Displaying a stunning inability to hold a lead, the Hornets dropped their third match in a row in the pouring rain at Vicarage Road today.
Watford held the lead on three separate occasions only to lose the match in added time. Poor defense was the culprit, wasting a fine performance from Watford's front line. Said Boothroyd, "I've never been more irritated by a second half defensive performance than that." He lauded the offensive performance today, especially by striker Grzegorz Rasziak, but noted of the defense ". . . you can't compensate for stupid, glaring errors that we made today."
Rasziak set the tone early, back-heeling the ball to Wil Hoskin who found the goal in the fourth minute. Both side played attacking football and Keith Southern scored the first of three equalizers when play developed off a free kick taken as the result of a John Eustace foul.
Rasziak headed a goal in (asst. Jon Harley) in the 36th minute to regain the lead for the Hornets, a lead they held into the half despite a flurry of play to end the first half.
Ben Burgess evened the match up once again in minute 56 left-footing a shot in from 18 yards out, but a Tommy Smith penalty kick in the 68th minute gave Watford their final lead of the match.
The 13,517 in attendance at the Vic watched in shocked disbelief as the lead and, at first, two points disappeared as Gary Taylor-Fletcher scored with five minutes left in regulation time, then saw the final draw point melt away in the rain as Alan Gow found the back of the net from 12 yards out in the final seconds of injury time.
Mat Sadler, Jay DeMerit, and especially Eustace all played poorly today. What happened to the defender-rich squad we had in need of strikers?
Next match is a League contest at Swansea City. Kickoff is 8:00 am St. Louis time.
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