A FULL ENGLISH At last... a Prem win for Wolves as they sting hapless Hornets
WOLVES 2 WATFORD 0
WOLVES finally beat English opposition at the eighth attempt this season to stretch rock bottom Watford’s winless Premier League run to an alarming 11 games.
Nuno Espirito Santos’ side face Besiktas in the Europa League on Thursday, bidding for a seventh win against foreign teams in two months.
It’s been a different story on the home front with Wolves requiring penalties in midweek to edge out Reading in the Carabao Cup.
But Matt Doherty reintroduced them to the winning habit at domestic level with a goal and an assist against nst WOLVES WATFORD 2 ............. Shots on Target ........... 5 4 ............. Shots off Target........... 6 0 ...............Blocked Shots ............ 3 1 ......................Corners................... 6 5 ........................Fouls ..................... 6 2 .....................Offsides ................... 1 0 .................Yellow Cards ............... 1 0 ...................Red Cards ................0 77.0 ..... Passing Success %.. 84.4 44 .................Duels Won ..............52 45.8 ....... Duel Success % ..... 54.2 19 .....................Tackles ..................17 36.8 ........ Tackles Won %...... 64.7 39.1 ...........Possession %....... 60.9 43.6 ...... Territorial Adv %.... 56.4 404 ............ Total Passes ......... 627 10............... Total Crosses ...........20 130 ............... Lost Balls ............. 154 67 ................ Recoveries............. 64 41.1...........1st Half Poss %. ..... 58.9 37 .......... 2nd Half Poss %. ........63 opponents who are fast becoming the top-flight’s whipping boys.
Nuno insists he was not worried about Wolves’ poor start and claims his squad is learning to cope with demands at home as well as abroad.
“It is tough but we are growing and embracing the challenge,” he said. “We had to improve and raise our standards and we have to carry on improving.”
The Wolves chief was delighted with the turnaround after losing heavily to Chelsea a fortnight ago.
“It was a good performance, well organised and defensively solid,” he added. “Everyone played well.”
After their mauling against Manchester City, at least Watford avoided another humiliation but three weeks after Quique Sánchez Flores’ return, there’s no sign of a revival. Hapless Dutchman Daryl Janmaat was drafted in to shore up a porous defence but was left red-faced in the 61st minute when he headed into his own net after Morgan Gibbs-White flicked on a cross from Doherty.
The Hornets are enduring their worst run since 2007 and Flores admits it’s a long road ahead with the new coach struggling to impose the style he wants on his players.
“We are working every day to change things but we keep making mistakes and conceding easy goals,” he said. “City was a bad accident and today was better but we still did not do enough.”
Having shipped five in the opening 18 minutes at City last week, Watford were just starting to congratulate themselves that they’d reached that landmark without conceding when Doherty struck.
The brutal truth about a Hornets defence, that has now gone 19 league games without keeping a cleans sheet, was that they were fortunate to last that long with Raul Jimenez twice going close early on.
Teenager Neto played a key role in Doherty’s goal, running on to Jonny’s pass to tee up the Irishman, who had ghosted in behind Jose Holebas to convert.
Watford failed to test Rui Patricio throughout the opening ope period.
On his first Premi Premier League start for the club, Danny W Welbeck had an shot after 33 seconds secon but it flew wide and couldn’t quite reach a Janmaat cross.
Wolves thought th they should have had a 36th-minute penalty when Adama Traore’s cross struck Holebas’s arm as he was pulling it away. Referee Refere Paul Tierney gave the defen defender the benefit of the doubt a and VAR backed him up.
The visitors vis had their first effo effort on target in the 54th 54t minute when Ho Holebos met sub R Roberto P Pereyra’s centre w with a downw ward header.