TWO OFF IN WATFORD DEFEAT

TWO OFF IN WATFORD DEFEAT

Watford 4-1 winners at Vicarage Road...

WATFORD 4 (Forestieri 20, 67 Deeney 57, Tozser 90+2), UNITED 1 (Tamas og 32).

Watford: Gomes, Tamas, Angella, Hoban, Paredes (Anya 55), Abdi (Andrews 81), Tozser, Munari, Pudil, Deeney, Forestieri (Ighalo 57). Subs. Bond, Doyley, Fabbrini, Vydra.

United: Silvestri, Byram, Bellusci, Pearce, Warnock, Austin, Murphy, Tonge (Poleon 76), Bianchi, Sharp (Cooper 62), Antenucci (Smith 81). Subs. S Taylor, Wootton, Cook, Norris.

Referee: J Linington.

Booked: Tozser (Watford), Murphy, Austin (Leeds).

Sent Off: Bellusci, Byram (Leeds).

Att: 15,674 (Leeds 1,975)

United head coach David Hockaday made two changes to his side for the trip to Watford and handed out two debuts as Giuseppe Bellusci and Mirco Antenucci came in for Liam Cooper and Matt Smith.

It was the home side that started the brighter and they created some good chances in the opening 10 minutes. It took some good defending from Bellusci and Tommaso Bianchi to keep Watford at bay and United's defence did well to restrict the home side to shots from distance.

But in the 20th minute the home side's pressure on United's defence told when Fernando Forestieri put his team ahead. The forward's initial shot was saved by Marco Silvestri but he headed the rebound over the United keeper who couldn't reach high enough to prevent his effort.

The following 10 minutes brought very little in the way of goalmouth action and it was Forestieri that threatened on the half-hour. He picked up the ball on the edge of the box and showed good skill to create the space to shoot, Silvestri got down well and saved comfortably.

Two minutes later United were level. Billy Sharp and Antenucci linked-up well and Sharp crossed the ball into the box only for Gabriel Tamas to turn it into his own net.

The half ended with a real pace to it and both sides looked dangerous going forward. Tommie Hoban had a free-header that he put over the bar and Stephen Warnock made a fantastic last-ditch tackle right on half time to prevent the home side having the chance to retake the lead.

Both sides had good goalscoring opportunities early in the second half. Watford's goalscorer Forestieri sent a curling effort just wide of the upright moments before Jason Pearce saw a header go just over the bar from a free-kick.

Prior to the hour-mark disaster struck for United when debutant Bellusci misjudged the flight of the ball which allowed Forestieri to run through on goal. Bellusci, who was trying to recover the situation brought the striker down in the box and the referee pointed to the penalty spot and he was shown a straight red card as he was the last man. Troy Deeney was the man to step up for the home side and he smashed the ball home.

Watford punished the 10-men of United further in the 67th minute when Forestieri capitalised on a mistake in midfield. The striker carried the ball superbly past a number of United's defenders and struck for goal and the ball went in via the post.

Forestieri almost completed his hat-trick moments later when he worked the ball well to create the space but his shot went wide of the mark. A further chance came Watford's way but Gianni Munari couldn't turn his free-header goalwards following a corner.

In four minutes of added time United's afternoon got worse. First Daniel Tozser put his side 4-1 ahead, then Sam Byram was shown a straight red card for an altercation with one of the Watford defenders, meaning United finished the game with nine men.

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