5:11pm Monday 13th April 2009
By Anthony Matthews
Watford’s Championship status may be effectively secure, but they are still not mathematically safe after losing 2-0 at relegation-threatened Norwich City this afternoon.
The Canaries, who started the game in the bottom three, admittedly needed the points more, and they took them courtesy of a spectacular own goal from the luckless Danny Rose and a late header from Gary Doherty.
Watford though, could have set up a nervous finale for the home side had they managed to score, but the closest they came was from a first-half Will Hoskins piledriver that crashed against the bar.
In truth, the home side deserved the points on the balance of the chances, with Alan Lee also hitting the woodwork, while Jon Harley did very well to clear a Jason Shackell header off the line.
Brendan Rodgers made three changes following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Barnsley. Rose was handed his first start, while Harley and Hoskins were promoted from a substitutes’ role. Jack Cork and Aleksandra Cauna dropped to the bench, but Tamas Priskin was sidelined with injury.
In a pressure-cooker atmosphere, the home side nearly got off to a flyer after just 20 seconds when the ball was played to Lee in the inside right channel and he got the better of Jay DeMerit after the Hornets captain slid in, but the Norwich striker’s low centre was well cut out by Scott Loach.
Worse almost followed for the American, when he appeared to intercept a free-kick into his penalty area with his upper arm as he jumped to challenge Doherty, but referee Steve Tanner was unmoved.
Watford were by no means on the back foot in the early stages though, and in the ninth minute Tommy Smith produced a superb 60-yard break down the left where he toyed with, and each time, beat Sammy Clingan three times before producing a fine cross that Hoskins was just beaten too.
Norwich responded with no fewer than five corners in succession, but the visitors stood up well to the threat posed before Loach confidently came off his line to claim the last of those set-pieces.
Watford then had their first corner of the match and Mike Williamson turned Jobi McAnuff’s low set-piece from the right into the six-yard box, but the ball wouldn’t quite fall for Hoskins.
But in the 15th minute Norwich went in front – and it was a freak nightmare for a young Hornets midfielder.
David Carney led a counter-attack down the right and slid a pass inside to Darel Russell on the edge of the area who, as he shaped to shoot, was challenged from behind by Rose, but the full debutant made such a clean contact with the ball he inadvertently curled it over and beyond the stranded and helpless Loach to hand the Canaries a 1-0 lead.
Buoyed by this, the visitors thought they should have had another penalty when DeMerit appeared to tug back David Mooney in the area, and the Norwich striker then came within inches of connecting with a free header following a Clingan free-kick from the left.
It then took a fine stop from Loach to prevent the home side from going two up in the 20th minute – instinctively diving to his left to keep out Russell’s shot from the edge of the box after more good work from Mooney.
But it was then Watford’s turn to attack in what was already a thoroughly absorbing encounter, with Adrian Mariappa laying the ball back to Jenkins, who produced a superb cross from the right that everyone left, except Harley. He gambled at the back post and headed back into the danger zone, but again Hoskins wasn’t quite able to get there.
However, in the 24th minute the former Rotherham United man received the ball 25 yards out and let fly with a right-footed thunderbolt that flew past keeper David Marshall and left the crossbar literally rattling as it thudded back off the face of the woodwork. It was as clean a strike as you will see anywhere and deserved better.
Norwich though, were not far away from doubling their lead in the 31st minute when a low Carney corner from the right caused problems in the Hornets rearguard and Mooney flung himself at the ball, but sent it wide of Loach’s left-hand upright.
The Watford keeper was then left grasping at thin air by an Alan Gow shot that was deflected wide, but then did well to get down to a low left-footed drive from the same player from 20 yards out, as Norwich’s corner count rose to nine.
Shackell picked up the first yellow card of the afternoon two minutes before the interval for illegally cutting short a lively run from Rose, but McAnuff could only send the free-kick from a decent position into the wall.
There was still time in the opening period for Norwich to take their corner-count into double figures, and Loach would have claimed it cleanly had he not been impeded by a team-mate. However, Tanner, who had already made some dubious calls, bizarrely gave the visitors a free-kick.
The last act of an absorbing opening period was an 11th corner for the home side but, again, that came to nothing as Norwich took their 1-0 lead into the break.
It was not a surprise that Rodgers made a change at the interval, with Cork coming on for Rose, who had visibly been struggling after scoring the own goal.
The start of the second period was somewhat less frenetic than the first, but Watford had a good opening in the 48th minute when Jenkins played the ball into Hoskins, whose clever back-heeled lay-off found Smith in space just inside the area, but Watford’s top scorer got under his right-footed attempt and curled it harmlessly over.
Smith then fed McAnuff on the right, who cut inside Jon Otsemobor, but saw his right-footed shot blocked, as the Hornets maintained their positive start to the second half.
Having already been warned by the referee, Lee was booked after 54 minutes for one over-zealous challenge too many, with Adrian Mariappa the victim on this occasion. Soon after though, Gow was played in on the left side of the area, and he fizzed a low drive across the six-yard box and narrowly wide of Loach’s far post.
But another chance came and went Watford’s way in the 64th minute when a Smith corner from the right picked out the unmarked DeMerit, but the skipper sent his free header disappointingly wide of Marshall’s left-hand post.
Norwich responded with a low Clingan shot from 25 yards that wasn’t too far wide, before Bryan Gunn decided to make a change in the 66th minute, with Carney making way for Lee Croft.
However, how the visitors didn’t equalise moments later only Hoskins will know. Smith played a peach of a cross into the near post from the right, but the Hornets striker appeared to be distracted by Doherty going for the ball. But when the Norwich captain failed to make contact, so did Hoskins as the ball bounced beneath in.
It was then the Watford’s goal turn to live a charmed life after 69 minutes when Lee beat Williamson to open up a shooting opportunity which he thumped left-footed against Loach’s near post. Gow’s attempted follow up was blocked, but the ball then broke for Lee again, who fired wide of the other upright.
That trend continued in the 74th minute when, from Norwich’s first corner of the second half, Shackell’s header was going inside Loach’s right-hand post until Harley made a fine goal-saving intervention on the line.
City’s decent spell continued, with Gow seeing a left-footed strike from the edge of the 18-yard box deflected and loop through to Loach, and then Lee did have the ball in the net after a Watford move broke down, but, thankfully for the visitors, the flag was already up for offside.
But the Hornets were not so fortunate with seven minutes remaining. Again Shackell caused the problems, this time meeting a corner from the right with a downward header that bounced up and rebounded off the face of the bar, and Doherty followed up to make it 2-0.
Gunn made a double change before play restarted, with Ryan Bertrand and Gow making way for Adam Drury and Simon Lappin.
Moments later though, a watchful Marshall had to tip over a clever Smith lob from the right side of the area, but, again, the corner came to nothing.
McAnuff was booked in injury-time for a foul on Russell, and then Clingan sent a piledriver narrowly wide of Loach’s right-hand post as Norwich looked to finish the game on a high.
Norwich City: Marshall; Otsemobor, Doherty, Shackell, Bertrand (Drury, 83); Carney (Croft, 66), Russell, Clingan, Gow (Lappin, 83_; Lee, Mooney. Not used: Nelson and McDonald.
Watford: Loach; Mariappa, DeMerit, M Williamson, Doyley; McAnuff, Jenkins, Rose (Cork, 46), Harley; Smith, Hoskins. Not used: Lee, Cauna, Henderson and Stepanov.
Bookings: Shackell for a foul on Rose after 43 mins; Lee for a foul on Mariappa after 54 mins; McAnuff for a foul on Russell after 90 mins.
Attendance: 25,487.
Referee: Steve Tanner.
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