Potter admires Maupay technique after his stunning strike against Watford
Neal Maupay 44, Adam Webster 83
Brighton head coach Graham Potter was left admiring the technical ability of Neal Maupay’s first half goal at Watford.
Maupay’s eighth Premier League goal of the season broke the deadlock after a dominant display by Albion at Vicarage Road.
It came just before halftime as Tariq Lamptey found space on the right and crossed the ball into the box.
Maupay swivelled and delivered a sublime first time finish from the edge of the box that whistled over Ben Foster and dipped into the top corner.
It was the Frenchman’s 26th Premier League goal in total since joining Albion in 2019 and drew him level with former Brighton striker Glenn Murray.
“It was a really good finish,” said Potter. “He still had a lot to do.
“We were patient and we managed to get Tariq into a good area. We attacked well and technically it was a good finish and really pleased for him.”
Brighton’s second came with less than 10 minutes remaining in the match when Adam Webster was able to poke the ball into the back of the net from close range following an Alexis Mac Allister corner. It was a convincing display and it keeps Brighton ninth in the Premier League on 33 points from 23 matches.
Potter added: “My reaction is it was a really, really good performance and a really good result.
“I thought we played a really good game, I thought we reacted well throughout the game, good reactions when we lost the ball, good patience when we had the ball, tried to attack.
“It’s not easy against Roy’s teams because they defend well. You’ve got to be patient and wait for the opportunity to attack and we did well.
“I think our subs helped us and we wrestled it back and finished the game strongly, so credit to the players.”
Watford boss Roy Hodgson admitted his team were off the pace and deserved to lose.
Watford have now yet to score in the three matches since the former England manager took the helm and have just one point to show for it.
“My thoughts are that we weren’t good enough to win it,” Hodgson said.
“I thought our first-half performance was much worse than I was expecting it to be.
“Having analysed the last two games, we’ve seen the players in training, we had high hopes.
“But certainly in the first half, we did a lot to dash those hopes ourselves.
“I thought the second half, we did start more brightly.
“I thought we did show a bit more confidence and play the sort of football that I’ve been expecting to see the team play.
“And then, because we concede that goal just before half-time, we felt the need to pile some attackers on to the field in order to try and get a goal back, which almost worked for us with (Emmanuel) Dennis’ shot against the crossbar.
“But it also led to some counter-attacking opportunities for Brighton which they were able to take and put the game beyond our reach with about 10 minutes to go.”