So it is to be the play-offs for Watford and a quick return to Leicester City on Thursday night after the Hornets’ automatic promotion dream was ended by a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Leeds United. But the scoreline scarcely begins to tell the story of quite incredible afternoon, the like of which Vicarage Road is unlikely to witness again.

An indication of what was to come happened even before kick off when Manuel Almunia was ruled out by an injury in the warm-up, meaning Jonathan Bond was promoted from the bench.

However, the afternoon could have turned out very differently had the Hornets been awarded an early penalty when Jonathan Hogg was taken out when he was put through on goal.

Within 25 minutes of the first half though, the Bond's game was to end in sickening fashion when Dominic Poleon, himself an early substitute for the visitors, pushed Ikechi Anya into the young keeper, who required at least ten minutes of medical attention before he was stretchered from the pitch.

That meant Jack Bonham was pitched into the fray for the very first time but he was soon picking the ball out of his own net after Poleon had given Leeds a shock lead. But in 16 minutes of first-half stoppage time, the Hornets got back on terms when Almen Abdi curled in a magnificent equaliser.

The news briefly got even better for the Hornets at half-time when Cardiff City took the lead at Hull City, meaning the Hornets were up as things stood at that time. Within five minutes of the game restarting at Vicarage Road though, the Tigers had turned the game on its head and were leading 2-1, meaning a Watford win would not be good enough to snatch second spot.

The Hornets’ prospects suffered another setback 16 minutes into the second half when Troy Deeney was sent off for a second yellow card but then the drama was cranked up another few notches.

First Hull saw a penalty saved, only to then concede one in the fourth minute of injury time. That was scored by Cardiff meaning Watford needed just one goal to secure promotion to the Premier League.

With Vicarage Road now at a frenzy, the Hornets piled on the pressure. Paddy Kenny denied both Almen Abdi and Nathaniel Chalobah and Fernando Forestieri also went close but there was to be one last, very cruel sting in the tail for the home side.

Following a Watford corner, Leeds broke upfield and Ross McCormack chipped the unfortunate Bonham to ensure the Hornets finished what has still been a superb regular season third in the table.

Gianfranco Zola was always unlikely to make too many changes following the victory at Leicester and in the end he settled on just the one, with Forestieri coming in for Matej Vydra. The Hornets’ defensive options were bolstered with the return of Fitz Hall on the bench.

Leeds boss Brian McDermott was always going to have make two changes to the team that was beaten 2-1 at home by Brighton & Hove Albion as Rodolph Austin and El Hadji Diouf were suspended after both being sent off, but he ultimately decided on a third, with Stephen Warnock dropping to the bench. Their places were taken by Adam Drury, Steve Morison and originally Zac Thompson. However, he was ruled out in the build-up, so Michael Brown was promoted from the bench and Simon Lenighan was a late call up to the substitutes’ list.

But there was even more dramatic news to follow as Almunia also sustained an injury in the warm up and so Bond started in goal for the Hornets, with Bonham coming onto the bench.

Despite that unwanted disruption, the hosts were quickly into their stride and Deeney and Daniel Pudil saw shots blocked inside the opening two minutes.

But the game took an early worrying twist three minutes later when, as Joel Ekstrand tried to shepherd the ball out of play on the East Stand side, Morison was caught accidentally in the face, fell to the ground and lay motionless. After a couple of minutes, he got to his feet but only to trudge gingerly away down the tunnel and he was finally replaced by Poleon.

Three minutes later, Watford looked to have a very strong case for a penalty rejected.

The hosts built steadily before Forestieri received the ball to the right of centre and played in Deeney, who in turn slipped in Hogg. He was clean through on goal but as he prepared to pull the trigger, seemed to be caught from behind but referee Graham Salisbury was unmoved.

With Ikechi Anya getting an increasing amount of joy against Drury on Watford’s right, the hosts kept pushing and Forestieri and Abdi were the next to see efforts blocked. Deeney then wasn’t too far away from connecting with his head when Hogg swept in a cross from the right.

But the early optimism turned to serious concern in the 22nd minute when Poleon sought to beat Anya in a foot race and latch on to a through ball, Bond raced out to gather the ball only to get clattered into by his team-mate after he was pushed by the Leeds substitute.

Poleon escaped with a yellow card but there was no such good fortune for the Hornets keeper, who lay motionless for several minutes while he received medical attention from the Watford staff and paramedics.

An oxygen mask was placed on Bond’s face and he was also put in a neck brace, hopefully as a precautionary measure, before he was carefully lifted onto a stretcher some ten minutes after the incident first happened.

While Vicarage Road stood as one to applaud Bond as he left the ground to be presumably taken straight to hospital, Bonham came on to make his first ever senior appearance for the Hornets.

The replacement keeper was able to get a couple of confident early touches under his belt when play resumed as the Hornets were straight back on the front foot before one of the more predictable things in the game happened – Brown was booked for a foul on Hogg.

