Watford suffer last-gasp defeat against Tottenham Hotspur after Nathan Ake sent off

The Hornets were within a couple of minutes of holding on for a battling draw after Nathan Ake had been sent off in the second half for a high challenge on Eric Lamela when substitute Son Heung-min struck at the death to snatch the points for the visitors. However, the scorer was clearly offside in an earlier passage of play that led to the goal.

Moments before the goal though, Ben Watson had almost scored direct from a corner but goalline technology showed the whole ball did not cross the line as Hugo Lloris frantically clawed it out.

Watford were disappointing for much of the first half, having found themselves outnumbered in midfield and they went behind in the 17th minute when Spurs broke following a mistake from Craig Cathcart and Lamela confidently rolled the ball past Gomes.

But four minutes before the break, Odion Ighalo scored for the sixth successive game and made it 30 league goals for the calendar year when he superbly tricked his way past Eric Dier to beat Lloris.

Then came the controversies of the second half, not least the widespread disbelief that greeted Anthony Taylor’s decision to send off Ake. However, at least one replay angle showed the challenge was high and could be deemed as dangerous.

It was a case of all change in the full-back positions as both sides made changes for their second game in three days following their respective Boxing Day matches.

Despite his impressive performance in the 2-2 draw at Chelsea, it was no great surprise that Jose Holebas dropped back to the bench and Ake returned at left-back. However, Quique Sanchez Flores also opted to leave out Allan Nyom in the league for the first time this season as Ikechi Anya started on the opposite side of the defence.

Spurs beat Norwich City 3-0 on Saturday and, like his opposite number, Maurico Pochettino also changed both his full-backs as Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose came in for Kyle Walker and Ben Davies. But the Tottenham boss also made one further adjustment with Watford-born Tom Carroll preferred to Christian Eriksen in midfield.

There was something of a surprise in the early stages as Spurs changed to a three-man central defence with Dier dropping in between Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, while the two ‘full-backs’ pushed on to offer the width in midfield.

The match itself got off to a relatively sedate start until the sixth minute when Dele Alli was rightly booked after snapping into a late challenge on Etienne Capoue, who had started brightly against his last club.

Tottenham won two corners around the ten-minute mark but the home side dealt with the danger and could have had a break on from the second had Anya’s advances not been halted by a high boot from Mousa Dembele.

The Hornets though, did not get into their stride in the opening period with their opponents seeing more of the ball and using it better, although Capoue did have Watford’s first effort in the 16th minute when he fired over from the edge of the area after his side’s first corner had not been dealt with by Lloris.

Capoue was even more wayward with another effort from distance soon after but Watford’s disappointing start to the contest was magnified by the events of the 17th minute which saw Tottenham take the lead.

Cathcart played himself into trouble and was robbed by Alli as the home side quickly found themselves outnumbered as Lamela ran at them and with Miguel Britos backing off, he calmly rolled the ball past the helpless Gomes to make it 1-0.

The hosts were finding themselves outnumbered in midfield and they faced more danger soon after going behind when Harry Kane got free on the left and again found Lamela, but this time he dragged a shot on the turn wide.

There was some encouragement for the Hornets in the 25th minute though, when Jose Manuel Jurado fed the overlapping Ake and his cross was turned behind by Ighalo with a first-time effort.

The game then went into a bit of a lull until Kane tried to catch Gomes out with an ambitious effort from 25 yards but the ball cleared the bar by a yard or so.

Jurado then turned down the opportunity to pass to Troy Deeney, who was ahead of him and well placed to the left of the penalty area, and took the ball on alone to hit a shot from distance that Lloris had to go to ground to deal with.

Watford were looking to finish the first half strongly but what happened four minutes before the break was incredible even by Ighalo’s standards.

It didn’t look like it at the time but Capoue started what was to be the business end of the move off with a cross-field pass from right to left that Deeney headed on into the area into the direction of the Hornets’ goal machine, who had his back to Dier and was being well shackled. Ighalo simply had no right to win the battle but he again showed his strength to roll the ball between the legs of the Spurs defender, turn him and then prod the ball past Lloris to make it 1-1.

It was the sixth goal in succession the Nigerian international has scored in, his 14th goal of the campaign and, remarkably, his 30th league goal of the calendar year.

Trippier fired not too far wide of Gomes’ right-hand post as Spurs tried to respond to being pegged back late in the half but they suffered a blow before the interval when Dembele, who had been an injury doubt beforehand, had to be replaced by Eriksen.

Flores also chose to make a change at the start of the second half as Almen Abdi was replaced by Valon Behrami.

Tottenham had the first threatening moment when Kane played in Lamela on the right side of the 18-yard area and the Argentine tried to return the ball to his teammate but Cathcart made a key interception.

Britos was to be booked for a foul on Trippier but only after Kane had sparked some needless handbags in front of the dugouts by coming to the touchline and pushing the Watford defender.

Gomes made a routine claim three minutes later after Kane had stretched to get a shot away from the right side of the 18-yard box after Eriksen had lobbed the ball through.

Jurado was the next player to see a yellow card for pulling back Alli and soon after Kane flung himself to connect with a Trippier cross into the near post from the right but put his effort wide.

Flores made his second change on the hour as Sebastian Prodl made his return to first-team action in place of Britos. But the entire complexion of the game was to change two minutes later when Ake went in to contest a bouncing ball with Lamela, the Spurs player went down clutching his thigh and referee Taylor deemed it to be a dangerous challenge and showed the on-loan Chelsea man a red card.

The reaction from the majority inside Vicarage Road was one of uproar – and Deeney was booked for his protests – but the challenge did not look good on subsequent replays.

Ighalo was to see yellow as well for protesting too much to the assistant when a decision didn’t get his way before both sides opted to make a change in the 67th minute; Nyom replacing Jurado while Son came on for Carroll.

Despite being reduced to ten men, the Hornets remained firm and resolute at the back, although Gomes was forced to race from his line on a couple of occasions to snuff out potential danger.

Alderweireld was the next player to talk himself into Taylor’s notebook, shortly before the visitors made their final change when Nacer Chadli came on for Alli.

In the final ten minutes though, it was the Hornets who were offering the greater threat as they won a number of free-kicks and corners, won of which almost led to the Hornets taking going in front with two minutes to go when Watson’s whipped in delivery from the left was desperately clawed out by Lloris.

Within a minute though, came the sickening sting in the tail as Spurs stole the points with a goal that, like several incidents that had come before, was controversial.

Son looked to be offside when Trippier first played in a cross from the right which Gomes opted to punch. However, Trippier was able to get the ball back into the near post where Son got free and cleverly back-heeled the ball between the Watford keeper’s legs to score what proved to be the winner.

Soon after though, the press were shown the goalline technology verdict on Watson’s corner and it showed the majority of the ball had crossed the line but, crucially, not all of it. Such are the fine margins on which games are decided sometimes.

Watford: Gomes; Anya, Cathcart, Britos (Prodl 60), Ake; Capoue, Watson; Abdi (Behrami 46), Deeney, Jurado (Nyom 67); Ighalo. Not used: Arlauskis, Guedioura, Holebas, Diamanti.

Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris; Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Dier, Dembele (Eriksen 44); Lamela, Carroll (Son 67), Alli (Chadli 81); Kane. Not used: Vorm, Walker, Mason, Davies.

Bookings: Alli for a foul on Capoue (6); Britos for a foul on Trippier (52); Jurado for pulling back Alli (58); Ake sent off for a foul on Lamela (62); Deeney for dissent (62); Ighalo for dissent (65); Alderweireld for dissent (81).

Attendance: 20,713.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.