Aleksandar Mitrovic, who had had a distinctly average game, got in front of his marker and turned the ball home from close range.