A huge cheer then went up around Vicarage Road as news wrongly spread that Cardiff had taken the lead at Hull before disaster struck in the 42nd minute when Poleon managed to nick the ball around Bonham and tap it into the unguarded net to give Leeds the lead with the first effort on target in the match.

Chalobah tried a repeat of his wonder strike at Leicester with a long-range effort but Kenny was comfortably behind it before the fourth official signalled a staggering, but totally correct, 16 minutes of stoppage time to be played in the first half.

Five minutes into that additional period, the roof was lifted of Vicarage Road as Watford equalised in quite stunning fashion.

Deeney started the move off with a sumptuous cross-field pass to release Anya, who came in off the right flank and attacked the heart of the defence before laying a pass off to Abdi and the Swiss midfielder didn’t break stride before curling a magnificent right-footed finish beyond Kenny to net his 12th of the campaign to make it 1-1.

The Hornets weren’t too far away from going in front four minutes later when a free-kick was drifted into the box by Abdi and Marco Cassetti headed down and just wide of Kenny’s left-hand post.

Anya then looped a header towards goal, which didn’t unduly concern the Leeds keeper after another neat build-up again started by a fine Deeney pass to set Pudil away on the left.

There was still time in an opening period for Deeney to pick up the third yellow card of the match for a foul on Paul Green as a half lasting 62-and-a-half minutes due to very unfortunate circumstances finally came to a close.

But if anyone thought that would be the end of the drama until the second period they were mistaken as during the interval, Cardiff took the lead at the KC Stadium. Then as the players were returning to the pitch, Hull levelled to leave the Hornets needing the win to pip the Tigers to automatic promotion.

But the second half at Vicarage Road was barely four minutes old when the race for second spot swung even more in Hull’s favour when they went 2-1 in front. Unsurprisingly, that quietened the atmosphere at Vicarage Road and the hosts somewhat struggled to get going during a stop-start first ten minutes after the interval, although Forestieri and Deeney both saw shots blocked.

Abdi was the next to see a shot charged down but Leeds immediately broke upfield and it needed a diving interception from Cassetti to block an on-target strike from Brown.

There had been a niggling under-current to the match almost throughout but the last thing Watford needed was to let frustration get the better of them. But in the 61st minute Deeney caught Brown, referee Salisbury reached for his pocket and first a yellow card appeared quickly followed by a red.

Within minutes, Brown had been replaced by Aidan White and Zola quickly followed suit, replacing Anya with Vydra.

The next opening came Watford’s way in the 69th minute when an unmarked Ekstrand got up to meet an Abdi free-kick from the right but he headed wide of Kenny’s right-hand post.

Cassetti was a touch fortunate soon after when he caught Luke Varney with a raised boot a split second after the Leeds player had headed cross from the left down and at Bonham, but there were no penalty appeals from the visitors and play continued, with Abdi shooting wide at the other end.

The Swiss midfielder then had a 30-yard free-kick blocked by the wall but the Hornets kept the pressure on, with Pudil seeing a strike suffer the same fate before a Vydra strike from the right-side of the area was deflected goalwards but Kenny managed to get down to his right and claw it out.

The action then switched to the other end as following a Leeds corner, a Green shot was blocked as it was heading towards the far post. But then a quite incredible afternoon took another twist as first Hull had a penalty saved and then Cardiff were awarded a spot-kick in the fourth minute of injury time. This was converted, that game finished 2-2 and it meant Watford needed to score one more goal to secure automatic promotion.

After Mark Yeates had replaced Hogg, it so nearly arrived with five minutes remaining when Abdi hit a shot from the right side of the area and he although Kenny spilt it, the keeper reacted superbly to deny the sliding Chalobah.

Vicarage Road was now in a frenzy as the Hornets piled on the pressure, with Forestieri the next to try his luck with a shot which was deflected into the side netting.

But from the resultant corner, the Hornets’ automatic promotion dream was to come to an end.

Leeds managed to defend the set piece and then broke out, despite the best efforts of Abdi to pull his man back. But the ball was worked to McCormack on the right and spotting Bonham off his line, he went for the chip. The young Watford keeper managed to get both hands to the ball but, agonisingly, the ball squirmed through his grasp and trickled over the line to give Leeds their first away win since December 1 and ensure the Hornets will have to try again later this week.

Watford: Bond (Bonham 33); Doyley, Ekstrand, Cassetti; Anya (Vydra 64), Abdi, Chalobah, Hogg (Yeates 83), Pudil; Deeney, Forestieri. Not used: F Hall, Briggs, Geijo and Battocchio.

Leeds United: Kenny; Peltier, Lees, Pearce, Drury; Green, Brown (White 64), Tonge, Varney; Morison (Poleon 10), McCormack (R Hall 90). Not used: Warnock, Cairns, Killock and Lenighan.

Bookings: Poleon for a foul on Bond (22); Brown for a foul on Hogg (39); Deeney for a foul on Green (45); Deeney for a foul on Brown – sent off (61).

Attendance: 16,968 (1,999 away).

Referee: Graham Salisbury.

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